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FSI's Week in Review (9/12-9/18)

 


North Korean refugee authors

Youngnam Eom visited the office to discuss his book. He first joined us in 2015 even before we had established an official organization. 



Eunmi Park visited the office to discuss her book. She first joined us in 2014 shortly after she arrived in South Korea. When she was ready to publish her book she came to us even though we are still newbies in the publishing world.


Eunmi even publicly announced that she was publishing her book with us. She comes to our office often to work on her book. It helps that she can spend time discussing it in Korean with FSI co-founder Eunkoo Lee.



Others can help with discussing the outline, structure, which things to emphasize, etc. But still, being an author means spending a lot of time by yourself. When it is a memoir, it means reflecting on yourself, your life and others who have been harmful or helpful.



YouTube recording 

Eunkoo Lee and I did a recording with FSI keynote speaker Yusung Park for a huge organization. I don’t enjoy such recordings but will do them when asked. We should be posting the link soon.





Songmi Han updates

• She published a lovely excerpt from her memoir Greenlight to Freedom at the Voices from the North blog at the Korea Times.



• Songmi did an interview with North Korean refugee influencer Kang Nara which so far has been uploaded in three different parts. Of course, I was delighted when they mentioned me in this one and showed the book.

By the way, Nara was one of our students in 2018 and she was one of the refugees who was in the incredible Happy Birthday video for me.



• An FSI fan designed a Greenlight to Freedom ice tumbler! Because Songmi will be going to the USA we thought this could be an opportunity to ship them at a much cheaper rate than the crazy COVID international shipping rates. 
Act now! We will be processing the orders at the close of business on September 20th KST and will ship them directly from the USA.




Cato Institute

The Cato Institute has invited me to be a panelist at a forum on October 18th. Please check with the Cato Institute for registration and event information. It is a good reminder or will inform others that my professional career didn’t start with North Korean refugees. 

https://www.cato.org/events/assessing-two-decades-education-reform-catos-center-educational-freedom-turns-20



Speech with tourists


I posted about it already, check here!

Board of directors

FSI co-founder Eunkoo Lee and I made a presentation before FSI’s board of directors about our vision for the organization. It was an incredible meeting and a reminder about how the organization has gone from nothing to something special.



Eunkoo is shy, she prefers not to engage in public speaking, so my style is to tell her "no problem, you don't have to speak," then call on her anyway.
She used to thank me for not pushing her to speak and for taking the lead in outreach, I have been telling her for a few years that eventually we would need Koreans to be the public face of FSI. Lately she has been thanking me for pushing her to speak.


Our board is stronger than ever. The next time we meet, I am going to give a presentation about my own experiences on boards of directors.

Formerly, I was a member of the following boards of directors and boards of trustees:

* Black Alliance for Educational Options
* Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association
* Dupont Circle Public Charter School
* The Young Executive Board of the Washington Scholarship Fund
* The William Doar Public Charter School for the Performing Arts

 


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