Join the Harvard Club of Washington, D.C., for an inspiring discussion about how to empower marginalized people. Casey Lartigue Jr. is an American now living in South Korea who has worked with about 500 North Korean refugees for a decade. He co-founded the organization Freedom Speakers International (FSI) along with South Korean researcher Eunkoo Lee and is the architect of the organization’s strategy of empowering North Korean refugees with English, public speaking, and career development.
In addition to sharing some of his experiences and lessons learned from working with North Korean refugees, he can answer some of the main questions that people ask about North Korea and North Korean refugees. How do people escape from North Korea? How dangerous and difficult is it to do so? How many North Korean refugees have escaped to South Korea? What kind of work has he done with North Korean refugees over the last decade? What are some of the success stories of North Korean refugees who have studied in FSI? Attendees will be inspired by his work empowering North Korean refugees and they will feel more empowered to answer the question, “What are you going to do about it?”
Talk with Casey now and meet him in Washington, DC, on July 20 when he visits the Harvard Club of Washington, D.C., along with seven North Korean refugees.
About the speaker:
Casey Lartigue, Jr., is the American co-founder and co-president of the Seoul-based Freedom Speakers International (FSI) which he co-founded along with South Korean researcher Eunkoo Lee in 2013. FSI has educated and empowered almost 500 North Korean refugees with English tutoring, public speech mentoring, and career development preparation. Casey is the co-editor of the book Educational Freedom in Urban America: Half a Century after Brown v. Board of Education and co-author along with North Korean refugee Songmi Han of her memoir Greenlight to Freedom: A North Korean Daughter’s Search for Her Mother and Herself. Casey has won numerous awards and honors, including from Hansarang Rural Cultural Foundation, Challenge Korea, Korea Hana Foundation, and last year he was awarded Seoul Honorary Citizenship by the Seoul City Government. He has a bachelor’s degree from the Harvard University Extension School and a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Read his profile in the HGSE’s Ed. magazine here.
