“Each leg of my journey added to my international outlook,” says Haneul (Han) Jung MPP 2026. Born in Korea, Han moved with his family to Texas at age seven, where his father attended seminary. Han entered second grade unable to speak or understand English. Luckily, he wasn’t alone. His classmates in Fort Worth were also children of immigrants, primarily from Mexico, and together, they were all enrolled in the ESL program. “We looked different, and they had no idea where I was coming from and I didn’t have any idea where they were coming from, but to us, it was like, ‘Oh, this is what America is.’”
The diversity in Texas led Han to learn Spanish, a skill he pursued from secondary school throughout college, which sent him to a study abroad program in Argentina and then to the Peace Corps in Colombia, where he worked on economic development in Atlántico. Besides advancing his language skills, Han enjoyed connecting with people from a different culture. “Just like in my second-grade classroom, neither I nor the people I met knew anything about the other. Building relationships from that starting point was a completely new experience.”
“Financial aid wasn’t just support. It ensured that HKS was realizable for me.”
He applied to HKS while serving in the Peace Corps. “I wanted to understand how bridges across cultures and ideologies are built. In Colombia, I experienced how difficult that was. For that purpose, HKS offered perhaps the most diverse community, with people representing vastly different parts of the world.” Receiving a JFK Fellowship made Han’s HKS journey possible. “Financial aid wasn’t just support. It ensured that HKS was realizable for me.”
At HKS, Han found negotiation simulations effective practice tools for engaging with parties with different positions and interests. His next step will be law school, where he hopes to further study dispute resolution and reconciliation.