The Peace Corps sent volunteers to Seoul. In her 1973 to 1975 stint with the Corps, Kathleen Wright taught English at Kon Kuk University. Others handled health, vocational and agricultural programs. "We were like unpaid ambassadors in the field," Wright recalls. "The effect that had was not just on the teaching of English. It was definitely an exchange of cultural ideas." In 2007, Wright made her first return visit to South Korea, on a study grant from the University of Hawaii's East-West Institute. "It was culture shock in reverse," she said. The country has leaped forward. It's now the 13th largest economy in the world, according to the U.S. State Department, a major exporter of electronics, cars and machinery with a gross domestic product of $897 billion in 2006. The country is now an open democratic society. President Lee decided to honor Peace Corps volunteers for their role in that transition. "The thing that's really being pushed with this," Wright said, "is that Peace Corps volunteers really helped in the democratization of Korea."
Kathleen Wright says Peace Corps Volunteers changed South Korea
Volunteers changed S. Korea
SUNY teacher will be honored for contribution
Caption: Kathleen Wright, pictured during an interview in her office at SUNY Orange in Middletown, was a Peace Corps volunteer in Seoul, South Korea, in the 1970s and will be returning to South Korea next month at the invitation of President Lee Myung-bak and the U.S ambassador, Kathleen Stephens. Photo: Chet Gordon,Times Herald-Record
By Heather Yakin
Times Herald-Record
September 24, 2008
MIDDLETOWN — Republic of Korea, 1973.
South of the Demilitarized Zone, the country was inching toward democracy.
The Peace Corps sent volunteers to Seoul. In her 1973 to 1975 stint with the Corps, Kathleen Wright taught English at Kon Kuk University. Others handled health, vocational and agricultural programs.
"We were like unpaid ambassadors in the field," Wright recalls. "The effect that had was not just on the teaching of English. It was definitely an exchange of cultural ideas."
She talks about the experience in her office at SUNY Orange's Morrison Hall. She teaches English at the college and developed an international literature program to widen students' horizons beyond the traditional European canon.
From Oct. 5 to 11, Wright will be one of 40 former Peace Corps volunteers who will return to Seoul to be honored by President Lee Myung-bak and the U.S. ambassador. The ambassador, Kathleen Stephens, was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea.
In the mid-1970s, Wright said, after two decades of political upheaval and autocratic rule, people in South Korea lacked basic comforts — indoor plumbing, heat in the winter. She shared stories and customs and humor with her students.
"We're all human beings. We're all universally connected," she says.
Since starting her first international literature program in the early 1990s, Wright has sought out grants to further that vocation. In 1993, she was one of a dozen Fulbright scholars who studied for a summer in Mexico, visiting Mexico City, Oaxaca and Zacatecas.
In 2007, Wright made her first return visit to South Korea, on a study grant from the University of Hawaii's East-West Institute.
"It was culture shock in reverse," she said.
The country has leaped forward. It's now the 13th largest economy in the world, according to the U.S. State Department, a major exporter of electronics, cars and machinery with a gross domestic product of $897 billion in 2006. The country is now an open democratic society.
President Lee decided to honor Peace Corps volunteers for their role in that transition.
"The thing that's really being pushed with this," Wright said, "is that Peace Corps volunteers really helped in the democratization of Korea."
hyakin@th-record.com
