What we mean is, Seriously—the band—is coming to KASCON XXIV for Friday night entertainment.

Note: If clicked, the picture will go to their website, which has links to their Facebook page and other such social networking sites.

This song, “Irony,” is what they performed at Kollaboration 2006, also winning the Grand Prize.

These two ladies have been invited to speak at KASCON on the issue of immigration reform. Immigration rights are not discussed thoroughly in the Korean American community, and thus many people are unaware how and who this issue effects. Nicole and Olivia will be presenting the details on immigration reform, who it affects, and why it is a growing concern for Korean Americans.

Nicole and Olivia both are from NAKASEC (National Korean American Service & Education Consortium). NAKASEC was formed with the purpose of projecting a national
progressive voice on major civil rights and immigrant rights issues and promoting the full participation of Korean Americans with the greater goal of building a national movement for social change.

Ms. Nicole Montojo (left) is a Program Associate at NAKASEC. As such, she creates e-publications and outreach materials for campaigns and projects around civic participation and immigration reform. She also serves as a fellow of Public Allies, a national Americorps program. Nicole graduated from Scripps College with a B.A. in Sociology and Urban Studies.

Ms. Olivia Park(right) is a Program Associate at NAKASEC working largely for the Immigrant Rights Program. Olivia graduated from Wellesley College with a B.A. in Political Science. As a student, she served as a passionate and active board member of both the Korean Students Association and the Wellesley Asian Alliance.

Martin Kim, born in Argentina into a traditional Korean home, speaks Korean, Spanish and English. Kim earned a bachelor’s degree at The George Washington University and went on to work for JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America. Today, Martin is working as a partnership specialist for the US Census Bureau, using his natural people skill as well as his fluency in three languages to reach out to people in Southern California’s Korean community.

This Saturday, Martin will be speaking on the issue of drastic under-representation of Korean Americans in the US Census, and how such discrepancies affect the well-being of people in the Korean American community. You’d think that it’s not a big deal and that it’s okay to ignore some survey, but Martin will discuss the important repercussions that our apathy toward the Census could have on our economic and social livelihood.

Pastor Jeff Hyun graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.S. in Business. After several years of successfully building towards a future profession in business, he made a change in the course of his career to pursue another different vocation that aligned with his beliefs, his purpose, and his calling.

His mantra on careers is not that everyone should join a monastery or become a pastor; instead, his passion is to motivate young adults to look beyond the obvious, to not treat job-hunting as a menial task, to become aware of your own talents, and to respond to the calling for lives of purpose, service, and leadership. Whatever your religious background, come join in Pastor Hyun’s discussion to deepen and challenge your perspective on job-hunting, survey your own beliefs, and implement your personal values actively in your pursuit of a meaningful profession.

Pastor Hyun currently resides in Torrance, California, with his wife Stella and 3-month old daughter Emily.
 

Pastor Hyun attended Talbot University and received a Master’s in Divinity. He currently pastors the English college ministry at Sarang Community Church.

Hopefully you’ve all been registered by now, but if you haven’t, it’s not too late! Regular registration is still only $75, and that includes a free ticket (not to mention with preferred seating) for Kollaboration 10! www.kascon.com/register

Our Board has dedicated a blog blast for the next 7 days to highlight each one of our 16 speakers. Stay tuned in each day for a new biography as we introduce and unravel the life experiences and works of each honored guest. The purpose of this is not to only give our attendees a heads’ up of which seminars they want to attend, but it is also an opportunity for you to get acquainted with our honored guests and learn about the different issues that are out there.

The first speaker we’d like to highlight is Dr. Paul Song. Dr. Song is an established oncologist from Santa Monica, CA. With a specialty and expertise in health care reform, he is a frequent guest on Larry King Live. We have invited Dr. Song to come speak not only on the debate of health care reform, but also as a mentor to students seeking to pursue a career in the medical field or the area of health public policy.

In fact, he will be speaking on Larry King Live tonight (February 26, 2010) on CNN at 6pm (PST). We encourage our attendees to tune in!

For a snippet on one of Dr. Song’s previous nights at Larry King Live, please click the video below.

We’ve received couple of emails concerning who will be speaking at KASCON 24 and what kind of seminars will be available. One by one, our speakers are being confirmed, and much to our excitement, we have confirmed our two honored plenary speakers for KASCON 24:

Kyung Won Lee and John Suh

KW Lee is widely considered the greatest Korean American journalist and one of the greatest leaders from the first generation of Korean Americans. A big advocate of civil rights not only for Korean Americans, not only for Asian Americans, but for people groups all across the nation, KW Lee is a big voice that barks justice for the marginalized and victimized. For more information on his career and personal life, click here for a Biographical Documentary on KW Lee.

Please stay tuned, as we will be posting more detailed information about each seminar/workshop in the next few days.

Hope to see you soon!
-hk

2. Be a good friend.

…

3. GO TO KASCON 24!

Can you believe it? There’s only one day left of the year 2009. 2009 has been great, but 2010 can be even better. We like to look forward to changes for the better when the year is ending, but there are some things that are not changing and that is…KASCON 24 is coming up soon! It’s a good thing. So be sure to mark your calendars!

We haven’t had the chance to introduce ourselves, much less talk about KASCON until now. But now that we have your attention, we are excited to welcome you for the first time ever to join us for KASCON 24.

Firstly, we’re stoked to have KASCON back on the West Coast. The last two years, UPenn (KASCON 23 – Pennsylvania) and Emory (KASCON 22 – Atlanta) hosted two amazing conferences over on the east coast, but this year, we’re bringing this history-making conference back over onto the west side.

So, what exactly is KASCON?
Here are videos from past KASCONs to show you what KASCON is all about.

As always, KASCON 24 will be an opportunity to:

1. Listen – to stories of today’s greatest leaders in the Korean American community
2. Speak – with other students and network with a diverse pool of people
3. Take Action – consider new things you can bring back to your own campus

And if these opportunities aren’t enough reason to attend KASCON 24, we hope that our location in sunny and luxurious Malibu this year will help convince you that KASCON 24 will be one conference you don’t want to miss. With that said, here are some miscellaneous news:

Prices
With the rough economy, we thought it would be beneficial for everyone to lower registration prices this year, because money shouldn’t be the reason you miss out on this  opportunity.

Kollaboration
As of now, all KASCON 24 attendees will be also given a free admission and reserved seating for Kollaboration 10 in LA for March 6, 2009. More info to come.

Leadership Opportunities
If you are interested in helping the KASCON Eboard with programming, media, photography/videography, or entertainment, we are looking for some staff members to help us out. If interested, please send an email to kascon24directors@googlegroups.com.

All in all, we directors are extremely honored to be able to host KASCON 24 at Pepperdine this year, and we promise to work our hardest to make this an unforgettable experience for you. We hope that throughout the 2-day conference, you won’t just have fun meeting new people, but that you’ll also leave with a sense of purpose, service, and leadership.

Hope to meet you all along this incredible journey,
Daniel, Jeannie, and Hana