When University photographer Peter Morenus asks if you want him to photograph three Huskies in South Korea during his family vacation, you say yes.

With a combined 55 years of UConn employment between them, Peter and his wife, Jen, assistant director of the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center, are the kind of people who have connections all over campus — and, as we recently learned, very far from campus. Which is how they ended up bringing together three alum friends of Jen’s who all happened to be living in her home country to take a picture for our magazine.

One way or another, Jen Morenus ’97 (SFA), ’18 MA had a hand in supporting each of them on their journey to Korea, where she lived until she was 14 and visits often.

Mike Nelson ’10 (CLAS) was born in Korea and adopted by American parents at four months old. Other staff who knew of his interest in Korea introduced him to Jen while he was a student, and he became closer with her while working at the UConn Foundation after graduating. As he learned more about his birth country — and with Jen’s encouragement to learn the language and travel there — it became his goal to one day move to South Korea.

“Simply put, without the academic and personal encouragement from the University, I never would have made it out here,” says Nelson, who realized his goal in August 2013. He has lived in the capital city of Seoul since summer 2016, teaching English, working as an academic tutor for a study abroad agency, and now starting his own business.

Read on for more.