Officials from the Korean American Coalition Washington (KAC-WA) stated that they recently launched a new project called ‘Civic Engagement Project’ that aims to film the leverage of Koreans and their community on economic, political, and educational issues within Washington State.
This project is led by Julie Kang, the Vice President of KAC WA, and Jay Koh, the Vice President of Gizmospring and a successful Korean-American film director. Julie and Jay formed a team of college students (Jay-Kwon James Park, Hyun Joo Jung, Jihyun Ro, Wonjun Brian Choi, and Eunice Jung) from the University of Washington to help.
Members of the Civic Engagement Project have been meeting since July to share ideas and to come up with the most effective way to introduce the Korean community to the US mainstream. They agreed on making an informative documentary film and started filming events hosted within the Korean community. They also interviewed VIPs including Jay Inslee, the Washington State Governor, and Rod Dembowski, King Country Councilmember, and filmed their interviews.
Julie mentioned “we aim to finalize our project within this year and plan to use this film in different places to promote Korean communities to the US mainstream.” She also stated that although more people desire to learn Korean from the influence of Korean popular culture, the US government and higher education institutions such as the University of Washington have seemingly not increased promotion of Korean language classes.
Jun Woo Lee, the President of KAC-WA, stated “we not only aim to promote the Korean community to Americans, but also to mentor young professionals and future leaders so that they can become essential assets in the world.”
As they finalize this project, Julie stated that KAC-WA will host an event that will show and promote the finalized film, as well as behind the scenes stories.