Seoul Mates
At Gyeongbokgung, a 14th-century palace, admission is free with the $16 rental of traditional Korean dress known as hanbok. From left: Zaimarie Cabrera ’26 (NUR); Elviany Quiroz ’26 (BUS); Abigail Bonsu ’26 (CLAS); Maleekah Fong ’28 (CLAS); Jen Morenus ’97 (SFA), ’18 MA; Riley Dupont ’28 (CAHNR); Emma Hall ’26 (ED); Jazlin Marco ’26 (CLAS); and Mischa Young ’26 (CLAS).
WWhen University photographer Peter Morenus asks if you want him to photograph three Huskies in South Korea during his family vacation, you say yes.
With a combined 55 years of UConn employment between them, Peter and his wife, Jen, assistant director of the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center, are the kind of people who have connections all over campus — and, as we recently learned, very far from campus. Which is how they ended up bringing together three alum friends of Jen’s who all happened to be living in her home country to take a picture for our magazine.
One way or another, Jen Morenus ’97 (SFA), ’18 MA had a hand in supporting each of them on their journey to Korea, where she lived until she was 14 and visits often.
Mike Nelson ’10 (CLAS) was born in Korea and adopted by American parents at four months old. Other staff who knew of his interest in Korea introduced him to Jen while he was a student, and he became closer with her while working at the UConn Foundation after graduating. As he learned more about his birth country — and with Jen’s encouragement to learn the language and travel there — it became his goal to one day move to South Korea.
“Simply put, without the academic and personal encouragement from the University, I never would have made it out here,” says Nelson, who realized his goal in August 2013. He has lived in the capital city of Seoul since summer 2016, teaching English, working as an academic tutor for a study abroad agency, and now starting his own business.
Chelsea Hopson ’16 (CLAS), a kindergarten teacher who lived in Seoul, Suwon, and other places for more than nine years ending in March, moved there soon after graduation. She became interested in Korea in high school, began studying the language, and studied abroad there during her senior year at UConn. Nadejah Green ’19 (ED), ’20 MA, Cert., an elementary school teacher in Dunnae — a rural town in the country’s eastern part —had been interested in modern Korean history, and Jen, thinking she might mesh well with the culture, encouraged her to apply for jobs there. She moved in 2021.
From left: Green, Hopson, and Nelson near Bukchon Hanok Village in Jongno, Seoul.
The three had never met prior to the day last summer they spent with the Morenuses, tasting traditional Korean liquor, walking around Seoul while Pete snapped the shutter, and enjoying dinner together. “Even though we all have extremely different backgrounds, grad years, majors, and interests, being from UConn is more than enough to connect us and keep us talking,” Nelson says of Hopson, Green, and other students he’s met in Korea through Jen.
In May, he met the eight current students Jen brought to Korea for the first “Summer Exploring Contemporary South Korea” trip and 3-credit course. So deep is Jen’s love for travel and passion for her home country and for encouraging students to travel abroad that this year she devised an Experiential Global Learning offering that immerses students in Korea’s food and modern culture as well as its history.
By bullet train and coach they traversed the country, touring cities and visiting historic sites and museums. Students wrote in their reflections that they were particularly moved by trips to the May 18th Democratic Uprising archives, which is on the UNESCO Memory of the World registry, and the House of Sharing — a residence for living “comfort women” alongside a museum about their experiences.
“It was a long and hard trip there, and everyone was exhausted, so I asked them, ‘Do you think going to House of Sharing was worth it, or should I consider skipping it next time?’” Morenus says. “And they’re like, ‘Absolutely not. You have to bring students here, year after year. It was just so moving and so deep.’” They were assigned book chapters to read and films to watch, and every morning over breakfast the group had their class discussions. They explored food — another passion of Jen’s — through a cooking class and even made time for a trip to the beach.
“I always appreciated hearing Jen’s stories or additional information that she knew because her genuine pride and thoughtfulness for her roots made it that much more engaging for us students,” Emma Hall ’26 (ED) wrote in a reflection paper for the course. “It was so easy for me to be excited to learn on this trip because Jen’s passion was so obvious.”
“I’m so immensely proud, and we certainly had fun,” says Jen.
By Julie (stagis) bartucca ’10 (BuS, CLAS), ’19 MBA
Photo courtesy of Jen Morenus; Peter Morenus
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