Greetings from South Korea! ☺ I am Eunchong Yim, a junior majoring in Global Affairs at George Mason University Korea. Since my name is a little hard to write exactly as it is pronounced in Korean, I often go by Grace – because Eunchong actually means Grace!
Whenever I tell people that I am from Korea, most of them ask me back if I am from Seoul. And no, I am from Suwon – which you have never heard of, probably. Although Suwon is not really a widely known place yet in Korea to foreigners, especially the area of Suwon that I live in is truly a beautiful and interesting place which you must visit someday.
There is Hwaseong Haenggung (Temporary Palace) 20 minutes away by walk from my house, which was built together with Suwon Hwaseong Fortress by King Jeongjo when he devoted himself to relocating his father’s grave. It is also popular for couple dates (whisper)! When you walk to the opposite side for 20 minutes, you can find a massive Gwanggyo Reservoir, where many people come and walk on the dirt with bare feet to exercise. One fun fact: The Chinese characters of Suwon (水原), in the first place, means the “origin of water”.
One of the major pillars of my interest is disabilities. When I was a freshman, a tiny little moment of me meeting a Chinese woman lost in a subway, not knowing where to hop off, caught my attention. Since then, I have been active as an advocate of mobility rights for the disabled/impaired.
My interest in regional governance was sparked by the 7th Model African Union Assembly last winter in 2024. My teammate and I were honoured to represent the Republic of Namibia, a beautiful country in the Southern Africa. Most recently – last week, I had an amazing opportunity to visit Jakarta, Indonesia, to participate as the Republic of Korea (ROK) student representative at the AFMAM (ASEAN Foundation Model ASEAN Meeting East Asia Summit) 2025.
Through all these experiences, I realised that I would like to study deeper about health and food security issues in less developed countries through regional governance systems as a tool to explore more specific regional issues and support the vulnerable populations.
