My name is Josephine Kim, and I'm a Korean American professor at Harvard University. I'm also a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, and I wanted to tell you about an amazing opportunity for your youth.

When the massacre happened at Virginia Tech in April, I was contacted by the school to come and do outreach, education, and counseling with mostly Korean and Asian students on campus. It was apparent to me that an intervention needed to be created to better prepare our Korean youth for college.

In response, I helped to create MSG - Mustard Seed Generation, which is a non-profit, Christian
organization. It was made to help Korean American youth grow all aspects of healthy development.
Our first conference this year is aimed at 100 Korean American high school juniors, seniors, and
incoming college freshmen, and our theme for the conference is "2007 MSG Conference: Breaking
ground, planting seed, and sprouting life." Breaking ground means to prepare the heart to receive
the seed - the seed is salvation - and life is the renewed life of a Christ-follower. It'll take
place in August (6th-9th) at Potomic Park Camp Christian Retreat Center in WV.

Our conference is different from most retreats, because we will be providing a comprehensive
experience that will target all areas of development that I frequently speak about, including the
spiritual, mental, moral, social, physical, and emotional. We decided to follow a conference
format, with several tracks that students can pursue, such as: praise and worship, career
development (including personality, interest, and talent inventories, etc.), emotional
healing,adjusting to life in college as a Korean American Christian, college admissions, study
skills, etc.

The most exciting thing about the conference is that each youth will also be required to have
individual and group counseling throughout the four days. The individual session(s) will be to
assess if there are deeper issues which need attention and for me to make appropriate referrals to
resources once they return home. Group sessions will be centered on various topics like self
esteem, body image, parent conflicts, social skills, and issues related to being Korean American,
etc. I'm excited to have three other Christian, Korean American mental health counselors on-board
with me for this endeavor.

If you could encourage your juniors, seniors, or an incoming college freshmen to attend, I believe this will be an amazing experience for them. The transition into college is a tough one, and I believe they need informational and experiential conferences like this one to prepare them for what is ahead. I think the Cho incident serves to highlight the importance of being healthy on many levels.

All of the pertinent information about the conference can be found at www.MSGeneration.com,
including the registration forms. We have limited enrollment, so if youth are interested, they need to jump on it and register right away. It would be great to see your youth at this conference.

Thank you. I believe together, we can make a difference.

In Christ,
Josephine Kim