When we met Eunhee Park six years ago, she used a different name. Now her name has become known by many people.
She was at the ABC level of English. Now she engages in high-level discussions in English about a variety of topics.
She had never given a public speech. She has now given speeches around the world and been interviewed by various media outlets. As I wrote a few years ago, she went "from ABC to TED."
She was thinking about going to college--now she is a college graduate and has the graduation photos to prove it.
She hadn't traveled abroad--now she is a world traveler who has visited numerous countries, as an explorer, an employee and learner.
She had never done a radio interview--three weeks ago, we were live on the radio again, probably for about the fourth or fifth time.
She had never been on TV. She became a TV personality and we were even on TV together a few times ("On My Way to Meet You," on TVN's "Little Big Heroes," Arirang TV, and other shows).
She had never been on YouTube--she is now a content creator of her own YouTube channel, we have recorded several interviews together, including a live stream. (Workable Words, Liberty21, LiveStream, Workable Words. As far as I know, she is the only person to convince FSI co-founder Eunkoo Lee to do a 1:1 interview.
She says that we introduced her to a new world, that we gave her her name. Although she has engaged with many people and organizations during her metamorphosis, she singled out FSI during an interview a few days ago with Radio Free Asia.
During every meeting with her, I felt like a better person, that the work we had done with FSI was worth it. She would often say, "I am the evidence of how great FSI is." And she was never embarrassed to praise me for my birthday and calling me a special human being in her life.
She says that she learned about volunteering and civil society from us. She has donated and raised almost $3,000 for the organization and became the Advocacy Fellow for Giving Tuesday Korea.
She will be leaving Korea soon, it was fantastic to catch up with her on Saturday night to make some final wonderful memories.
Here are some of the photos of us together over the years.
