In Service

Looking back, first-generation Korean-American Jonathan Yong Kim ’16 knows he would have eventually gone into medicine. But his childhood aspiration was to grow up to be a soldier. In high school when he heard about the U.S. Navy SEALS, an elite military special operations unit, he knew that’s what he wanted to become. At the time, he said, he didn’t realize it would lead him to his true calling.

“While my role as a Navy SEAL was undoubtedly rewarding, committing my life to the service of others through medicine was and is my true calling.”—Jonathan Kim

After high school, Kim went on to serve for seven years as a Navy SEAL, specializing in trauma medicine during two tours of duty in Iraq in 2006 and 2008. As a medic, or corpsman in Navy terminology, his role was to stabilize the injured until they could receive a higher level of care.

Muscle Reaction

Battlefield situations with injured are certainly overwhelming for anyone, said Kim. “It’s a normal human response.”

But there are ways to cope, he said.

“You train so much to do your job so that when it really happens in real life it’s no longer a thought but almost like a muscle reaction.”

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Kim put those reflexes to work earning a Silver Star for saving the life of a wounded Iraqi soldier and a Bronze Star with valor for saving the life of a fellow serviceman who was wounded in combat.

“When people train enough, I think people can do what they didn’t think they were capable of doing in stressful times,” Kim said.

It was in the combat hospital where he watched the military surgeons save lives that Kim said he became inspired to be a physician.

With help from military benefits and scholarships, Kim attended the University of San Diego and is now a fourth-year student at HMS, planning to go into emergency medicine.

“Having a positive contribution in a short amount of time is enticing—it sounds good to me,” said Kim.

He said he likes working with his hands and having a broad range of knowledge about medicine.

“I also like the wide range of pathology [in emergency medicine], anything from a sniffly nose to someone who is bleeding out from a motor vehicle accident or a stabbing. I like that pathology of seeing A to Z,” he said.

Natural Reaction

Mentoring fellow veterans is an area where Kim is currently having a positive impact. Figuring out what benefits were available to him as a veteran was a challenge, he said.

“I went the first year here without actually getting my benefits, just because I didn’t know about them. So, a lot of people are in the same situation,” he said.

Kim also feels grateful for all the mentoring and support he has received, particularly from his Navy platoon commander Leif Babin and from Ami Bhatt, former HMS postdoctoral researcher at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.

Although Kim feels it will be difficult to repay them because they are established in their careers, the next best thing he can do, he said, is become a mentor to other vets. He said helping veterans who want to get into medical school is a personal passion. Depending on where they are in their educational careers, Kim has helped vets select courses, write personal statements, conduct mock interviews and navigate military benefits.

Fellow vet and current HMS student Cameron Waites benefited from Kim’s guidance, and the two are now good friends.

Waites met Kim through a mutual friend at the Pat Tillman Foundation; both Kim and Waites are Tillman Military Scholars and felt they had much in common.

“We both had families of our own, were veterans, and felt like late bloomers in the sense that our calling to become physicians came after starting our adult lives on other paths,” Waites said.

Being of Service

Other vets have heard about Kim’s mentorship through word of mouth, but now he is hoping to do much more by working with a structured organization. He recently joined Service to School, a nonprofit founded by veterans with the mission of helping vets gain admission to college and graduate school and helping them maximize their education benefits.

Kim has put in for a civilian residency but still owes service time to the Navy in repayment of his education. He said working in emergency medicine, he might be deployed to a lot of places where he can be helpful, either in the field or at a clinic on a military base.

In the future, Kim said he would like to spend more time addressing veterans’ healthcare issues.

“I have seen firsthand service members who have fallen through the cracks of our health care system. As a fellow service member, I am committed to reducing these disparities, so our veterans can receive the care they deserve.”

Wherever he goes after HMS, Kim said he simply wants to help people.

“While my role as a Navy SEAL was undoubtedly rewarding, committing my life to the service of others through medicine was and is my true calling.”