Sungsil Kim was the first Korean student to attend Mount Holyoke College. She received a degree in religion and minored in education in 1929. She served as the treasurer and president of the Cosmopolitan Club.
After graduating from Mount Holyoke, Kim returned to Seoul, Korea and worked as the general secretary of the city’s Y.W.C.A. Kim worked at service recreation centers and naval hospitals throughout the provinces and held professional positions at the Korean National Red Cross. In a 1949 letter to Mount Holyoke, Kim discussed her work as chief of the Women’s Bureau in Korea and expressed her wish to send her two daughters to the College.
“Now our Korean Government is newly set up and we are very anxious to see it grow and develop. All these things are through the unceasing effort which Military Government made. We really have deep deep appreciation in your country.” –Excerpts from a letter to an alumna friend by Sungsil Kim, class of 1929, May 1949