Summer 2006 Interns
Saemsori is pleased to announce our 2006 Summer Interns! Please extend a warm welcome to Alex Lopez (Sleepy Hollow, NY), Jake Kim (Laurel, MD), Heeyoung Sohn (Alpharetta, GA) and Ikjun Jang (Morris, MN), who will be working this summer at the Eugene Bell office in downtown Washington, DC.
Heeyoung Sohn:
Heeyoung Sohn was born and raised in the suburbs of Atlanta, GA. Next year, she will be a senior and class president at Chattahoochee High School in Alpharetta, Georgia. She decided to spend this summer interning at Saemsori because she also has family in North Korea (her grandmother is from Sinuiju and left behind 7 brothers and sisters). Before joining Saemsori, she carried out a letter-writing campaign to her representatives in Congress on behalf of her bed-ridden grandmother. She writes: "This summer, I hope to help those who hold the same wish as my grandmother has of reuniting with her family."
Jake Kim
Jake Kim is a student at the University of Maryland-College Park, where he studies Economics and International Conflict Management. From 2004-2005, he taught at the Korean-American Cultural Heritage Institute in Maryland. He writes that he joined Saemsori because "the first generation has done so much for us, and we must show our appreciation for them. This has to be the priority. All they want to know is that their families are still alive. Their sorrow and their history is ours as well."
Ikjun Jang
Ikjun Jang is currently studying at the University of Minnesota, Morris as an exchange student from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. He writes: "Since my grandfather's older brother was taken away forcibly to North Korea during the Korea War, I am very interested in the divided family issue. Thus I really wish to help out divided families in the U.S to meet and communicate with their relatives in North Korea."