Rutgers Class of 2030 Is Ready to Change the World

Ryan Kim
Rutgers Business School
Rutgers-New Brunswick Honors College

Ryan Kim is unafraid to tackle seemingly big problems-whether it be near his Fort Lee, N.J., home or halfway around the world.

"The only way you can change something is to put the work in," said Kim, an Honors College student majoring in finance at Rutgers Business School . "The hardest thing to do is to start. Once you start and keep it going, you'll realize how doable it is."

Kim is 18 but has already worked to open an elementary school in Laos in Southeast Asia; started a nonprofit called STEM4All that provides free and fun instructional sessions to middle-schoolers; and build functional $30 computers to bring affordable technology to others.

He was just 12 years old when he learned about lack of access to the educational system in Laos and its high dropout rates.

"It was really heartbreaking for me and my sisters to hear," said Kim, who is the youngest of three. "That's when we're like, 'Let's try to do something,' and we did."

With help through community fundraisers, corporate sponsorships, and Kim's church, where his father is a pastor, the siblings opened a three-classroom school in a rural area of the capital, Vientiane, in 2021 to serve 30 students. The kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school has now expanded to 20 classrooms with 10 teachers and 230 students.

"Whenever there's a problem that is very dear to us, we just try to solve it," said Kim, who finds guidance and inspiration from his sisters, Jian, 26, and Sharon, 21.

As the child of a pastor, service to the community had always been part of Kim's upbringing. He remembers distributing meals to the needy when he was 5 or 6. At the time, he would hand out the sandwiches without knowing why.

"I didn't understand why we were helping so much when we also didn't have a lot," Kim said. "Once I got to the age where I was talking to the people we were helping, heard their stories, the struggles they went through, why they were in the positions that they were in, then you realize, this is why you're helping. We can do our part to help no matter what our own circumstance."

He comes to Rutgers with 36 college credits already under his belt and is poised to complete his degree in three years. He chose Rutgers for its affordability, location, reputation, and access to the state's Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) , which provides financial assistance to qualifying students.

"Through EOF and their financial support, I'm able to be covered pretty well, so affordability was definitely one reason I chose Rutgers," he said.

Scholarships made it possible for Kim to attend educational summer bootcamps, like Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth for academically advanced and gifted students; or LaunchX , a hands-on entrepreneurship program held at the University of California, Berkeley; and University of Pennsylvania's Management & Technology Summer Institute, a rigorous college-level program for high school students.

"All these programs have introduced me to incredibly talented students who opened my eyes to the possibility of what can be done," Kim said. "If I wasn't exposed to these students, I wouldn't know what I was capable of doing at that age."