Dr. Ailee Moon is the President of The Foundation for Korean Language & Culture in USA and a professor at UCLA
She is from Korea but as a child growing up she did not want to follow the plan her parents had hoped for her. They wanted her to be a doctor, physicist, scientist, or chemist. She hated the periodic table-and anything scientific. She wanted to work with people. She loved the idea of sociology or politics. She knew that love would not be nurtured in South Korea, she wanted to come to America.
So, she staged a hunger strike. The first day her parents thought it to be comical. By day 2, especially day 3 her mom begin to worry that she would starve to death. Dr. Moon shared that through the door she could hear her mom pleading with her dad to allow her to come to America before she died. Dr. Moon said she cheered, secretly of course, as she heard her mom's plea. Dad conceded. She was sent to America and says she would do it all again.
She has been taking students to South Korea for about the last 10 years. We talked about the program and selection process. She receives hundreds of essays a year. The concentration is usually from California, New York and Virginia. Recently she has begin getting submissions from Europe. The Virginia location has been discouraged by the low numbers of students chosen from their location and are considering establishing a similar program; as are European schools. She says that often times essays are submitted before information is even sent out; students are hopeful that if they get essays in extra early they will have a better chance.
The selection progress is tedious. She keeps the group of traveling students small, not for financial reasons, but because she wants the program to be meaningful, life changing, educational, and she wants to be involved with each student individually. She has many contacts in both America and Korea and the amount of monies donated is unbelievable. KLACUSA provides scholarships of many types. This is great to know for college!
Parents often ask her for advice, especially when it comes to steering their children in the direction they think is best. Having gone against family hopes, she often sides with the child. She tells parents to support children in whatever it is they decide to do with their lives. If they are passionate about it they will surely succeed.
She spent a great deal of time with us, and by the end of the night I felt more comfortable with the decision to send Naysia. She praised Naysia for her passion. Gave her some tips on having a success professional life in South Korea. She also praised me for supporting Naysia. I can hardly wait to hear the wisdom she will impart on Naysia while they are away.
Dr. Ailee Moon is definitely someone we need to maintain a relationship with.
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