After graduating from CIE, Surl Hee was involved with INEE's capacity development survey doing quantitative analysis under the initiative of Stephen Richardson. More recently she has been at home in Delaware supporting her two kids, Ahron and Einne, with their remote learning. She looks forward to going back to professional work when her kids get a little older, and schools reopen!
In 2020 she and her family moved to Oregon where her husband found a new job. Then after several years, they moved again, this time to Oklahoma where Surl Hee found a job as an International Student Support Specialist in the Office of International Students and Scholars. Surl Hee commented that she was experiencing very different cultures and weather in these two locations in contrast to Delaware. [8-23]
Before coming to CIE her first job was supporting underprivileged children and youth in South Korea, where she learned that understanding their lives realistically beyond academic knowledge she received at college was quite important. She then coordinated volunteer activities for a vocational school for disadvantaged youth in Vietnam which gave her experience working with children & youth in another context.
I then began working at the Beautiful Foundation which sponsors programs in philanthropy education. Educating children in philanthropy is not just about charity, but is about building community. The key messages of philanthropy education is that difference is not wrong, empathy is the first step for philanthropy, and philanthropic action can change the world no matter if you are poor or rich. These messages were effective in school classrooms, parenting and non-profit sectors. Meanwhile, it gave me a great opportunity to join a field trip to several non-profit organizations for children and youth in New York City. It definitely taught me to see children and youth’s own power, and there were many creative ways to empower them. Through these experiences, I became interested in non-formal education.
Her research interests focus on issues related to the reunification of North and South Korea, particularly as they relate to education. She wrote her Master’s project on Sources of Influence on Perceptions of South Korean Youths about Unification of North and South Korea. [11-20]
Email: Surlhee.kim@okstate.edu