Internship Review of the May 18 Memorial Foundation

As the International Affairs team’s short-term coordinator, I began working at the May 18 Memorial Foundation in March when COVID-19 was blustering. I have realized how quickly time has flown by while seeing people walk through a long tunnel of the pandemic and the road to recovery in the new normal. Furthermore, I am saddened while realizing the time to end working at the Foundation is just around the corner. While born and live in Gwangju for over 20 years, I have felt the meaning and influence of the May 18 Democratic Uprising on all people, particularly Gwangju citizens. In addition, the values of democracy, human rights, and peace that Gwangju citizens pursued and aspired to realize in May 1980 are closely linked with the life values of which I hope to engage in the pursuit. It was, therefore, my privilege to work as part of the May 18 Memorial Foundation and to contribute even a small portion to our society.

I will begin a doctoral journey in the Counseling and Counselor Education Ph.D. program at the University of Florida this Fall. Invaluable experiences that I had while working at the May 18 Memorial Foundation for four months helped me reflect on my values and roles in pursuing a society; in the society, there is no discrimination and oppression based on different backgrounds (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, psychological and physical ability, socioeconomic status, etc.), diversity and equity are fully respected, and all individuals can exercise fundamental and essential rights as human beings. Additionally, with valuable working experiences at the Foundation, I plan to continue to study and realize social justice, in which I have been interested since being in the master’s program, more in-depth through a variety of academic and field activities in the doctoral program.

While working at the Foundation, I have taken part in global solidarity activities, including the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, the Gwangju (Youth) Democracy Forum, UN activities, the Hinzpeter Awards, etc. Through the activities, I have developed robust connections with diverse countries’ organizations and activists for solidarity. These experiences enabled me to realize that in addition to the May 18 Memorial Foundation, a number of activists, experts, and researchers in the fields of democracy, human rights, and peace around the world have been actively working to defend and promote democracy, human rights, and peace in their roles and positions, which highly inspired me. In particular, the question, “why does the May 18 Memorial Foundation engage in global solidarity projects?” and the road to answer it offered me an invaluable opportunity to understand solidarity and think about its significance more in-depth. More specifically, working together on the ground of solidarity, not working alone, makes our voices spoken out loudly and broadly in sharing the common values of democracy, human rights, and peace and achieving the following goals of the values. In addition, although we face up to impediments in the journey toward democracy, human rights, and peace, robust and reliable solidarity can help buttress each other and keep moving forward the common values; I strongly believe that it is the power and importance of solidarity.

Lastly, in understanding the effect of the May 18 Democratic Uprising on individuals and society from the perspective of mental health related to my specialty, wounds of the May 18 Democratic Uprising can be seen as collective trauma experiences and, particularly, intergenerational trauma to Gwangju citizens. The intergenerational trauma gets passed down from directly experienced generations to subsequent generations, which can be under the mechanism of the collective unconscious. Based on this understanding, I think it is necessary to have complex and integrative approaches to mental health issues of the May 18 Democratic Uprising in a variety of areas, including academic, clinical, and social-institutional fields. After graduating from a doctoral program and studying trauma, especially collective trauma and its care, more in-depth, I plan to have research projects addressing diverse topics related to the May 18 Democratic Uprising, such as the social and psychological effects of the Uprising as collective trauma experiences, community resilience after the collective trauma experiences, etc. Additionally, as a counseling expert, I will strive to foster my professional capabilities to provide appropriate and effective trauma-informed care to both directly experienced and subsequent generations who are victims and survivors of the intergenerational trauma of the May 18 Democratic Uprising.

Four months are not a long time, but I have learned a lot and grown as an individual as well as a social justice activist during the time. Although I come back to the United States to study in August, I will continue to strive to grow and develop more based on what I have learned and experienced at the May 18 Memorial Foundation. I express my sincere gratitude to all May 18 Memorial Foundation staff members. The warm support and kindness of all staff members of the Foundation, particularly the International Affairs staff members, enabled me to get accustomed to the Foundation without any difficulties and focus entirely on my assigned tasks. Again, thank you all so much, and I will miss you all a lot. I am looking forward to the day to see you all again and always wish you all the best luck.


Hello, I am Hwa yeong Jeong. I have worked at the International Affairs Department of the May 18 Memorial Foundation for about six months, from March to September 2022. For the past ten years, I have been living a relatively dull life, mostly just traveling between school and home, because I had to concentrate on my studies. But this year, as I worked with unique people in a new place, my monotonous daily life turned very lively. In fact, I had previously spent a long time alone in my room due to research work, so it was a bit difficult and burdensome to deal with strangers at first. However, I could adapt quickly, thanks to the kind and friendly staff at the foundation. That is how I felt like I was part of a team after a long time, which helped me restore my confidence. I want to express my deep gratitude to the May 18 Memorial Foundation staff for working together with good energy and heartfelt generosity.

Before I started working at the foundation, my memories of the May 18 Democratization Movement had faded quite a bit. Looking back, I dimly recalled the memories of visiting the National Cemetery in middle school, and I felt sad and miserable at the time. After I became an adult, I could not find any particular reason or motivation to be interested in the incident on May 18, so I think I just buried the fuzzy memory in my mind. However, while working for the foundation, I learned that some of the various events related to the May 18 Democratization Movement are still ongoing. This made me think that as a citizen of the Republic of Korea, I should pay more attention to the events stemming from the May 18 Democratization Movement, and keep an eye on the future progress. I think that is the best way to honor the sublime sacrifices of our ancestors to protect democracy against unfair state violence.

Among the various commemorative projects implemented by the foundation, I think that the "Gwangju Prize for Human Rights"(GPHR) and the "Hintspeter Awards"(HA) are particularly impressive. The GPHR aims to discover and award activists who practice love for humanity and struggle for democracy in person, despite poor conditions. The HA awards a prize to journalists, armed with a strong professional spirit, who risk crossing national borders for factual reporting. I think the recipients of these awards demonstrate that the nature of humanity is the beacon that shines in the darkness. I was moved to read the activities of the last laureates. It is wonderful that there are beautiful people on this earth who are constantly trying to encourage hope for future generations, without surrendering to unreasonable and unfair realities. I also would like to pay my respects to the May 18 Memorial Foundation's hard work, which is offering strong support for them not to give up. Because of the foundation's example, although my duties are different, I also make sure to constantly work hard to contribute a small amount of strength to create a better world.

I had a meaningful experience reflecting on myself during my time at the foundation. I could also look at my future direction and establish new goals. Once again, I would like to thank the foundation for providing me with such a valuable opportunity. I will continue to support the May 18 Memorial Foundation's future operations so that it can exert a good influence on our society. I appreciate the foundation’s effort.