October 20, 2026 | 7:00 P.M.
The H. F. Langenberg Memorial Speaker Series
In-Person
LINDENWOOD UNIVERSITY – J. SCHEIDEGGER CENTER FOR THE ARTS
2300 West Clay Street
St. Charles, MO 63301
Doors Open – 6:00 P.M. (CT)
Program Begins – 7:00 P.M. (CT)
Program Ends – 8:30 P.M. (CT)
Join Lindenwood University's Hammond Institute for Free Enterprise and Young America's Foundation for an inspiring conversation. In celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, hear Yeonmi Park – author, speaker, and human rights activist – share how she defected from North Korea at the age of 13, was sold to Chinese human traffickers, and finally found freedom in the United States. Discover her passion for fighting for oppressed people everywhere and for the ideals of economic and social freedom that are the foundation of the United States.
Don't miss this opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations and expand your horizons. Reserve your spot today!
The event will start promptly at 7:00 P.M. (CT) and will begin with a presentation by Ms. Park, followed by a Q&A session. It is part of the H.F. Langenberg Memorial Speaker Series.
Audience members will be able to submit questions prior to the event. Open discussion and audience participation are hallmarks of the Langenberg Speaker Series, so the Q&A session will make up a significant part of the program, which will end at 8:30 P.M. (CT).
Featuring:
Yeonmi Park
Born in North Korea, human rights activist and YAF Speaker Yeonmi Park grew up in a punishing society devoted to the worship of Kim Jong-Il. But at the age of 13, she and her family made a daring escape to China in search of a life free of tyranny. In her viral talks, viewed online nearly 350 million times, Park urges audiences to recognize—and resist—the oppression that exists in North Korea, and around the world.
Growing up in Hyesan, North Korea, it was normal for Park to see dead bodies as she walked to school, and to be so hungry that she ate wild plants. After watching a pirated copy of Titanic, the veil of tyranny began to fall. Having caught a glimpse of a free world, Park realized that her experience of life wasn’t the only one—and that she might one day find a way out.
In 2002, Park’s family suffered a crucial blow when her father was arrested and sent to prison camp for engaging in “illegal trading”—selling materials that no one would be punished for in a free society. In 2007, Park’s sister escaped with a friend before she and her mother followed her to China. But before they could locate her, Park and her mother were sold separately to Chinese human traffickers. In 2009, Park and her mother crossed the Gobi Desert to Mongolia from China in -40-degree weather, finding their freedom in South Korea. She recounts this incredible story in her searing memoir In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom, and in the insightful, moving talks based on her experiences.
A candid speaker, Park is fast becoming a leading voice of oppressed people around the world. At the Oslo Freedom Forum and the One Young World Summit in Dublin, she became an international phenomenon, delivering passionate and deeply personal speeches about the brutality of the North Korean regime. Her address to One Young World on the horrors of detention camps, political executions, and sex trafficking has been viewed over 320 million times. The BBC named Park one of their “Top 100 Global Women.”
Park is also the author of While Time Remains: A North Korean Defectors’ Search for Freedom in America, published on February 14, 2023.