By Silma Suba
Given Dayoon Shin’s ever-present smile, it’s hard to guess that he wants to be a champion boxer.
“I love boxing. I trained in my community of Seoul since I was a kid,” said Shin. “I have only been to local competitions and won a few, but I like it so much that I want to continue learning and maybe win bigger competitions.”
Shin trained in Judo when he was in middle school and then moved on to learn boxing. He won several inter-community boxing competitions held in his hometown of Seoul, South Korea.
Earlier this year, Shin graduated from Hanyoung Foreign Language High School in Seoul. Shin, who is 18-years-old, is now a freshman at Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) and pursuing a degree in communications.
He first heard about NU-Q from his stepfather, who works at Samsung Constructions Company in Qatar.
“I was really confused about what I wanted to pursue as a career,” said Shin, “I chose communications in the end because I love communicating with people and I had done internships at advertising firms”
After he graduates, Shin hopes to work at an advertising firm, preferably back home in Seoul. With his income, he would like to help his 16-year-old brother attend college one day.
Shin, who now lives in Education City’s new dorms, says he is flabbergasted by the unique architecture, luxury and comfort that the dorms provide.
But more than anything else, he’s impressed with the people around him.
“I was very nervous at first. I wasn’t sure if people could understand me,” said Shin. “But the people here are so kind, the facilities are so awesome [that] it’s hard not to fall in love with everything.”