From Kids Town to Community—Growing Up with KYCC

—By Terin Lee

My memories as a 5-year-old at KYCC’s Kids Town preschool are admittedly a little hazy, but there is one that always stood out. In the afternoon, during nap time on the green cots and pink sheets, I would toss and turn, peek over and see other kids clearly asleep, and not be able to keep my mind from racing. I finally stood up and immediately felt relief when my teachers came over with their warm smiles. They let me sit with them and help prepare materials for our next art project. Aside from the relief of not getting in trouble for not napping, I was excited that the teachers made me feel seen and comfortable. I have always associated that warmth and feeling of being safe with KYCC.

Since my Kids Town years, I have been actively involved at KYCC as a Bridge Program volunteer, a cohort member of Koreatown Storytelling Program (KSP), and most recently a summer intern before my Junior year of high school. Participating in KSP gave me an understanding of ethnographic and storytelling techniques to explore various aspects of cultures and traditions, as well as disparities and inequalities, present in Koreatown. I got to edit transcripts, meet and interview community members and leaders in English and Korean, and learned about the rich and complex histories present in Koreatown, the place I was born and raised.

This summer, I was fortunate to intern with Ms. Kathleen Hobkirk, KYCC’s Youth Services Senior Coordinator. Under her guidance, I helped analyze and present standardized math, english, and socio-emotional test score data from the kindergarten to 8th-grade students in KYCC’s after-school and summer programs. Through this work, I learned about the importance and application of data, and how it can be used to demonstrate the impact of programs, steer strategic decisions, and maintain and secure funding. With my fellow intern, Lincoln, we created a 14-page Youth Services report highlighting the different programs and the findings from our analysis. From this experience, I was motivated to learn more about how data collection, analysis, and statistics can be used to enhance program performance within nonprofit organizations, the services they provide, and even broader policies affecting marginalized communities.

What made this experience so special, however, were the bonds I had with the kids in the programs themselves. During the internship, I often got to step into the classroom as a volunteer teacher’s assistant and helped with various events. I was amazed by the kids’ endless joy, kindness, and thoughtfulness. It reminded me of the gratitude I felt towards my teachers at Kids Town and made me want to cultivate the same feelings of belonging and warmth for these current kids.

My connections to KYCC run even deeper as my mom, Joann Lee, was also an intern at KYCC. For my first KSP meeting in 2023, my mom walked me over to the KYCC Wilton building, which is just a couple of blocks from our house. She shared with me that she too, was an intern at KYCC, the very year the Wilton site was established in 1994. This was the same building where I worked with Ms. Kathleen throughout the summer! 

 

 

Like many others, I am so happy to say my mom is one of my biggest inspirations. Originally from the East Coast, my mom was a college student when she interned at KYCC, and the experience inspired her to move back to Los Angeles after going back east for law school. Through her work at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA), she taught me the importance of fighting against inequality and for social change. She was the one who sent me to Kids Town as a three-year-old, and 11 years later, she encouraged me to volunteer and intern at KYCC. 

 

 

I feel so grateful to KYCC, where I continue to be given these opportunities to learn and grow within the amazing community of Koreatown. I am also incredibly honored and committed to (hopefully) continue my mom’s incredible legacy of fighting for social and racial justice.