Ava McCollum

Youth Participant

Ava is a junior at Marlborough School in Los Angeles. Passionate about literature and issues surrounding immigration, she found KYCC’s opportunities to be all encompassing. She is the creator of BOS Coalition, an organization to highlight the stories of people impacted either directly or indirectly by Asian immigration. The interview skills she acquired through BOS Coalition will allow her to continue to expand her writing and journalistic abilities in KYCC’s program. She realized the true importance of listening to the stories of others and is excited to interview elders in the community to fully appreciate their instrumental contributions to our society and culture as a whole. As she attends a school in fairly close proximity to Koreatown, she wanted to explore its rich cultural history. As such, she looks forward to strengthening her interests through acts of storytelling and journalism. She plans on continuing her passion for English in college. 

Ava’s story →

Kimberly Espinosa

Youth Participant

Kimberly is a Zapotec community youth organizer and artist from Koreatown, Los Angeles. She currently attends New Open World Academy as a high school senior. Growing up in Koreatown has been a beautiful experience for Kimberly to connect and honor their ancestral roots by sharing dialogue and building community initiatives with other Indigenous relatives. Being raised around the elders of her parent’s family and hometown has encouraged Kimberly to actively listen and practice acts of care with the elders of her community and beyond. Kimberly’s work explores the diverse notions of home which can extend beyond physical spaces. She was recently announced as the Youth Advocacy Recipient for the third annual The Fotos Awards 2021 presented by Las Fotos Project which recognizes women-identifying and non-binary photographers. Kimberly intends to continue engaging in oral history and storytelling by documenting the stories of their relatives and community.

KIMBERLY’S story →

Lucy Hwang

Youth Participant

Lucy is a senior at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, where she explores many of her interests. She loves learning history, exploring fashion, and running long distances. She loves trying new things and has recently discovered her fascination with physics. She is president of the Peace and Social Justice club and captain of the Track and Field and Cross Country team. She has also learned to be active in her community, mainly as a part of KYCC’s high school BRIDGE program and the Hope Global Outreach Foundation. Born and raised in Koreatown, she has never learned of its history. However, through the years, she has learned to cherish its prominent culture and diversity. Through this program, she hopes to hone her writing skills and explore undiscovered aspects of her hometown. In the future, Lucy hopes to study economics and history at UChicago.

Lucy's story →

Dale Lee

Youth Participant

Dale is a junior at New Covenant Academy in Los Angeles. He currently works as a student reporter at his school and is interested in learning more about journalism through the Koreatown Storytelling Program.. He has lived in Koreatown his whole life and wants to discover more about its history and elders. One experience he wishes to use to his advantage is his close relationship with his grandparents. He’s learned a lot listening to their stories and hopes to gain more knowledge from Koreatown elders. He also loves to play basketball and is a part of his school’s team. In the future, he hopes to attend UCLA and pursue the field of engineering.

Dale's story →

Eunice Shin

Youth Participant

Eunice is a senior at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES). As the daughter of Korean immigrants, Koreatown became familiar to her as she grew up in Los Angeles. She is the founder of the Film Production Club and co-captain of LACES Speech and Debate, and has won a gold key for Photography in the Scholastic Art and Writing competition in 2019. She became interested in telling elders’ stories after interviewing her grandmother in December 2020. She was shocked to hear about Korea’s history during the Korean War and Japanese imperialism, and it sparked an interest in journalism and storytelling. After participating in the LACES Micheaux Project, where she learned about entertainment journalism, she hopes to utilize her skills to learn more about Koreatown’s elders’ history. She is interested in attending USC for film production.

Eunice's story →

Jina Kang

Youth Participant

Jina is a junior at Marlborough School. Having lived in Koreatown since she was five, she has learned to truly appreciate the amazing community from the prospering culture to the wonderful elderly community. She is so excited to share the stories of elders through documented history, as well as to let them know that there are always people willing to hear and listen to them. Having honed her interviewing skills through her school newspaper and at a club called Rise High Tutoring which she co-founded, Jina really looks forward to exploring her passion for writing and storytelling even further. She is also a devout member of her school’s debate club and loves to dance ballet, which she has done since she was five. Although unsure about the school that she wants to attend, she wants to major in economics and political science, and ultimately wants to attend law school. 

Jina's story →

Mia Giambalvo

Youth Participant

Mia is a high school sophomore at Larchmont Charter School. She’s been going to school in Koreatown for about four years. She has taken an active role in improving the community. She is very involved in her school’s Community Service committee and is a member of the Girls Build L.A. club, which works on different projects to help the neighborhood. She has been working as a waitress at the Solheim Lutheran Retirement Home in Eagle Rock during this COVID-19 pandemic. She volunteered there many times before officially getting a job. She hands out meals for the residents and helps out in the kitchen. It has proved to be a very meticulous and important job during the pandemic, as most of the residents are at-risk.

Mia'S story →

Abbi Park

Youth Participant

Abbi is a sophomore at Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA) in the Creative Writing conservatory. She is published in Down in the Dirt Magazine, Plum Tree Tavern, Scarlet Leaf Review, and Quail Bell Magazine. She is also an editor for HerCulture, a magazine focused on amplifying the voices of women. At school, she is the TEDxOrangeCountySchooloftheArts organizer and is the president of OCSA’s TechTeam. During her free time, she enjoys spending time traveling with her family, coding, developing websites, and hanging out with her bearded dragon Mola, leopard geckos Jack and Jill, and crested gecko leo.

ABBI'S story →

Sarah Jho

Program Coordinator

Sarah was born and raised in Koreatown, Los Angeles. She is a 2020 graduate of Yale College where she double-majored in the History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health and Molecular, Cellular, and Development Biology. At Yale, she helped lead Negative Space, an Asian American oral history project. She is entering medical school in fall 2022, and is interested in incorporating the medical humanities into her future career.