Augsburg senior Krystal Mattison is the granddaughter of a comfort woman. After spending time with this group of women during her year in Korea, she came back to Augsburg committed to raising awareness about this issue. Her own grandmother (halmoni) died when Mattison was five years old, but she learned of her grandmother’s story from her father.

The women at House of Sharing [pictured] became grandmothers to Mattison, who was called Soo-Jeong by her new halmonis. “They spoiled me and always held my hand and even fed me,” she says. She learned from the women, who think of themselves not as victims but as survivors and activists, that speaking out against violence is an important part of the healing process. “This experience brought me so much completion that I had to do something,” Mattison says.

That “something” was to work with Augsburg’s Women’s Resource Center. After Mattison shared her grandmother’s story and her own experience in Korea, the Center agreed to donate the proceeds from this year’s production to House of Sharing.

“Since the purpose of performing this show is to fight violence against women by raising awareness about the issue and funds for organizations who do this work, we feel like it was a tremendously successful event,” says Jessica Nathanson, a professor of women’s studies and director of the Women’s Resurce Center. “The performances were also excellent,” she adds, “beautifully and powerfully delivered.”

Augsburg’s production of The Vagina Monologues was directed by Julia Sewel, a senior psychology major from Minneapolis. Sewell says she has been acting since she was five years old and studied theater at her previous college. She became connected to the Augsburg Women’s Resource Center and was nominated to be the director of the production.

Sewell said directing the production taught her that she will never be a director. “But I learned so much as an actor,” she says. “It was an awesome process to get the actors to ‘go there’ and take their performances to the next level.” She gives credit to the actors, many of whom had never acted before, for creating such a powerful performance.

The Vagina Monologues cast included Irene Abdullah, Veronica Berg, Kia Burton, Amber Davis, Rebecca Dickinson, Sarah Gillund, Annika Gunderson, Lucreshia Grant, Elizabeth Hanson, Brandy Hyatt, Valencia McMurray, Lily Morris, Kris Ness, Magdalen Ng, Shannon O’Brien, Yasameen Sajady, Leann Vice-Reshel, Rochelle Weidner, and Courtney Wiley.

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A double major in biology and English, Nou sees the CIEE program as an opportunity to learn about the education system and the medical practices of another culture, to interact with Koreans and learn specifically about the people and culture, to attend a prestigious university, and to enhance her overall college experience. In her scholarship application essay she wrote, “The program will contribute to my college experience in that it will make me a more rounded person to go out into the world as an educated leader in the community.”

In her blog, “Seoul: An Asian American perspective of South Korea,” Nou shares her experience, including her reasons for studying in South Korea and the exhilaration and frustration she feels as a U.S. American in another country.

Out of all the places, why South Korea? There’s the pop culture, kimchi, bibimbap…yet, what really drew me to South Korea was its reputation to adopt its children. [The] United States contains the largest Korean adoptee population in the world. My interest in South Korea’s health system as well as its orphanages drew me to explore and understand the Korean culture in a deeper level. So here I am–the motherland. I hope to gain a better understanding of Korea and most importantly I hope this journey will help strengthen my vocation.

Nou writes about her frustration at not being able to understand people or to read the signs but says she is becoming more independent and learning to discipline her spending habits. At the beginning of her experience, she writes, “After being in Seoul for a week, I feel better and more confident in my surroundings. I still feel like I am lost in this big city. There’s so many things to do–touring, shopping, etc–but the problem is that I don’t know any Korean so I can’t ask questions or bargain. I don’t even know how to say ‘where is the bathroom?’!”

She has a ten-minute break between her classes, and they are on opposite sides of the campus separated by a hill with steep steps. She writes that walking up the hill at Yonsei University nearly brings her to tears. “I could use the workout but it’s just that my backpack is so heavy!” She is glad to have packed sturdy tennis shoes but marvels at the women who climb the hills wearing high heels.

Two weeks after her arrival, Nou was visited by Ashley Stoffers, an Augsburg student teaching in English in South Korea on a Fulbright Scholarship. Ashley brought Nou an early birthday present–a “Korean survival package.” Nou wrote that the visit and the gift helped cheer her up after having a “not so good” first couple of weeks.

To complete her program, Nou will create a film documenting her experience and that of other students in South Korea. “I hope to show my peers in the states the daily life of an “American student” studying in South Korea through film…” She hopes to dispel myths surrounding the study abroad experience and that her film will educate potential students and encourage them to pursue study abroad opportunities.

“My film will be proof that a Hmong American student was able to successfully complete a semester away from home with the help of the Gilman Scholarship. I believe that my film will help fuel the Hmong college students’ flame to study abroad. It will also help dissipate any lingering doubts concerning living abroad.”

To read more about Nou’s experience, go to http://nou-southkorea08.blogspot.com/. For information on study abroad, go to www.augsburg.edu/augsburgabroad.

The Gilman International Scholarship Program offers a competition for awards for undergraduate study abroad and was established by the International Academic Opportunity Act of 2000. This scholarship provides awards for U.S. undergraduate students who are receiving federal Pell Grant funding to participate in study abroad programs worldwide. A new $3,000 Critical Need Language Supplement available to students studying a critical need language. The online application is now open to eligible students studying abroad during the Spring 2009 semester. www.iie.org//programs/gilman/index.html

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