학교의 설립과 통합

On a warm summer evening in 1979, a small group of Korean-Americans from the First Korean United Methodist Church of Cherry Hill, New Jersey met for a Korean dinner.  The timing of the dinner was auspicious as it was very close to Korean Thanksgiving (Chusuck), August 15^th on lunar calendar.  In Korea, as in the United States, Thanksgiving (Chusuck) is customarily celebrated by a mass migration home.   Soon the dinner discussion turned to distant hometowns and dearly missed friends and family. Everyone had a nostalgic story of his/her hometown. All missed their hometown where they were born and grew up, and lived with their parents and grandparents.

One of those attending the dinner was a public-school teacher who quickly realized the Korean culture would soon be lost by the children of those at the dinner.  It was requisite on the older generation, like those at the dinner, to teach the younger generation about their Korean heritage.   The Korean community had to establish a school to teach the Korean language, culture, and history. The dinner attendants decided to initiate an exploratory study and nominated the school teacher, Kim to lead it.

The following week Kim took off to Long Island, New York to collect information and to learn how to start a school.  After completing the study and presenting the findings, Kim soon drafted the first By-Laws of the school. 

He then proposed the establishment of a Korean school to a gathering of 36 prominent Korean-American leaders.  These leaders unanimously approved the proposal, the Korean School of Southern New Jersey By-Laws were adopted and the School was established. 

It was 1979.

There was a former Korean Language professor, Chang Hae Part, who was invited to deliver a congratulatory remark. He declared that the people when they lose their language the people disappear.

Kim’s vision for the Korean school was one of a large non-denominational cultural and educational institution.  Not of institution solely affiliated with the First Korean United Methodist Church of Cherry Hill. 

Kim, who was a Korean boy attending a Japanese elementary school during Japanese occupation of Korea, was delivering the inauguration remark on the opening day of the Korean school in 1979.

Thirty years later (in 2009), the board of directors and the six pastors of near-by churches got together and decided to unify all of the smaller independently operated Korean Schools into the Korean School of Southern New Jersey.  The School later evolved into a multi-ethnic school to serve all children, especially those who were adopted from Korea.  The School is now (in 2019) teaching over 150 students every Saturday in varied topics and aspects of Korean culture such as language, history, customs, cuisine, and martial arts.