Jun Woo Park ’02 takes volunteering seriously — so much so that a decade ago he founded an organization in his native Korea called Vice Versa, for young professionals who commit to weekly volunteer work. 

It’s a value that Park traces back to Northfield Mount Hermon and the school’s foundational belief in the importance of service, and it’s one that he shares with many of his fellow alums. Indeed, Vice Versa counts a number of NMH alums among its members. and they’re the ones most likely to show up for volunteer opportunities, he says. Years after graduation, the NMH alums still talk about their workjob experiences and about the school’s overall focus on serving one’s community.

“It’s how NMH alums are differentiated,” Park says. “[The school] inspires you and changes you in a way that it becomes a life-changing and transformational moment. Even after graduation, people keep talking about how to continue the life of service.”

So when Park, who has served on the NMH Board of Trustees since 2024, recently hosted an event for the NMH community in Seoul, he was eager to plan something that reflected this distinctively NMH value. On a Saturday morning in November, three dozen volunteers rolled up their sleeves and spent several hours handmaking pizza pies, to be donated to a local food program.

“Having that sense of connection volunteering together is what makes the community special,” Park says. For parents of current and former students, it was an opportunity to experience NMH’s culture of service themselves. For the alums, it triggered memories of their high school workjobs (for Park, cooking omelets and washing dishes in Alumni Hall), which they shared with the group. 

The event was part of a 10-day trip to Asia that saw Head of School Brian Hargrove; his wife, Linda; Kay Beaudry-Garvey, assistant director of alumni engagement; and Metta Dael ’93, P’25, NMH’s director of international admission, connect with alums, families, and friends in Seoul, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. The trip also included receptions where NMH’s extended community in Asia heard updates about the school and This Place, This Moment: The Campaign for Northfield Mount Hermon, the school’s ongoing $275 fundraising initiative. 

The Hargroves and other members of the NMH leadership team have made regular trips to Asia in recent years. The visits represent the school’s longstanding connection with the region, which date back to its earliest days, when both Northfield and Mount Hermon welcomed students from Asian countries. 

Justin Wai ’02, who lives in Hong Kong and serves as secretary of the NMH Board of Trustees, has helped organize the visits for about a decade. “When we first started doing these events … we had to proactively reach out for people to come,” he says. “These days, people sign up without being asked, and for our alumni/parent event, we had such great sign-ups that we had to put people on a waitlist. It’s really amazing to see the increase of enthusiasm in our community and their genuine interest in learning about the school’s latest developments.”

Indeed, Wai adds, Hargrove’s schedule was so packed that the two had to squeeze in appointments whenever they could. “We ended up meeting at 6:30 am for a hike at Victoria Peak, and I can tell you that we were so immersed in ‘talking shop’ that I almost lost my dog,” he says.

These visits, Wai adds, provide invaluable connections for NMH’s Asian community with the school they love. “It’s generally hard for folks to make it to reunion or events like Pie Race [or] Vespers. Brian coming here is their only way of being ‘physically’ connected to the school.” 

Wai looks forward to planning more NMH-in-Asia events, such as a local Mountain Day. Park, meanwhile, is excited for volunteer opportunities to be a regular part of the visits. “The event in November was just continuity of what we have been doing all along. But it's an especially special moment when the head of school and the [NMH] team actually come all the way to Asia and participates in that,” he says. “It reminds us that [NMH is] different.”

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