April 2023 - Daniel Bazan, Communications Director
Many of our students had a rare opportunity to hear from a remarkable North Korean refugee, Grace Jo, at our West Valley 3 and Draper 3 campuses this month. Her life-changing experience of escaping North Korea, struggling to survive, finally being rescued, and settling in the US is heartbreaking and inspiring. Grace Jo's story is a testament to the unbreakable spirit of the human will. 
Born into a country where basic necessities such as food and water were withheld by order of a dictator, Grace almost died of starvation as a child. Her family's struggle to survive took a tragic turn when two of her brothers died of starvation, and her father was tortured and starved to death for leaving the country in search of food for his family.
Grace's own journey to freedom was riddled with hardships. Repatriated twice to North Korea by the Chinese government, she suffered imprisonment and was separated from her family. Her older sister, who went to China to find food, went missing and was likely sold into human trafficking.
In 2006, Grace, with her mother and sister were able to escape North Korea thanks to the efforts of Pastor Philip Buck, who bribed North Korean agents. Two years later, the UNHCR rescued them from China and enabled them to enter the United States as legal refugees.
Now a US citizen living in Atlanta, Georgia, Grace has become an advocate for North Korean refugees. She has protested against the forced repatriation of escapees hiding in China and served as a vice president for NKinUSA, an organization that helps North Korean defectors with rescue, resettlement, and emergency assistance.
We are grateful for the time Grace spent with our students, sharing her indomitable will and inspiring resilience in the face of unimaginable hardship. Grace Jo is not only one of the 370 refugees from North Korea who have settled in the US, but a symbol of hope and courage for all who seek freedom and a better life.
We encourage our entire APA community to watch Grace's presentations via the links below. Feel free to share them with family and friends to help spread Grace's message.
Click below to watch the April 14th, 2023 presentations
Click Here or the image below to see pictures from Grace's presentations.
Click here to learn more about the Dissident Project - https://www.dissidentproject.org
September 2022 - Carolyn Sharette - Executive Director
American Prep was honored to welcome Daniel Di Martino, founder of the Dissident Project. He came to speak with our students this month about his experience growing up in Venezuela and the impact of socialism on his country and family. Mr. Di Martino immigrated to the US 6 years ago at the age of 17 and is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Columbia University in Economics. He shared the difficulties under socialism: finding needed items in the grocery stores, waiting in long lines to buy gas, and the inflation that resulted in needing to use a large stack of Venezuelan dollars to see a movie. He taught the students about the fundamentals of socialism and how the 4th richest nation in the world in 1970, Venezuela, fell to 255 of 256 countries in just a few years under socialism.
Mr. Di Martino's story is worth hearing. We hope you will watch his lecture and engage your students in conversation about his experience growing up in a country devastated by socialism.
ABOUT DANIEL DI MARTINO
Daniel Di Martino is the founder of the Dissident Project. Born and raised in Venezuela, Di Martino experienced the terrible consequences of socialism firsthand. After leaving Venezuela for the United States in 2016, he dedicated himself to explaining how socialism destroyed his homeland, advocating for its freedom, and stopping this ideology from ever being implemented in America and elsewhere. Daniel has appeared dozens of times on national TV channels such as Fox News and CNN, written for USA Today, National Review, and other news outlets, and regularly speaks at college campuses and events all over the country. He graduated with a BA in Quantitative Economics from IUPUI in Indianapolis. He is now a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Columbia University, a Graduate Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and a fellow with the Job Creators Network.