2020-2021 Fellows
Frederick Kwon is a first year M.A. student at the Elliott School of International Affairs Asian Studies Program. He completed his B.A. in International Affairs at the Elliott School with a concentration in security policy and minor in Korean language and culture. Frederick plans to continue his study of international security policy and international relations in Asia with a specific focus on the Korean peninsula. Frederick has interned at the Department of State where he contributed to the drafting and editing of various cables, memos, and reports and provided Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) assistance for the Office of Korean Affairs. The internship as well as his continued study of international affairs has inspired him to pursue a career in the foreign service. Frederick is also interested in joining the US intelligence community or federal law enforcement agency to apply his knowledge and skillsets to protect US national security from international, as well as domestic, threats.
Hope Klingensmith is a first year Asian Studies MA student at George Washington University focusing on the Korean peninsula, soft power, and US-ROK relations. Her passion for East Asian international relations began after she received the US Department of State’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth’s Korean Academic Year scholarship and spent a year in Incheon, South Korea intensively studying Korean and learning about Korean culture from her peers at a local high school. Curious about the role of language and public diplomacy in international relations, Hope majored in linguistics and minored in international relations at the University of Florida. She held several State Department internships throughout college, including a Korean press internship for the Bureau of Global Public Affair’s Foreign Press Center and a Korean section internship for the Foreign Service Institute’s School of Language Studies. After graduating from UF, Hope moved to Washington, DC to work full-time at the Foreign Service Institute and pursue her graduate education at GW. She is interested in researching both inter-Asian relations and US-Asian relations, particularly as it relates to the Korean peninsula and public diplomacy strategy. She hopes to enter the civil service and work on Korean policy issues in the State Department after obtaining her master’s degree. Hope currently works full-time as a contractor for the US Department of State as the Iraq Team Lead for the Division of Orientation and In-Processing.
Sarah (Bo Young) Jeong is a first year M.A. student majoring in Korea Studies. She applied to GW because she is interested in the inter-Korea relationship and the relationship between the US and North Korea. Without the GWIKS scholarship, she never would have been able to come to GW and meet others who share the same interests. Her long-term professional goal is to become a regional expert on the Korean Peninsula, and coming to GW made her realize that she can actually achieve my dream. The school offers so many support systems, networking, and internship opportunities even during times of COVID. The best thing about GW is its location, and she never thought she would be living just 5 minutes away from the Lincoln Memorial, White House, Capitol Hill and the Washington Monument! All in all, coming to GW was one of the best decisions she has ever made.
Soeun Lee is an M.A. candidate for the Asian Studies program, specializing in Korea and International Political Economy. She focuses her current academic study on trans-pacific and inter-Korea relations. Soeun has served as a Director of Korean Affairs at the Organization of Asian Studies (OAS) for AY 2019-2020 and is now serving as a Director of Public Affairs for AY 2020-2021. She was a Graduate Research Assistant at GWIKS for AY 2019-2020 and has been working at the international development research and consulting firm in Korea since May 2020. She studied Economics and International Studies with a minor in East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before coming to George Washington University.
Stephanie DeMeyer is a first-year M.A. student in the International Development Studies program, concentrating on Korea, migration, and disability inclusion. She completed a B.A. in American Sign Language and a B.S. in Communications at Lamar University. Her love of sign languages and the Deaf community led her to focus on disability inclusion on an international level. Stephanie explored this interest by interning at the World Federation of the Deaf in Helsinki, Finland. Stephanie is also fascinated by the impact of migration on development and is particularly interested in the flow from Southeast Asia to Korea. Her goal is to improve data collection on migrants and refugees with disabilities in this region. Stephanie has been learning Korean for several years through self-study, but hopes to go to Korea as soon as possible to fully immerse herself in the language!
