On Wednesday, April 15, 2015, the Research Center for Korean Community hosted a seminar at Korean American Youth Foundation in Flushing. The featured speaker at this event was ChangHwan Kim, a Professor of Sociology at the University of Kansas. The title of his talk was "The Educational Mating Patterns of 1.5- and 2nd-Generation Korean Americans and Their Family Standard-of-Living." He examined the effects of marrying a less-educated spouse (educational marrying-down) or marrying a more-educated spouse (educational marrying-up) on the family incomes of 1.5- and 2nd-Generation Korean Americans aged 25-34.

Approximately twenty-five members of the Queens/Long Island Korean and Korean-American community attended the seminar, which was very well-received. An interesting question-and-answer session about further implications of Professor Kim's findings followed his talk.

Click the link below for the full abstract of his presentation:

ChangHwan Kim Mating Patterns Abstract

Professor Kim also gave a presentation earlier that day titled "Are Asian American Women Advantaged: A Multidimensional Assessment" at Queens College. It was held from 12:15 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 351 of Powdermaker Hall, and it was well-attended by Queens College students and faculty. 

Professor Kim has published over thirty scholarly articles in journals (national and international), including American Sociological Review, Sociological Forum, and Social Forces. He also contributed a chapter for a book that we published in 2014, and participated in our 2013 academic conference. He specializes in the areas of stratification, race/ethnicity, Asian-American studies, Korea studies, quantitative methodology, and work and organizations.

Click the link below for more information about Professor Kim:

ChangHwan Kim KU Home Page

On Friday, February 20, 2015, we had our first seminar at Korean American Youth Foundation (163-07 Depot Road, Flushing, NY 11358). The featured speakers at this event were John H. Kim and Soohyun "Julie" Koo, who braved the sub-zero wind chill and traveled all the way from Washington, DC to speak about public service and helping disadvantaged immigrants and minorities. Both Mr. Kim and Ms. Koo wrote essays for the book, Korean Americans Who Have Empowered the Korean-American Community. Approximately twenty people attended the seminar.

John H. Kim, who is the Chief of Staff of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, spoke about some of his work with the three-billion dollar private philanthropy organization, which is dedicated to improving the lives of disadvantaged children and families. In his talk, which was given in English, Mr. Kim spoke about the importance of providing a safety net for populations in need, and he recounted stories of his own immigrant parents and how one unfortunate financial or medical event would have been catastrophic.

Soohyun "Julie Koo," the former Director of the DC Mayor's Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, spoke about some of her past work, which involved helping disadvantaged Asian immigrants who were unfamiliar with a variety of procedures and services that are beneficial and even integral to surviving in the United States. Ms. Koo spoke in Korean to the audience and talked about her transition from working in the private sector as a translator/interpreter in Korea and China to a life of helping others via public service in the United States.

We would like to thank Ms. Koo and Mr. Kim for traveling to NYC and speaking at our seminar, and we would also like to thank those who came out on a very chilly night to attend the seminar.

We are pleased to announce the arrival of Dr. Heejin Lim, one of RCKC's Visiting Scholars for 2015. Dr. Lim is a Research Fellow at the National Youth Policy Institute in Seoul, Korea and a former Lecturer in the Department of Health Education at Ehwa Woman's University, also located in Seoul. Dr. Lim received a PhD in Health Education from the University of Tokyo in 2001.

During the upcoming year, Dr. Lim plans to examine school health promotion programs in the states of New York and New Jersey. In particular, she would like to analyze the coordinated efforts of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. schools in order to help improve health education in the school system in Korea. Dr. Lim worked as a Research Fellow in the Youth Activities and Competency office at the National Youth Policy Institute, which is a Korean government agency. Incidentally, RCKC's 2014 Visiting Scholar, Dr. Hyuncheol Kim, also worked at the National Youth Policy Institute.

We cordially welcome Dr. Heejin Lim, and we look forward to her tenure in the New York area.

Every year, RCKC invites at least one international scholar who conducts research on Korean Americans to stay in New York City for a year. We assist the visiting scholars by handling paperwork for visa applications and sharing our knowledge and information about local Korean communities and enclaves in the New York-New Jersey area. We also provide an office on the Queens College campus for the duration of the scholars' tenure here.

Click the link below for more information about the National Youth Policy Institute in Korea (한국청소년정책연구원).

National Youth Policy Institute in Korea (Korean-Language Website)

On Thursday, December 11, 2014, Dr. Hyuncheol Kim of the National Youth Policy Institute in Korea gave a presentation titled "Problems and Strategies of Youth Education in the Korean-American Community (한인사회 청소년 교육문제와 전략)" at KCS in Flushing. Dr. Kim, who was also RCKC's 2014 Visiting Scholar, analyzed current educational issues related to Korean language education and ethnic identity among Korean-American children in the United States. He presented some interesting quantitative and qualitative data comparing educational outcomes and aspirations of industrialized nations. His presentation was very well-received, and it sparked a lively and stimulating question-and-answer session. Dr. Hyuncheol Kim and his family returned to Korea at the end of December 2014 after spending an enjoyable and productive sabbatical year as RCKC's Visiting Scholar.