Success as a community is more bountiful than succeeding alone.
She Was Eight Years Old When the Journey Began
In 2000, a little girl arrived in the United States from South Korea. She was eight years old, and she had no way of knowing what the road ahead would look like.
What she did know was this: her father had served in the South Korean Marines. Service, in HyeJung Park’s family, was not something you talked about. It was something you did.
Growing up, HyeJung benefited from the California Dream Act and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, programs built on the belief that where you come from should never limit how far you can go. She absorbed that belief deeply.
And quietly, she made a decision that would shape everything that followed: she would not just receive opportunity. She would create it for others. By the time she walked across the stage at UC Irvine with two degrees in hand, one in Psychology and Social Behavior, one in Education Sciences, that decision was already set in motion.
One Opportunity. One Decision. Everything Changed.
Most people finish college and take a breath. HyeJung enlisted.
The U.S. Army reached out to her through the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest program (MAVNI), a pathway for individuals with specialized skills who were committed to serving this country. In exchange for her service, she would earn her U.S. citizenship.
“MAVNI is a recruitment program that was offered by the Department of Defense. They recruited legal non-immigrants with expertise in health care and certain languages relevant to the US military. In exchange, soldiers enlisted through this program were offered US citizenship. At that point I was undocumented but with DACA status, which gave me the legal non-immigrant status and an opportunity to apply.”
She said yes without hesitation.
She balanced her Army Reserves commitment alongside her doctoral studies at Arizona State University, until the balance shifted completely. Midway through her Ph.D., she was deployed to the Middle East for nine months. She did not put her research down. She carried it with her, finding ways to keep her work moving even from the other side of the world.
When she came home, she finished what she started. In 2022, HyeJung earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, research focused on the factors that help young people grow and thrive against the odds.
She knew something about that.
Then Came the 50-Yard Line
January 2023. HyeJung’s phone rang. On the other end was NFL star J.J. Watt, with news she hadn’t seen coming.
She had been selected, from over 800 Pat Tillman Scholars, as one of four Honorary Coin Toss Captains at Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona. Before the game began, Kevin Costner narrated her story in a 90-second tribute aired to millions of people across the country.
She stood on the 50-yard line. Her family watched from home.
And for a moment, one remarkable, earned, deeply deserved moment, the entire country got to meet HyeJung Park.
“That moment meant a lot, but it was never the end of the work.”
If you expected HyeJung to slow down after a Super Bowl, you don’t know her.
As a Presidential Management Fellow, she has brought her research and lived experience into the National Institutes of Health and the Executive Office of the President, the rooms where policy is shaped and futures are decided. She teaches at the Maricopa Community College System, because she has never forgotten what it felt like to need someone in your corner.
She founded the Korean American Youth Led Association. She serves on the board of the Phoenix Center for the Arts. She sits as a Commissioner on the City of Phoenix Human Relations Commission. Every single role chosen with the same intention: to make sure the next person gets their chance too.
There are people who succeed and move on. And then there are people like HyeJung, who succeed, look around, and immediately ask who else they can bring with them.
Why HyeJung’s Story Stays With You After You’ve Read It
Her story doesn’t unfold in one defining moment. It builds over time. She navigated one of the most extraordinary paths to citizenship this country offers. She served overseas mid-doctorate and came back to finish what she started. And through every single chapter of that journey, her eyes stayed fixed not on herself but on the community around her.
HyeJung decided, very early and very quietly, that her story would only mean something if it helped write someone else’s. HyeJung Park made that decision at eight years old. She hasn’t stopped since.
