KASA hosts adopted kids

Rose Prucker brought her adopted daughter over from Korea more than five years ago. On Saturday, the two joined a host of other adoptees and their families in Murray-Dodge Hall to sample the culture.

The families were received by members of the Korean American Students Association (KASA) and other student volunteers for the fifth annual Princeton's Adopted Little Siblings (PALS) day.

"The event is very valuable for my daughter," Prucker said. "She can learn to value her heritage and meet young adults of her culture."

After the reception and icebreaker activities, Princeton students serving as "big siblings" taught the children to play a traditional Korean game. "[It's] like duck-duck-goose, but you leave a towel behind the person who is it," volunteer Jiwon Kim '09 said.

The goal, KASA secretary Vivian Kim '07 said, is to "give them a glimpse of what Korean life is like."

The association seeks to help the adoptees find a place in American culture said KASA President John Y. S. Lee '06, who organized this year's event with program director Rafael Ryu '08. "The kids often have identity crises when they go to school in America, and their parents have a hard time helping them with this," Lee said.

After a picnic lunch with authentic Korean cuisine, the group watched the Samulnori Drum Troop from Columbia University and the Princeton Kendo team perform on Cannon Green.

Bob Belsham, who attended PALS day with adopted daughters Jillian and Nelly, emphasized the importance of being involved with the culture. "We don't want them to forget their heritage and regret being adopted by Caucasian people," he said.

Inside Whig Hall, adoptees learned how to draw the Korean flag, write their names in Korean and sing traditional Korean children's songs.

Meanwhile, parents attended a panel discussion with native Korean students and guest Lizzie Lilley, a senior at Lafayette College writing an honors thesis on the childhood experiences of adult Koreans who had been adopted by U.S. families as children. She intends to use the information "to inform adoption agencies how to better provide services."

Intercountry adoption became commonplace in the United States in the early 1950s during the Korean War.

This year KASA will also host the Korean American Students Conference (KASCON), the largest ethnic conference in North America, according to KASA secretary Kim. KASCON attracts more than 1,000 students from around the nation and is held at a different university each year. It will return to Princeton in 2006 after beginning here in 1987.