Home is Oakville, though my journey began in Korea where I was born, and I spent my formative years growing up in Paraguay.
I developed a new course at Redeemer called Social Work Practice in Mental Health and Addictions. It focuses on practical ways social workers can support individuals experiencing mental health conditions, with healthy debates about what our society and the church can do to help. We end with advocacy letter writing to politicians on contemporary issues students feel passionate about (e.g., MAID and mental health, youth mental health, making publicly funded counselling more accessible, etc.). Mental health requires both personal and systemic responses. Students leave feeling empowered in their role supporting those who are suffering.
My faith is particularly meaningful when I pray with struggling students. Starting each class with prayer and praying individually with students creates sacred space within academic settings.
Case studies are essential because social work is fundamentally practical and embedded in lived realities. It’s important to move beyond moral obligations to context-specific engagement with people’s actual experiences. Sometimes this requires having students stay with difficulty and pain long enough to work out their own creative, principled, compassionate responses. Case studies offer opportunities to practice recognition and bearing witness. Social work engages helping hands, heart (compassion) and mind (intellect).
At Redeemer, my faith is particularly meaningful when I pray with struggling students. Starting each class with prayer and praying individually with students creates sacred space within academic settings. These moments remind me that education is about forming whole persons, acknowledging our shared humanity and vulnerability. These are essential components in preparing students to walk alongside others in their deepest struggles.
One question I would ask Jesus is, “How do we love well when people are suffering beyond what we can do to help?” I want to understand how to bear witness to pain in ways that bring healing while maintaining hope when brokenness feels overwhelming.
My favourite thing about Redeemer is the privilege to pursue research integrating faith and professional worlds. My research examines loving praxis in social work, that is, how compassion and care ethics shape helping relationships. At most institutions, this would be outside rigorous academic inquiry, but here it’s encouraged and valued.