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….