2019 Summer Internship
Jaeyoung Kim, Government and East Asia Studies at Harvard University

Hello, my name is Jaeyoung Kim and I currently study Government and East Asian Studies at Harvard College.

I first learned about the East Asia Institute (EAI) while writing a paper about the Yasukuni Shrine for Prof. Susan Pharr last fall semester. I cited the EAI's Korea-Japan Public Opinion Survey that it conducts with Genron-NPO of Japan, and a few months after that, I decided to apply for an independent internship position here at the EAI under Harvard College's Weissman Program (https://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/Weissman-International-Internship-Program-Grant).

I moved abroad from Korea when I was young, so I was afraid to a certain extent because I lacked professional experience and a tight social network that I could rely on here in Korea. However, the research associates and my fellow interns made my experience such a memorable one, and thanks to them I spent a summer that I can probably never forget. I'll always remember the lunches we had together and the nights that us interns spent out after work.

During the nine weeks that I stayed here, I assisted pretty much everyone, but I think I helped out with the ADRN project the most. The ADRN stands for Asia Democracy Research Network and is a project seeking to research governance and best practices for democracy with other leading think tanks in the region. Within ADRN, I mostly assisted research on populism and a study on fake news/disinformation. I was able to partake in other projects as well.

Another memorable project of mine that I participated in was the KF Korea Friendship Workshop. The project, co-hosted with the Korea Foundation, is a workshop mainly for foreigners residing in Korea with lectures on Korean studies, essay competitions, and other events. Through this, I was able to visit the Unification Observatory at Goseong, Gangwon Province with my fellow interns; it was especially meaning for me as this was my first time visiting Goseong in about 15 years since I last visited as a little child with my parents, so I was able to reflect a lot on this trip.

I want to express my sincerest appreciation to everyone in the office for letting me experience a diverse range of projects that the EAI conducts. I had a very fruitful and enjoyable time here, and I'll make sure to apply the things that I learned here well into my studies back in school.

Thank you.