Tessa Aguilar is a fourth-year student at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she is majoring in Political Science with minors in Global Studies and East Asian Studies.

Since high school, Tessa has been passionate about East Asian Studies, particularly Korean culture and diplomacy. This past summer, she studied abroad at Yonsei University in South Korea, which left an unforgettable impact on her studies. Her driving factor in becoming further involved with HRNK was hearing a North Korean defector speak during a class session. Tessa is also writing her senior thesis on various levels of cooperation within international relations theory and governance, using South Korea and Japan as a case study.

Learning more about the humanitarian dilemma in North Korea will help Tessa further explore the intersection between Korean politics and methodological theory. As a Research Intern at HRNK, Tessa hopes to gain direct exposure to human rights issues in North Korea as well as how the North Korean government influences the international environment. She aims to return to South Korea in the future to continue her postgraduate studies and pursue international law.