Hae Jin I worked together this morning making sure I had everything I needed for the two receptions later today. Hae Jin has another appointment with a student she is tutoring so she will not be able to join me at the first reception. I have asked A Young and Hyuk Woo (Choi) to help me at the first reception, the Student and Parent Reception.Hae Jin delivered me to the PRAU restaurant at 10:00 a.m. and gave me specific instructions, “do not leave this place and wait here until A Young arrives.” She reminded me that I had not followed similar instructions from Myeonghoe two night ago (and subsequently got lost) and she made it clear her instructions were to be followed, so I complied.
A Young arrived at 10:30 A.M. and she and I went over the guest list and she made name tags for all the guests. When students began to arrive she handed each of the prospective students a polo shirt, luggage tags and a pen. She also made sure we had recorded all the names and email addresses for parents and students in attendance.
Our lunch was made up of traditional Korean side dishes and a variety of Korean soups. Hyuk Woo helped me with the presentation and he did very well. We had 24 parents and perspective students in attendance and with the luncheon lasting almost 3 hours I had plenty of time to talk with parents and students alike. After the meeting parents were busy exchanging emails and phone numbers.
After our luncheon I met with the family of a student who is on academic probation to talk to the parents about next steps. The parents were very supportive of the school and our work with their child. Later in the afternoon I met with a potentially returning student and their mother and sister to discuss the students living situation and the student's fall schedule.
Our former student reception was at 7:00 p.m. and was also held in the PRAU restaurant, although the venue of the meeting was not as fitting as it might have been.
Nonetheless, the reception with alumni went very well as students shared with each other their fondest memories of high school and their favorite teacher stories. We had 16 former students in attendance and many made plans to meet at a local wine club following our dinner.
I arrived back at Hae Jin's home around 10:30 p.m. while Hae Jin remained with the other university students who continued to visit at the wine club.
