Emory’s first international student was a Korean man named Yun Ch’i-ho. He transferred from Vanderbilt University in 1891. Yun first arrived in the United States in 1888 after attending the Anglo-Chinese School in Shanghai, where he had been a favorite of the missionary school’s founder and principal, Young J. Allen. Allen was an Emory alum (class of 1858), and Yun graduated from Emory College in 1893.

Yun would go on to become one of the most prominent Koreans of his generation. In addition to serving as president of the Independence Club, he worked in the Korean government as Vice Minister of Education and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. During Japan’s colonial rule of Korea (1910-1945), he served in various roles including head of the Seoul YMCA and president of Yonhi College (which would later merge with Severance Medical School to become Yonsei University).

Yun and Allen’s papers are available at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University.

You can read a short essay on Yun’s time at Emory here.