KAGC Student Spotlight: Angela, UW
I remember talking to a member of Congress about the issues my parents were having in their restaurant and the support I got from those around me while I nervously avoided eye contact.
Some of my earliest memories are in the “office”, a makeshift storage room with a desk, at my parents’ teriyaki restaurant. Every day, I would attend the school a few miles away and took ballet lessons in the small studio behind the store, but I would always come back to that storage room. In the following years, my parent’s business grew and they started new businesses. Instead of the backroom, I was now at the front greeting customers, stocking items in my spare time, and just generally helping in whatever way I could.
But, I can still distinctly remember reading complicated legal documents with vocabulary far too advanced for my age and trying to figure out what they meant alongside my parents. They were both immigrants, and while they had studied English, it was their second language. They tried the best they could, but working excessive hours meant they could do little otherwise. As the resident interpreter for them, I felt frustrated that no one else could help: so I did what I could.
Growing up, I was rather independent compared to my peers. I sought out opportunities on my own and tried not to cause trouble for my already worn-out parents. But attending a predominantly white high school gave me little time to explore and expand on my ethnic identity, and soon I felt culturally isolated. I called myself Korean-American, but I didn’t feel like I was either “Korean” or “American.” I couldn’t communicate well to my relatives in Korea, and I couldn’t relate to my peers in America, too.
It wasn’t until I joined the Korean Student Association (KSA) at my university that I started to really explore my identity. KSA is a student organization that invites anyone interested in Korean culture, regardless of ethnicity, and builds a community on campus. And thanks to the inclusive nature, I was able to meet so many people and hear their unique stories. It was through the people I met there that I learned about civic engagement. It was 2018, when I first learned about the Korean American Grassroots Conference (KAGC) from a fellow KSA officer.
I really had no idea what to expect yet I signed up for the KAGC National Conference anyways. I assumed we were going to learn about government, probably another civic lesson: but instead, it opened my eyes to the issues Korean-Americans were facing across the nation. There were issues I had no idea about, and issues I could relate to personally. It didn’t hit me until when we went on Capitol Hill, how real this experience was, and the potential impact we could make. I remember talking to a member of Congress about the issues my parents were having in their restaurant and the support I got from those around me, while I nervously avoided eye contact. By the end of the day, I felt confident enough to speak out on my own.
There’s no fast path to making a change, but together we can make it happen.
After my first National Conference, I returned to campus ready to make a difference. I learned that civic engagement means that our voice is our power. We have to be our own advocates for our communities if we want to see a change.
But after our first voter registration drive failed to reach our goal, I became disheartened. Was it worth the effort to work this hard, when it seemed like no one else around us cared? Luckily, I was invited to attend the KAGC U Leadership Summit that following winter.
There, I talked with other Korean-Americans. In addition to learning about Korean-American policies, we had open dialogues about being Korean, Asian, and American and engaged in discussions about our role in society. I instantly felt connected to the other attendees, and found myself motivated once again. Though I had come to D.C. a bit discouraged, KAGC provided a supportive community and a positive environment.
After the Summit, I went home and talked to my dad about the experience. Not only did we talk about Korean-American Policy Priorities, but about the Korean-American identity and history. It was then, for the first time ever, my dad told me about his story.
He and my grandparents immigrated to Los Angeles in 1982, and as with most Korean immigrants at the time, they started their own corner-side convenience store a few years after their arrival. But during the 1992 L.A. Riots that came shortly after, everything they had built up was destroyed. They had no way of defending themselves, and they had no support outside of the Korean-immigrant community. Disappointed and dismayed, they eventually packed their bags and relocated to Washington, where they re-started a grocery store and tried to forget the past.
While the years 1992 was not that long ago, but small business owners are still struggling to this day, and our community still lacks adequate representation and support. I realized that in order to help, we need to be the ones actively working to change the system. We need to talk about the issues and bring awareness to the problems affecting our community, instead of staying silent. We need to organize and mobilize and get our voices heard.
Those whom I got to meet at the KAGC National Conference and other events were all Korean-Americans driven to make an impact on our community together. And, sure, sometimes change might take longer than expected; but every small step we take is definitely one in the right direction. There’s no fast path to making a change, but together we can make it happen.
Angela is a junior at the University of Washington, where she serves as the president of the UW KSA. Angela has led civic engagement efforts and voter registrations drives on the campus, often in collaboration with the Korean American Grassroots Conference. Since 2018, Angela has also participated in the KAGC National Conferences and KAGC U Leadership Summits, both as an attendee and volunteer, where she got to discuss the Korean American identity with students and community members from all over the United States, but also raise awareness of the key issues of our community among members of Congress. Click here to learn more about KAGC, the largest nationwide network of Korean American voters, and its upcoming 2020 National Conference, for a rare opportunity to share the Korean American identity, discuss the key issues of our community, and get our voices heard, counted, and reflected in public policy.
