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Abstract
School success is an ethnic identifier for Asian American students, and "academic achiever" is an integral part of the identities of highly gifted Asian American students. However, few studies have been conducted to specifically examine academic achievement as an integral part of gifted Korean Americans' identity. The educational research community has not directly heard the voices of the highly gifted Korean American youths to understand their lived experiences related to extraordinary school performance. Through focus group interviews with five purposefully selected participants, the experiences of highly gifted Korean American adolescents, their academic achievement and school success were examined. The major findings indicate that exceptional academic success can be attributed to six personality factors and two contextual factors for participants in the current study. Implications of the study are discussed in light of existing research findings with suggestions for parents and educators that may help to foster continuing success for highly gifted Korean American students with similar experiences as those within this study.