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2019-12-01 Harvard annual alumni dinner

It was great, as usual, I have attended several years in a row. Some of the usual dignitaries were there, I renewed acquaintances with some Harvard grads I only see at the dinner.




















They are all fans of TNKR, including Songmi, a new student joining TNKR! She will probably be in both Tracks 1 and 3.

Update: Songmi and I wrote a book together, she talked about how incredible the night was for her. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2022/09/137_336202.html


Mr. Kwon of Goldman Sachs delivered the keynote address.


"You can always tell a Harvard man but you can't tell him much." 

Mr. Kwon, the keynote speaker who I'm sure has forgotten more about economics than I have ever known, was a bit surprised I knew some specific things about trade issues. Once upon a time, I did have a life before co-founding TNKR.



Prof. Park has also had some interactions with North Korean refugees, especially youngsters.


They were showing previous activities, one of the other attendees mentioned, "It seems that you are in many of the photos."



President of the Harvard Club of Korea.


The Harvard Club of Korea was more active in 2019 than it has been in recent years. Any ideas for events? They are listening!



The MCs for the night!


Photo time! They are also on my TNKR email list!


Charles is also on my TNKR email list!


Mr. Dr. Prof. Congressman Jin Park, former president of the Harvard Club, giving a toast. His resume is probably as long as chapters in books. He has had so many titles, been affiliated with so many organizations. And he is a TNKR fan.



High school students from an international school performed opera.



I won a prize and also helped a North Korean student win a prize when I whispered the answer to her. I also won a prize last year--I used to give tours about Harvard's history.


 The host of the quiz was hilarious, politely letting those Harvard graduates know that they don't know much about Harvard's history. But she didn't look in my direction after I answered a question, although I put my hand up to answer about 10 of the questions. I won some nice Maxim coffee, which I donated to TNKR. But I barely lost out on the airplane ticket, my raffle ticket was six, the winner had number 5. But then, I am not much of a traveler, so I would have donated it unless I could have also set up a speech opportunity on the West Coast.

 

With Mr. Dr. Prof. Congressman Jin Park. He always has warm words for TNKR and encourages us to keep up the good work.



The photos below are for the food porn addicts.




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#harvardalumni #loveTNKR #teachnorthkoreanrefugees #caseylartigue #HarvardUniversity

It was clear that TNKR was well-known, some of the Harvard graduates are even on my mailing list. Not many are on the TNKR donor list, so I still have some work to do.
I usually say I am not busy, but the past few days, I have really been busy. It was a busy part of a busy weekend.

* Saturday morning, 4 hour TV interview
(NAP time)
* Saturday afternoon, moderated a TNKR Global Leadership Forum with four TV personalities.
* Sunday morning, greeted TNKR students arriving for Matching session
* Sunday afternoon, helped lead TNKR Language Matching session #98
* Sunday evening, Harvard alumni dinner
* Monday morning, speech to a tour group
* Monday afternoon, TV interview
(NAP time)
* Monday afternoon, shooting footage for TV interview
* Tuesday, six hours of teaching public speaking at Seoul University of Foreign Studies.
* Interview with a North Korean refugee as part of prep for Track 3 being launched in 2020.

If you sent me a message over the weekend, I probably didn't check it, I got over 1,000 unread messages again.

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