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Alumni Profile Ami
Nafzger ’94: Finding cultural connections Ami Nafzger believes the Augsburg College Pan-Asian Association changed her life. A native of Chun Ju, Korea, Nafzger was adopted by an American family in 1975 at the age of four. Growing up in Minong, Wis., and a later move to Willmar, Minn., left Nafzger with very few Asian connections.
Frightened and hesitant to approach other Asians, Nafzger remembers, "I had never even talked to another Asian before." Benson not only encouraged Nafzger to get involved in various campus events and organizations, including Pan-Asian Services, but to build friendships within the Asian community. Her connection to Benson provided Nafzger a sense of pride in herself as an Asian, and also as an individual. In 1994 Nafzger completed her social work degree, and now has built her career around it. With a need to better understand her heritage and with few concrete reasons to stay in the United States, Nafzger returned to her native home, Korea, in 1996. In 1998, after extensive research on Korean adoptees, Nafzger established G.O.A.L. (Global Overseas Adoptees Link), an organization committed to providing knowledge about Korean culture. G.O.A.L. acts as a voice for many Korean adoptees by providing positive links to their Korean culture. Developed specifically for these adoptees, G.O.A.L. provides a variety of resources such as translators, guides, home stays, and birth search departments to those who wish to learn more about their culture. Nafzger says, "After so many decades I felt there needed to be something established in Korea for adult adoptees as they return to their birth country." Although on occasion frustrated by a lack of support from the Korean government, Nafzger believes there are many benefits. Helping adoptees understand where they come from is the most rewarding part of her job. Nafzger's work connected her to additional associations around the world. In addition to her work with GOACC (Give Orphans a Chance to Choose), which helps provide hands-on assistance to adult orphans in Asia, she is also a member of an international planning committee working with sister adult adoptee organizations in Europe and America. Nafzger believes that her work is "helping to break down the prejudice and misunderstanding that separates Koreans from adoptees and adoptees from each other." Cherie Christ is a communication specialist in the Office of Public Relations and Communication.
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| Copyright 2007.
Augsburg College all rights reserved. |
Determined
to keep a promise to her dying mother that she would graduate from Augsburg,
Nafzger worked three part-time jobs to pay for school and living expenses, leaving
little time for involvement with the campus community. But it was an encounter
her freshman year with Lee Hoon Wong Benson, then Pan-Asian Services director,
that changed Nafzger's life.