In July, NAKASEC and its affiliates kicked off their Summer Youth Empowerment Programs (SYEP) in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. The programs are designed to help junior high and high school students develop leadership and organizational skills and learn about the issues impacting the Korean American community. Other highlights include SAT/ACT preparation, computer-building training and peer-led workshops on immigration.  Already putting into practice what they learned in the classroom, participants from the three cities went out into their communities to collect postcards in support of the DREAM Act. Participants are also taking part in the Digital Korean American Immigrant Experience Project. They’ve conducted interviews with community members using digital equipment and questions designed by the NAKASEC-affiliate youth groups FYSH, MIST and ORAnGE. These interviews will be featured online as part of community workshops and as an advocacy tool.

 

Quick Updates

 

• Beginning on July 28, YKASEC Youth Group MIST contributed to the ongoing grassroots voter empowerment campaign with a successful voter registration drive. For one month, YKASEC youth went to the Brooklyn Courthouse four times a week to assist 1,054 new citizens become new voters.

• On July 18, 100 participants from YKASEC’s youth group MIST and the NYIC Youth Leadership Council rallied outside the offices of Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) to urge the passage of the DREAM Act. The youth gave petitions to the senators, urging them to take leadership on passing the DREAM Act this year.

• Demand for naturalization application assistance was high during the last weeks of July, as immigrants rushed to file their citizenship applications before the July 30 fee increase. The cost to become a U.S. citizen (filing the naturalization application and fingerprinting) increased from $400 to $675. Eligible individuals applying for legal permanent resident status will now have to pay $1,010, a 156-percent increase from $395. In July, YKASEC and KRC assisted in 122 applications.

• Nominated as one of the “Great Performers of Illinois,” Il Kwa Nori performed at Millennium Park in downtown Chicago on Aug. 11. The group showed off its mastery of Korean traditional percussion music with three other drumming troupes.

 

Camp Pride For Korean Adoptees

 

KRCC hosted the high school division of Camp Pride, an annual Korean cultural camp for adoptees. KRCC led five days of classes on topics such as Korean music, language and cooking for 22 Korean adoptees. Camp participants visited Chicago’s Koreatown, making stops at restaurants, grocery stores, a nursing home and a Korean church.

 

Celebrating A Visionary

 

On June 26, Yoon Han Bong, a former political asylum refugee who founded the Korean Resource Center, Young Koreans United (YKU) and the Korean Alliance for Peace and Justice, passed away at age 58. A visionary and critical political thinker, YKU spawned the formation of grassroots community-based organizations throughout the country, including the Korean American Resource & Cultural Center in Chicago, YKASEC – Empowering the Korean American Community in New York City and the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC). As people in Korea mark the end of the ritual 49 days of mourning, NAKASEC and its affiliates held events to celebrate his life and legacy.