Meet Chris Moon, winner of 2018 Law School Scholarship for Veterans
Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick LTD is delighted to award its 2018 Law School Scholarship to Chris Moon, UC Berkeley School of Law, Class of 2021.
Moon was born in Korea and remembers visiting U.S. military bases there to learn to speak English. The service members impressed and inspired him, especially the West Point graduates. He immigrated to San Francisco with his family at age 8 and became a U.S. citizen as a high school freshman. He has been dedicated to giving back to his country ever since.
A U.S. Military Academy West Point graduate (2011) Moon served for five years and five months. In his scholarship-winning essay, the Army Captain described a turning point in his military career — an Army Ranger School parachute accident. Because of the accident, he made numerous visits to various VA hospitals.
Moon wrote that in these VA hospitals, he met older veterans, some who had fought in the Vietnam War, who inspired him to continue to serve his country.
“Though I no longer served in uniform, I was determined to find another way to make a difference in the world,” Moon wrote. His military service concluded on Sept. 11, 2016.
Moon has always been a go-getter. He was class president for all four years of high school and while in the Army, he volunteered over 500 hours of service to communities surrounding the military bases where he was stationed. He was a soccer coach and built houses with Habitat for Humanity. He recruited volunteers to help teach math and English to local elementary school children. He even spent his leaves on church missions in Peru and Cambodia. For these efforts, he received two Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medals.
Moon has many ambitions, but one is to bring his two countries together: “It would be a dream to one day serve as an Ambassador to South Korea and strengthen the alliance between the two nations,’’ he wrote.
Moon received an MBA from Columbia Business School in 2018 before enrolling in law school.
The time with older veterans taught him that the best way civilians can thank veterans is to ask about their service. “I think the best thing you can do is to understand their story of why they joined. Not just saying, ‘Thank you for your service,’ but asking them, ‘What motivated you to serve?’” he said.
When asked what motivated him, Moon said it was giving back.
“I served to give back to a country that has given so much to my family. The idea that an immigrant can come to America and get an education and opportunities, I attribute the government and country for that.”
At Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick, our dedication to serving our Nation’s veterans extends beyond our Veterans Law practice. We are committed to assisting veterans in our community and across the Nation reach their educational goals through our scholarship program. The deadline to apply for the 2019 Law School Scholarship for veterans is June 15th. For more information, look at our website page.
