User:Js636 (Jaehoon Sung)

Updated in Sept. 2015

About Me

Hello, I am Jaehoon Sung (You can pronounce my name : J-Hoon Sung). You can call me Jae.

I am from Republic of Korea (South Korea).

I am currently an undergraduate student in Pratt of Engineering.

My intended major is Biomedical Engineering, and if I can, I want to double major Environmental Engineering or Computer Science.

(I am just freshman, so I do not decide what specific major I will pursue yet.)

Actually, I want to minor Education (Duke has only minor degree), fulfilling social studies graduation requirements.

To tell the truth, I have a hearing impairment with microtia (Undeveloped External Ears).

I first learned sign language at Samsung School, the school for the Deaf. (I know how to "speak" sign language.)

But, thanks to hearing aid technologies, I became to hear enough to learn speaking.

After learning how to speak and lip-read, I transferred to the general elementary school.

Even though it is true that I have difficulties in studying in the non-disabled' society,

thanks to my parents, teachers, and friends, I could finally study in the USA, at DUKE.

As a previous beneficiary of medical engineering, I am dreaming of being a warm-hearted engineer for the disabled and the underprivileged.

When I made an appointment with my medical doctor 3 years ago, my doctor asked me what my dream is.

I told him that my dream is becoming a biomedical engineer.

Then, he told me that studying how society or culture works would be as important as studying engineering.

It was not until I began to volunteer for the Deaf that I could understand what he meant.

Not only have I volunteered for the Deaf using sign language but also I participated in World Federation of Deaf Youth Section

Conference and Junior Camp in Italy on behalf of South Korea. In other words, I could enter the inner core of Deaf Earth.

During the conference and camp progressed in International Sign, I came to realize that hardness of hearing was no longer the

biggest problem to the completely deaf people using sign language. Even though they still cannot hear very well, they never

find it uncomfortable to communicate with one another using sign language. It was an eye opening moment for me to view the

hearing-impaired as the people using another language or from another countries. I could understand that technologies

reflecting the workings and cultures of the world can be developed differently.