2018-03-08 Challenge Korea Global Award

I am so proud to be the recipient of the Challenge Korea Global Award. Today I attended the awards ceremony, held at South Korea's National Assembly. It is quite an honor. There are about 50 million people in South Korea, about 2 million of them are non-Koreans. Out of all of those people, I was one of the 10 people to receive an award today (the Global Award).

I'm not a celebrity, singer, actor, politician or rich man. I am just a man struggling to build an NGO in a foreign country empowering North Korean refugees. These days, I rarely leave my office, so I'm not getting this kind of award because of networking. It is the second consecutive year that I've won an award, and last month TNKR (now FSI) was honored as a finalist for the Asia Liberty Award.

Incredibly, we have received a lot of press even though we don't have anyone focused on reaching out to media. We get this kind of attention because of our good work.

I'm not sure that I really deserve this award, but they gave it to me. I'm not giving it back!

At the awards ceremony, I spoke briefly, then invited our volunteers and fans to join me on stage. I gave two speeches this week, one with Q&A lasting 90 minutes, then a speech yesterday that lasted almost two hours with a few questions mixed in. So I was fine with not speaking for long, but certainly could have done so.

Thanks so much for those who joined:

Eunkoo Lee, FSI cofounder. Youngmin Kwon, then-TNKR project manager of the Bring My Father Home campaign. Han So Young, Brian Klein and Shim Young.

www.lovetnkr.org/donate

Radio, Harvard

I'll be a guest on XM 169 The Power this morning from 10:15 a.m. EST. I'll be talking about teaching English abroad. I'll be interviewed by Brian Higgins of MYB Talk . I sang last night for about five hours with friends but I'm sure my voice will be fine. Tuesday, I'll be interviewed by a Harvard University representative who wants my input on a new doctoral program for education leaders . It is a collaboration between the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School. Some folks at the Booker Rising site are (again) reminding me that I'm not as smart as I think I am. CJL

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