Captain Harvard's camp

Casey Lartigue, center in the front row, is joined by children for a group photo during an English camp in Sejong City. Courtesy of Casey Lartigue

By Casey Lartigue Jr.

When I entered the classroom, the children were calling my name and applauding me. "Mr Casey!" and "Casey Teacher!" When I looked to the back of the room, I saw my name and Harvard University were on the banner. The only things missing were a marching band and a proclamation from the president of South Korea hailing it as Casey Lartigue Day.

On Thursday, as a typhoon approached South Korea, I was the featured speaker in Sejong City (about 100 miles south of Seoul) at an English language camp for multicultural children. The students are multicultural (meaning at least one parent is non-Korean), many of them may be disadvantaged and they live in rural areas, but they are growing up in South Korea. That means they know Harvard.

I started by introducing myself with a PowerPoint slideshow about my life. The students seemed to be enjoying it, especially photos of me with celebrities like the singer Psy and former figure skater Kim Yuna. They are youngsters so I couldn't count on their attention spans lasting much longer as my life flashed before their eyes. One of the camp leaders had warned me that the kids might not focus but that was fine with me. When it comes to teaching, I know about three main approaches. Show. Tell. Do. I had them do English for two hours with a curriculum that I organized and that FSI co-founder Lee Eun-koo organized.

I achieved oneness with the universe after about 45 minutes. I noticed there was complete silence from almost 30 schoolchildren as their eyes focused on me. Those allegedly restless kids were listening closely to my every word. Puppies could have run into the room barking, Pokemon or the most popular cartoon character could have appeared in person, and calls of "ice cream!" would not have distracted them. I said it aloud to myself, but also to the teachers, counselors, and administrators in the room observing and participating. "They're listening." Then it happened again, and again, and again. Almost thirty kids were listening without any threats, pleas or bribery.

After about two hours of non-stop activity, we took a break (requested by me, I was getting tired as I watched them in action non-stop). We wrapped up by having Q&A time and giving them some suggestions about ways to study English. Most of their questions were about Harvard University.

I had many things on my mind as I returned on the KTX along with FSI co-founder Lee Eun-koo and the camp organizers.

One, this was another reminder of why it is okay to embrace Harvard University and my connection to it. While many Harvard alumni move on after graduation day, I have stayed connected in various capacities as a mentor, ambassador, speaker and event organizer. There are even some Harvard graduates who seem to be making a confession with a silent drum roll and an invisible gun pointed at their heads when they must inform others reluctantly that the university they graduated from in the northeast, near Boston is, Harvard. Others consider it to be the "Harvard bomb" to inform others.

During our short break, the camp leader asked if I would be okay with joining the kids in a group photo. I told him to put aside extra time so I could take a photo with all 29 youngsters individually. I became a human photo zone. The camp leader asked if I would give a small pouch to each student as we took photos. Of course!

The kids were delighted. Some wanted to shake my hand and others let me know with their eyes that it was a special moment.

Regret then punched me in the stomach. I used to give out Harvard University notepads and notebooks to North Korean refugees joining my non-profit. Many of them said that they really treasured it. Even those who were not active on social media posted about it. I don't know why I stopped giving them out. It might have been the process and cost of sending the notebooks from the U.S. to South Korea.

It may have been because I didn't travel at all during COVID-19, from February 2020 until February of this year, so I didn't make any trips to Cambridge to buy Harvard University-related items. Or it could be the simple issue of not bringing up Harvard until others do so because some people are sensitive about it.

Whatever the reason, when I saw how inspired those multicultural kids were about meeting a Harvard graduate, I wished that I would have ordered many gifts or stuffed my suitcase with gifts from Harvard when I visited twice earlier this year.

At other times when I have spoken at South Korean high schools or summer camps many of the kids have asked for my autograph. I suppose that people who have not been invited to those camps or schools to give speeches and haven't been treated like a hero may not understand the special feeling and even a sense of responsibility that comes from having young people look up to you. In the future, I plan to be ready with the Harvard University notebooks and to sign them for any of the kids (or adults) who are interested.

Two, these occasional breaks from my work with North Korean refugees energize me. For the past decade, I have been focused on building up Freedom Speakers International into a first-rate organization. Before I worked with North Korean refugees, I was the volunteer assistant organizer of a meetup group and later a volunteer advisor to HOPE (Helping Others Prosper Through English). That meet-up group and organization both taught English to South Korean, multicultural and low-income children. That volunteer work was fulfilling and also helped fuel my work with North Korean refugees.

It is a healthy balance for me to work with South Koreans as well as North Korean refugees. As I will discuss in more detail in a future blog post, teaching at the Seoul University of Foreign Studies as well as working with education consultant Sunny Eunhwa Kim starting in 2017 helped develop my public speaking and mentoring in many ways that helped me develop FSI and our work with North Korean refugees. The camp I spoke at on Thursday also gave me some ideas about engaging North Korean refugee adults.

Three, when some sympathizers of North Korea have questioned if I am making a lot of money doing NGO work with North Korean refugees, I usually laugh out loud and mock them for such a naive and stupid comment. For the ones willing to listen, I used to explain to them about the reality of the NGO world for a start-up organization in a foreign country without religious or political support. From now on, I will be more explicit in informing critics and other hand-wringers that I have known for years I could be making much more money in South Korea as a Harvard graduate teaching English to the elite of South Korea.

I am not the only one who knows this. I have had numerous South Koreans suggest to me over the years that I should drop the NGO work and instead become an expert on teaching English. On the other hand, I have the uncouth nincompoops of the Internet talking about my work with North Korean refugees as if I have hit the lottery. My work with North Korean refugees has been honorary, not monetary.

After returning to Seoul, I joined a speech given by a North Korean who started studying English in my organization back in 2016. A few hours before, I had been the hero of the camp. At a speech featuring a North Korean refugee, my role was to introduce the speaker, then during Q&A I can add some statistics, context, and other possibly relevant information. If I talk too much or if I am too visible then I can expect complaints from attendees or even from some North Korean refugees. I enjoy it, but I have knowingly taken a backseat for a decade.

Back home after that, I re-read a column I wrote a few months ago about the Internet troll who inspired me to re-engage with Harvard University. It may have bothered that troll that I occasionally mention Harvard, but I could see on Thursday how much the students and staffers appreciated meeting me. That Internet troll meant to disparage me by calling me "Captain Harvard." On the other hand, if those kids had called me "Captain Harvard" then I would have taken it as a compliment that would have meant more than having a marching band welcoming me and a proclamation from the president of South Korea.

The next morning, I received an invitation to attend the inauguration of Harvard University's 30th president, Claudine Gay. I was already making plans for a short visit to New York City for a project related to North Korean refugees. I sent in my RSVP to attend the inauguration. Assuming I am able to get away from my activities in New York City to attend the inauguration, I will be making a stop at the Harvard Coop to buy notebooks and other Harvard University-related items for future speaking events, North Korean refugee members of Freedom Speakers International, and English camps in South Korea.

Casey Lartigue Jr. (CJL@alumni.harvard.edu) is co-founder with Lee Eun-koo of Freedom Speakers International (FSI) and co-author with Han Song-mi of the book "Greenlight to Freedom." He has two diplomas from Harvard University, was first named a Goodwill Ambassador to the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2015, and has given about 20 speeches at Harvard University events online and in-person since 2003.