gene-whang

Gene Whang

Hometown, Palos Verdes, CA
At first, I was reluctant to attend the NCLC, because I thought that the conference was for people who struggled with their Korean-American identity. Since over half of my friends are Korean and almost all those who aren’t are Asian, I never felt isolated or targeted due to my ethnicity. Because I was always around people like me, I had never really thought about, let alone struggled with my Korean-American identity. To make matters worse, as a STEM student, I thought that the speakers would focus on subjects that I either know nothing about or couldn’t care to learn about. ​ To say I was pleasantly surprised would be a terrible understatement. I found everything from the campus to the speakers to the other students absolutely amazing and I had a lot more fun than I could have anticipated. For example, I brought my laptop and a DS thinking I would need something to occupy myself with but ended up not touching either of them for the entire week. While having fun, I also learned things I never thought I would learn from a leadership conference such as that I enjoy jump scares and multiple ways to succeed in the mafia. All of this was without mentioning the speakers too. The speakers at NCLC are some of the best speakers I have ever heard in my life. I would never expect to have so much fun at a conference that I was initially skeptical of attending. I’d like to thank KAC for letting me join this wonderful experience.