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September 12, 2006: Yul's (law) alma mater
comes up with an extensive biographical sketch (almost as long
as CBS's!) days before the premiere of Survivor:
Cook Islands:
"Law School grad competes to ‘survive’ reality
television
Just when it seemed as if Yul Kwon had
survived it all - grueling Marine officer training, the symbolic
systems major at Stanford and three years at Yale Law School
- he found himself on an isolated island in the South Pacific
this summer, struggling, once again, to survive.
Whether Kwon
foundered or prospered is still a tightly kept secret, but
beginning this Thursday evening, millions of Americans tuning
into CBS will be looking for clues - the Yalie is one of
20 contestants on the newest season of Survivor....
Kwon,
whom many family, friends and Yale peers described as a role
model - quietly brilliant, physically agile and an expert
in group dynamics - was the only contestant to question the
forced ethnic divide, according to host Jeff Probst. Probst
called Kwon one of the 'most interesting' and 'definitely
one of the smartest guys' he has met.
One of Kwon's close
Yale friends, Nisha Chhabra LAW '00, echoed Probst's sentiments.
'He's very concerned with racial groups being expected to
behave and perform according to stereotype or being treated
in a discriminatory matter,' Chhabra
said, adding that she trusts Kwon's decision to participate
in the show despite his concerns about segregation. 'One
of the reasons he tried out was because it really was important
to him that there be a greater presence of Asian members
on TV,' Chhabra said. 'He was willing
to take the risk even with this ethnic divide twist in order
to puncture some of the Asian stereotypes.'
Chhabra said
she thinks Kwon will dispel such preconceived notions. After
all, Kwon has been a social activist, martial artist, boxer,
federal appeals court clerk, lawyer, technology expert, businessman,
staffer for Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Marine
officer in training, just to name a few of the roles he has
filled in the past decade.
His former employer at a Washington,
D.C., law firm, Scott Blake Harris, said Kwon adapted to
new circumstances at work without any need for instruction
or adjustment time, an ability that may serve him well on
the barren Cook Islands. 'The
truth is, I don't think we taught Yul anything,' Harris
said. 'You take his ability to get along with people
and you combine it with brilliance - that's one hell of a
package.'
A longtime friend of Kwon, Yidrienne Lai, met
him as an undergraduate while writing an article for a Stanford
student newspaper. Lai was investigating the seemingly unstoppable
student, who had organized one of the largest Asian bone
marrow transplant drives in U.S. history for his best friend,
who was dying of cancer and in need of matching marrow. Kwon
would later win a prestigious service award for his unprecedented
efforts. 'He put his life on hold to find bone marrow
for his best friend,' Lai said. 'If I were a tribemate,
I would totally want him on my tribe. It's remarkable how
much he wants to help out other people - he's the type of
guy who would help an old lady cross the street. … He
would bust his ass. If you have to catch fish or chop coconuts,
I'm sure he would do quite well.'
Although members of
Kwon's family and his friends were excited that he would
be on national television, few said they were particularly
surprised. 'It's consistent with his character,' said
his older brother, Paul. 'I was excited. I thought this
was a great opportunity, but we were all like, "Oh, just
don't get hurt." '
Kwon's brother, who said his
sibling would probably donate a large chunk of any potential
winnings to his parents, believes Kwon's strongest asset
is his mind, which, he hopes, would have allowed him to surmount
'hard-core physical' opponents.
Chhabra
warned that Kwon's intelligence is 'incredibly
easy' to underestimate. 'The first day of law school,
he showed up in the dining hall in a baseball cap backwards
and a tank top, and he just seemed like funny California
- he didn't come across as an east coast person,' said
Chhabra, who soon discovered in one of her first-semester
courses that Kwon's essays were praised publicly by the professor
and that he was one of 'those
rare law students' who could cram before a test and
still perform flawlessly.
On Survivor, flawless
or not, Kwon will surely be on full display as part of an
increasingly controversial season, which New York City's
first Asian-American councilman called on television executives
to cancel altogether. But CBS has refused to yield to pressure,
arguing that they 'actively
recruited minorities this season primarily as a result of
the criticism faced in the past with not having enough diversity
on the cast,' CBS spokeswoman Lori DelliColli said.
Regardless,
millions will still be watching. 'I
am going to have to watch Survivor now,' said
Harris, Kwon's former boss. 'I'm half-embarrassed, but
I can't not watch Yul.'..."
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August 23, 2006: Officially revealed as a Survivor:
Cook Islands contestant on CBS's The Early Show.
From his official CBS bio:
"Yul Kwon was born in Queens, New York
to parents who emigrated from South Korea. The family moved
to the West Coast when he was six years old and he was raised
in Concord, California. He attended high school at Northgate
High in Walnut Creek, California, where he played varsity water
polo and track and graduated valedictorian.
 Kwon
then attended Stanford University and obtained a Bachelor
of Science Degree in symbolic systems (theoretical computer
science). While at Stanford, he received the James Lyons
Award for Service, attended officer candidates school for
the U.S. Marine Corps and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Kwon
went on to receive his Juris Doctor Degree from Yale Law
School, where he served on the editorial board of the Yale
Law Journal.
Kwon has enjoyed a diverse career straddling
both the private and public sectors in law, business and
technology. He practiced a mix of litigation, appellate,
transactional and regulatory work at several law firms.
He also served as a judicial clerk to a federal judge on
the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Additionally, he worked
as a legislative aide to Senator Joseph Lieberman in Washington,
D.C., where he helped draft sections of the Homeland Security
Bill and other technology-related legislation. Several
years ago, Kwon decided to switch careers and become a
management consultant at McKinsey. From there, he joined
Google's business strategy group and most recently went back
into consulting.
Kwon's favorite hobbies include politics,
boxing, ultimate fighting and volunteering with kids. He
describes himself as idealistic, compassionate and ambitious.
He became passionate about creating awareness for more minority
bone marrow donors in the U.S. after launching a major search
to find a match for his best friend who was diagnosed with
leukemia, but ultimately succumbed to the disease.
Kwon is
a member of the Washington, D.C. and California State Bar
Associations. He is also a member of the Lambda Phi Epsilon
fraternity.
Kwon currently resides in San Mateo, California.
His birth date is February 14, 1975."
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