Community Connector
Bridging generations with mentoring and community involvement

KAPS has enjoyed a reputation for being a great network for 20- and 30-something Korean American professionals of the second or 1.5 generation. This is changing quietly under the leadership of second-term president Janette Kwon and her board. Happy hours at swanky downtown bars and restaurants, outings that take advantage of the Pacific Northwest, bowling nights and parties are still important to KAPS, but there is a push to connect with the first generation of the Korean immigrant community and to mentor Korean American college kids. The understanding at board meetings is that we (second and 1.5 generation Korean Americans) came from them (first generation KAs) and that they (college-age KAs) will become us.

Kwon, a social worker who licenses day care centers for the state of Washington, is bilingual. She regularly sprinkles her English with Korean expressions and says she personally attended 34 meetings last year when our community leaders gathered to discuss issues such as the transition of leadership from the first to the second generation, Korean identity and political involvement. This year she has asked half-a-dozen bilingual board members to cover meetings and events organized by the associations within the community. The purpose is to show them that KAPS cares and wants to connect, participate and serve. Kwon estimates that two-thirds of KAPS speak and comprehend the Korean language with varying degrees of proficiency. She has encouraged KAPS members who immigrated in their teens or as adults to become active in the organization and help in bridging the language gap between elders who speak little or no English.

KAPS members Dr. Erik Suh (left) and Dr. Eunjoo Yoo mentor University of Washington students interested in the medical field.

Mentoring within the Korean community has taken on new life as we who have "made it" in a profession look back to the younger versions of ourselves and reach out with advice and contacts or simply lend an understanding ear. Peter Keum, a GIS analyst with King County, moved to Seattle in 1992 and has been active with KAPS for the past seven years. Keum started a mentoring program in 2000 that takes KAPS members to the University of Washington to connect with KA students. Last November, 70 students attended a mentorship meeting, a panel consisting of KAPS members in the medical, legal, engineering, social work and broadcasting fields, who talked about their career paths and invited students to ask questions.

KAPS formed a mentorship committee and followed up the panel with a resume-building workshop in February where human resources managers from companies like T-mobile and Phillips International attended. The assistant dean of the University of Washington School of Law was also present. A meeting was then held on April 21 where students dressed professionally and brought in the resumes they had created. KAPS mentors conducted mock interviews, giving them tips on how to best present themselves to get the job. It is Keum’s and the mentorship committee’s goal to build a long-term relationship with students so that our community grows stronger every year.