Juntae Rocker is a junior Honors student at the Pennsylvania State University, double majoring in Asian Studies and Korean with a minor in Digital Media Trends and Analytics. Through his participation as an American ambassador for the 13th and 14th Korea-America Student Conferences – an academic, professional, and cultural conference that promotes mutual understanding between future US and ROK student leaders through intercultural and professional exchange – he's had the privilege of connecting with North Korea aid workers, human rights activists, family reunification advocates, foreign policy diplomats, and more.

It was through these conferences and the networks he's made that he developed a passion for the North Korean humanitarian crisis and security dilemma. After serving as an American ambassador for a SK-NK-US trilateral youth workshop sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and tutoring North Korean defectors through Aurora NK, Juntae's interest in North Korean human rights eventually led him to intern with HRNK. He's confident that HRNK will provide him invaluable learning, research, and hands-on opportunities that'll expand his background on US-Korea affairs. More specifically, he hopes to gain more nuanced insights into issues like reunification, denuclearization, peacebuilding, and geopolitical stability on the Korean peninsula.

Juntae hopes to attend graduate school in South Korea for inter-Korean affairs through a full-ride masters scholarship program (GKS) and pursue a long-term career in US-Korea security and diplomacy.