Sarah Diggins

Hometown: Berlin, Massachusetts 
Year: 2020
Major: Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business
 
Sarah is a current Junior majoring in International Studies and Business, and planning on adding a minor in Korean Studies.  Her interest in Korean originated somewhat randomly five years ago, when she selected it out of the eight different languages offered when applying to the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y), a U.S. State Department-funded scholarship aimed at encouraging American high school students to learn languages deemed critical to national security. After studying the language for six weeks during the summer of 2013 at Sogang University, she knew that she wanted to return someday.  What she didn't know, however, was the extent to which it would take over her academic and professional goals. She spent ten months attending Bakmun Girls' High School in Incheon, South Korea on a gap year through NSLI-Y in 2015-2016, and then continued her studies in Korean language and history upon beginning at Penn.  She is excited to return to Penn this fall after studying at Seoul National University on a semester abroad, and to become even more closely involved with the Korean studies at Penn through the Kim Program.