Casey Lartigue Jr., center, Lee-Eun-koo, right, and Lim Eun-ji answer questions at the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Alumni of Color Conference, March 1. Courtesy of Freedom Speakers International

You think you know exactly where you're headed. You're standing on the stage at the inaugural Harvard Graduate School of Education Alumni of Color Conference (AOCC) in 2003, speaking with conviction about school choice in Washington, D.C. You were then working as a policy analyst at the Cato Institute and were a board member of organizations such as The Black Alliance for Educational Options, advocating for low-income students to have better educational opportunities. The energy in the room is electric. You believe this is your fight — your purpose.

And in many ways, it is. Your research and advocacy helped shape policies that gave thousands of students in D.C. a chance at a better education. The Washington, D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program was created, giving 1,800 low-income students access to private schools they wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise. You made an impact, carrying a briefcase as you write studies and edit a book about education reform and carrying a protest sign as an advocate giving speeches, recruiting parents to join the program, and testifying before the U.S. Congress.

But here's something you don't know yet: This is not the path you will stay on.

You step away from policy debates in Washington and also step away from Harvard University. After speaking at the Harvard Law School in 2004, you won't step foot on Harvard's campus again until 2015. You'll be doing something completely different by then.

And in 2023 — twenty years after that first speech — you return to Harvard's AOCC. But this time, you won't be talking about school vouchers or education policy. You'll be speaking about North Korean refugees.

What? If someone told you this in 2003, you wouldn't believe them. Harvard? North Korea? Refugees? What does that have to do with you? At this moment, it's a distant topic, something you might read about but not something you work on directly.

But life will change.

You will move to South Korea. You will meet North Korean refugees — people who have survived impossible conditions and risked everything for freedom. You won't just hear their stories; you will help empower them to find their voices. You will co-found Freedom Speakers International (FSI) with Lee Eun-koo, helping North Korean refugees learn English and build confidence to tell their own stories.

What brought you back to Harvard? Criticism and stupid comments by people on the Internet. Your critics were concerned about you using your Harvard background to raise awareness of North Korean refugees. So you decided to see where using Harvard would take your work. Since then, you have given more than 25 speeches at Harvard University, making it a central platform for your advocacy although you now live in South Korea.

It all began with AOCC. By the time you return in 2023, you will no longer be a policy analyst. You will be an advocate, educator and co-founder of an organization that has spent years amplifying voices that the world often ignores. That year, you will stand on that stage alone, speaking about the power of public speaking for North Korean refugees.

And you won't stop there.

In 2024, you will return to Harvard, this time with Eun-koo and best-selling author E Jiseong. The discussion will shift from education to the deeper question: Why hasn't there been a revolution in North Korea?

And in 2025, on March 1 — exactly 22 years to the day you first spoke at AOCC — you will speak at Harvard's AOCC for the third year in a row. This time, you will be joined by Eun-koo and Monroe University MBA student Lim Eun-ji. You will discuss mental health challenges among North Korean refugees, while Eun-koo will highlight the importance of education and public speaking in rebuilding their confidence. Eun-ji will share insights into the harsh realities of South Korea's hyper-competitive education system.

Harvard will become more than just your alma mater — it will be a platform for amplifying the voices of those who have been silenced.

Looking back, you will realize how much has changed. In 2003, you were at Harvard advocating for U.S. education reform. Now, you're standing in the same university, but with an entirely different purpose.

Sometimes, the work we start isn't the work we continue.

You don't see it yet, but your path will take unexpected turns. You'll step into rooms and conversations you never anticipated. You'll find meaning in work you never imagined doing. And if you stay open to new challenges, to new voices, to new ways of making an impact — you may find yourself making an even bigger difference than you ever thought possible. Looking back, this journey has taught you three important lessons.

First, Harvard has remained a constant in your journey, but your mission within it has evolved. You started by advocating for education reform in the U.S., and later dedicated yourself to empowering North Korean refugees. Yet the heart of your work — expanding opportunities for those who have been marginalized — remains the same.

Second, Harvard has been a place where the biggest opportunities have come from the conversations you weren't expecting. You never planned to move to South Korea or work with North Korean refugees, just as you never planned to return to the AOCC. But by staying open to new people and ideas, your career took a path you could never have scripted.

Third, Harvard has been a powerful stage for helping others find their voice. Whether it was low-income parents in Washington, D.C., or North Korean refugees in Seoul, the greatest impact has come from creating spaces where others can speak for themselves. Joining the quarterly meeting of the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Alumni Council and speaking at the AOCC were the foundation for your recent trip to Harvard, but you also held several meetings with Harvard students, faculty and administrators to get prepared for FSI's 22nd English Speech Contest at Harvard in September of this year. Seven North Korean refugees will speak there, as they did last year in 2024 after you spoke at the AOCC.

You never could have predicted this journey, but that's exactly why it has been so meaningful.

I Remain,

Casey Lartigue Jr.

Casey Lartigue Jr. (CJL@alumni.harvard.edu) is the co-founder of Freedom Speakers International with Lee Eun-koo; and co-author with Han Song-mi of her memoir "Greenlight to Freedom: A North Korean Daughter's Search for Her Mother and Herself."