This week’s SCVTV/California Superstores Outstanding Student of the Week is Jaemin Kim from Valencia High School. Jaemin is ranked number one in the class of 2012 with a cumulative GPA of 4.87 and an SAT score of 2340. Yet she almost dropped out of high school to pursue a music career.

“I had auditioned for a Korean entertainment company and I made it in,” Jaemin said. “And so when I asked my parents about it they, of course, were against it at first. They pretty much still are. It took me a while to realize why they were against it. They were against it not because they didn’t want me to pursue my dreams but they wanted me to have a stable career in which I could be happy. So even though I did not understand at the time I understand now.”

While she’s still open with her college plans, her heart is set on Stanford.

“Until very recently… my number one choice was UC-Berkeley,” she said. “My mom started asking me, ‘So where are you going to apply? Have you decided your colleges?’ You have to have a goal, and even if you don’t meet that goal at least you can work for it. At that poijnt, I really wanted to go to Stanford.”

And it’s the law that fascinates Jaemin. And once completing law school, she would like to become a criminal prosecutor.

“For junior year we did this mini career thing where we interned for a couple of hours,” Jaemin said. “I interned with one of my friends’ mom, and she’s an attorney. I just felt really interested… like that was when I knew for sure I wanted to go into (law). I was really interested in reading all the cases and seeing how the law can apply to this case but not to (that) case.”

Congratulations to Jaemin Kim of Valencia High School, the SCVTV/California Superstores Outstanding Student of the Week.