Hi everyone!
My name is Jun Taek, and I am one of the leaders in Grinnell College’s chapter of LiNK. Grinnell College is a tiny (1700 students) liberal arts college located in Grinnell, IA. We would like to hear from all the other smaller colleges on this page about success stories and how you all function as a whole! Here’s our story
Two friends and I started LiNK@Grinnell during the spring of 2015 as we were all very interested in human rights issues and had some experience working for/hearing about organizations doing great work for North Korean refugees. We grew as a campus group to about 10-15 students that semester, and we were able to bring the speakers from HQ to come give a presentation (Shoutout to Billy Arnold, Kirstin Pulles, and Travis Morse!) at our campus. Inspired by their work, we decided to start a semesterly Kimbab fundraiser during the week before finals week, to support the struggling students survive and let them donate to this great cause. We’ve kept the kimbab fundraiser up every semester but have struggled to have multiple fundraising events every semester due to all the business of classes. Last year, we were also able to send some of our members to Princeton University’s North Korean Human Rights Conference, and meet Yeonmi Park, Hannah Song, etc. This semester, we’ve had some trouble maintaining and engaging our members, but we’re hoping we can do more to get them excited about LiNK again. If you are a member of a chapter of LiNK at a small college, props to you! We know it’s hard, but let’s continue to work hard for the refugees in North Korea and for human rights in general!
