Woohee Kim
Colgate UniversityWoohee Kim works to make a positive impact through international education and activism. Woohee is interested in education as means of achieving social justice. She strives to think critically through structural problems that create injustice and inequality and to look at how education can have the power to help end injustice. Woohee has interned at Givology, connecting donors with local grassroots educational organizations worldwide, and Children and Youth First USA, supporting a boarding school for marginalized children in Nepal. Woohee is a teacher for the Let's Get Ready SAT prep program. She participated in a trip to Philadelphia to work with an organization that tells the story of grave social injustices building awareness and activism. Woohee is also an advocate for those in her home country. This summer, she will travel to South Korea to study and raise awareness for the issue of "comfort women". She hopes this project will bring to light growing Korean youth activism regarding the issue through interviews and focus groups with Korean youth. She hopes that by bringing light to this movement of activism, there is a realization of the need the respect histories of violence in order to move toward peace.
Personal Statement
I am interested in the intersection of the fields of international education, international development, social justice, and non-profit work. I wish to pursue a graduate school degree related to these focus areas after Colgate with the ultimate goal of engaging in social activism or international development work with a focus on education at non-profit organizations. As an Educational Studies major, I am interested in education as means of achieving social justice. Through interests in international and community development, I grapple with questions around effective and meaningful aid that respects the needs and culture of the communities being served. I am struggle with the position I occupy in engaging in non-profit work as a person of knowledge and power going into underprivileged communities. Through my volunteer and service work I hope to better understand these complex issues by immersing myself and learning directly from all of those around me. I strive to always broaden my knowledge of the service field and explore ways in which I can be involved.