Politics can be deeply personal. Bora Yoon, a first-year government and international politics student at the Schar School of Policy and Government and the Honors College at George Mason University is motivated by this concept.
“As a woman, as a person of color, as a child of immigrants, as an LGBTQ+ person, I definitely care about those policies, specifically because I can tell my story about them and I really understand that perspective,” she said. “And I think that really drives me to create change because everyone deserves basic rights and equity.”
That’s why, she said, she chose to study political systems.
“I think everyone's placed onto this earth for a purpose and everyone has meaning,” the Fairfax, Virginia, native said. “That's definitely why I want to study government and politics. It's because I want to understand the inner workings of everything, and I want to be able to create that change knowledgeably.”
As a University Scholar, Yoon is among a small number of the most motivated incoming Honors College freshmen selected through a competitive process to join a four-year cohort of student leaders, receive a full-tuition scholarship, and participate in enhanced academic and professional development programming. The honor is a big reason she decided to attend George Mason.
“Talking to a lot of previous University Scholars made me super excited at the prospect of becoming one,” she said. “It's really important for us to be role models or to utilize the extra opportunities to be more active and just be more of an example for other students.”
Yoon also chose George Mason because of the proximity to Washington, D.C., and for the Schar School’s experiential programs taught by seasoned and respected professors, not to mention the variety of opportunities afforded to students.
“That’s what the Schar School inspires within students, and I really want to be able to continue to experience that,” she said.
Yoon customized her studies to include the multidisciplinary concentration of philosophy, politics, and economics—PPE—which will give her a broader scope of the skills she will need to pursue graduate school.
Her ultimate goal? Become a politician.
“It feels exhilarating to me because I'm actually doing something for other people,” she said of the calling to public service. “It just makes me really happy to know that maybe I could have made someone else's life better. … I understand how important policy is when it comes to impacting society and impacting communities.”
Yoon has already accumulated considerable public service experience. She was part of Generation Ratify, a youth-led movement that works to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and fight for other gender equality issues in the United States. As a policy lead for the movement, Yoon led policy lobbying sessions at the State Capitol in Richmond, with an emphasis on menstrual equity.
“Talking to a lot of previous University Scholars made me super excited at the prospect of also becoming one,” she said. “It's really important for us to be role models or to utilize the extra opportunities to be more active and just be more of an example for other students.”
As Yoon continues her educational journey at George Mason, she has big hopes for what she wants to accomplish, from interning for a think tank or nonprofit to creating her own youth advocacy organization. Whatever she does, it will be motivated by her strong values and her passion for change.
“It doesn't make sense for people to continue to be disadvantaged when policies can change those things,” she said. “I've seen it happen with my own eyes.”