Pak Myung Sook was born in 1929 in Seoul, South Korea, during a time when the country was under Japanese rule. During the outbreak of the Korean War, her father, who had worked as a police officer, was kidnapped, leaving her mother to care for her four younger siblings on her own. Ms. Pak’s mother sought strength in her religious faith, helping her entire family to become devoted Christians After growing up during a time of cultural and social repression, Ms. Pak then experienced the horrors of war, suffering the loss of her child when she fled to seek refuge. After the war, she immigrated to America when her husband’s company went bankrupt and began to build a new life with her family. Her stories depict how important it is to find comfort and strength in one’s family and keep moving forward, no matter what.

Born in Gwangju, South Korea but raised in Los Angeles for most of her life, Audrey Jang attended Catholic school in California before attending boarding school in Connecticut for four years in high school. As her father traveled back and forth in between California and Korea due to work, Audrey stayed in California with her mother and sister, seeing her father less and less before he decided to stay permanently in Korea. Due to their immigration status, they were unable to leave the country for thirteen years. From her experience with applying for financial aid in college as a non-citizen to her own personal confrontations of her identity, Ms. Jang experienced the challenges associated with not being a U.S. citizen firsthand. After receiving her green card in the past year, she speaks about unpacking her identity while contemplating two possible futures for herself in either Korea and America.

Alison Choi was born and raised in Hong Kong, before permanently moving to the United States in 2015. Both of her parents grew up in the United States, and her American roots, coupled with her Korean heritage, gave her a unique cultural identity. While Ms. Choi felt in tune with her American identity, her Korean one was harder to reconcile with growing up in Hong Kong due to the relative lack of Korean-Americans in her community. It wasn’t until she began attending college that she was able to more directly confront and understand her Asian-American identity. She first immersed herself in the history of different ethnic groups in the United States before delving into Asian-American studies. Ms. Choi began to document stories not only about her own family but also about the intersection and interaction between Korean-American and Black communities. Her journey of discovering and exploring her identity speaks to her sense of purpose and her motivation to contribute to the community she is a part of.

All content has been recorded in advance prior to the US outbreak of COVID-19.

Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1966, May Lee faced a significant amount of bullying and discrimination growing up as an Asian American in her neighborhood. Like any other child, she sought to fit in and assimilate with the rest of her community. However, these challenges would build her character and the experiences she was able to bring to the table as a journalist. After realizing that medical school was not the right path for her, she was guided by her religious faith and began to pursue a career in broadcast journalism. Ms. Lee’s perseverance helped her secure her first job in Redding, California, despite the widespread anti-Japanese and anti-Asian sentiments of the time. At one point in her career, she confronted a group of verbally abusive and racist men while conducting coverage on a protest in Dayton, Ohio. Today, she hosts her own podcast, called The May Lee Show, that digs deeper into Asian and Asian American stories through open, honest, conversation. Her process of learning to embrace her own identity and combating racism throughout her life has shaped her devotion to social justice, truth-telling, and speaking up for the voiceless.

The youngest of five daughters, Nancy Yoon grew up in Koreatown, Los Angeles during the 1970’s, after immigrating to the United States at the age of four with the rest of her family. As an adult, Ms. Yoon worked in finance for a while before transitioning to more creative work in the entertainment industry. About twenty years ago, Ms. Yoon struggled with the death of her father which led her to take care of her single mother until she eventually passed in a car accident. Ms. Yoon speaks about the experience of seeing her mother’s spirit in several separate instances. Following her mother’s sudden death, Ms. Yoon felt a strong desire to change her life and eventually got more involved in the Korean American community in Los Angeles which led her to start Asians In LA (@AsiansinLA) – a social network of Asian American influencers in politics, entertainment, nonprofit and community leaders. Empowered by her unshakable faith, she tells a story that demonstrates the power of connection and the importance of representation.

Joseph Jeon was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1971. Two years later, his family immigrated to the United States when his father entered a medical residency program in Barberton, Ohio. Currently a professor of English at the University of California, Irvine, he is also the director of the UCI Center for Critical Korean Studies, an institution aiming to centralize Korean Studies at the university and support students and faculty in their work. His experience of raising a daughter has helped him discover how racial dynamics in American communities have shifted over the past few decades and provided him with a positive outlook on the future. His process of learning how the different places in a person’s life shape the culture in which they grow up has, in turn, helped strengthen his commitment to contribute to his community. All content has been recorded in advance prior to the US outbreak of COVID-19.