With the beginning of the New Year just behind us, it’s time again to look forward to the KAC National College Leadership Conference (NCLC). NCLC, at 28 years old, is the longest running KAC program. NCLC 2008 will take place in mid-June (tentatively scheduled for June 16-20), with participants meeting in Los Angeles on Monday morning and returning on Friday afternoon.

The conference is a national event, inviting the best and brightest Korean American college students to partake in a five-day, four-night leadership development conference in Southern California. Students participate in programming designed to build leadership skills, including workshops on leadership skills, educational panels on community issues, indoor and outdoor leadership development activities and more. Community leaders, panelists and special guests speak to participants and provide education on current community issues and guidance for future leaders.

Students not only acquire the skills necessary to become leaders in their communities, but also have the opportunity to network with speakers and conference attendees. Participants leave the program organized, educated and empowered to go back and lead their communities. Students are encouraged to apply from all across the country. Conference participants are selected from diverse regions, interests and backgrounds.

To date, the conference has trained more than 800 young adults from more than 50 national and international (Korean and Canadian) universities. Past speakers include: John Chiang, California State Board of Equalization, Sung Kang, “Finishing the Game,” “Live Free or Die Hard”, Paul “PK” Kim, executive director of Kollaboration, Corina Knoll, KoreAm Journal, Helie Lee, author of Still Life with Rice and In the Absence of Sun, and K.W. Lee, pioneer journalist and community activist and many others.

Conference details and application will be available soon on the KAC-DC Web site (www.kacdc.org). Please direct any inquiries to nclc@kacdc.org.