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Emily Hunter joined Manulife/John Hancock in 2013 as a customer service representative for the Annuity call center, where she worked for one year before transitioning to Workforce Management for the Shared Services Call center. Emily assisted the Annuity, Long Term Care and Life Insurance call centers in Workforce Management for three years before accepting a position as a manager in the Annuity call center in January 2017. Prior to joining John Hancock, Emily worked for five years as a manager in Salem, NH. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 2010, and will receive a Master’s degree in Management this May from Southern New Hampshire University.
 

 Here's her story: 

  My twin sister and I were adopted from South Korea by our fully Caucasian mother and father when we were just 5 months old. Growing up in a strictly Caucasian town/state, we always knew we were different. Our classmates were always Caucasian; the food we ate was always American. My father is 100 percent Italian with dark skin, thick hair and a booming voice. My mother is a petite, tiny little French Canadian.

 My mother sent me to music camp to learn the violin, I was awful. In middle school and high I grew up defying all the stereotypes that were placed before me. school I struggled with math terribly. My parent's enlisted tutors, extra training sessions, prep classes; I barely scraped by with a C+. When I went off to college, I wrote my essay on how I was a "bad Asian." I could not seem to find my niche in the world. Throughout college I struggled to find my identity. I rolled my eyes each time I was the butt end of a joke for having an Italian American first and last name. I never told anyone my Korean middle name for fear of being made fun of. My name didn’t even know its identity! I avoided becoming friends with other Asian’s purely because I felt like I didn’t belong with them. 

  When I graduated college 4 years later, I felt I had finally found my sense of self.  My interest in my heritage had peaked. I studied Korean, became friends with some other Asian women who were also adopted and threw myself into learning how to make Korean food.   

  Years later, I married a wonderful man who embraced my Asian heritage and encouraged me to continue down my path of self-exploration. We even incorporated some Korean wedding  practices and traditions into our own. With his support I decided to embark on the journey of finding my biological parents, a Pandora’s Box I hadn’t ever been tempted to open. After 2 years, my adoption counselor called me on my birthday. They had found my biological mother and my foster parents. My mother was a young college student who became pregnant after a one night stand in college. She was 18 years old and decided to keep us and give us up for adoption. My foster mother was 95; she had fostered over 55 babies in South Korea. I wrote my biological mother many letters and enclosed photos of our lives over the years. To this day she is uncertain about meeting us but I’ve felt fully healed knowing she is out there and that she is happy of our well-being.

  Present day, I am a 28 year old manager for John Hancock. I had known deep in my heart at a young age I wanted to be a people leader and I worked for years to get to where I am now. We are expecting our first child and have given him a Korean middle name, Mari, which means mountaintop. The pride I feel to be an adopted Asian American is one I hold onto fiercely like a badge. When I sign my names in emails, on checks, in letters, I proudly use my full name, Emily Kim Ae Sun Hunter. 

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