Jinwook Kim

I volunteered for an event called Try Culture that had the organizations Asian American Culture, Mexican American Culture, and African American Culture committee come together to host a big event that showcased all our cultures. To do so, each committee had responsibilities in talking to orgs around campus to table for us and have some kind of game. After a participant played a game, they would get signatures, and after a certain amount of signatures, you could get free food from each committee. I helped organize the whole entire event and getting performers to perform for our committees. I helped feed our volunteers, sign logistical forms, and feed performers as well.

The event I volunteered for was through an organization called Asian American Culture Committee. They plan/host events for UT to spread the cultures of Asian Americans. I volunteered to usher guests in to their seats to watch a performer that we brought out, he is a famous Youtuber named David Choi. He gave a talk about his struggles and achievements as an Asian American in the Youtube community, as well as being one of the biggest contributor of the generation of Youtube of what it is today.

Volunteered as a server for food and moderator for our penny-tossing-into-a-boat game for Forty Acres Fest hosted by Events and Entertainments, but more specifically my organization, Asian American Culture Committee. We let anybody try to toss pennies into paper boats and if they got it in, we would hand them Thai Boba Tea or Milk Boba Tea. This event was carnival themed just to showcase many orgs around campus and collectively come together to have a fun, stress-relieving setting for anybody on our Forty Acres at that moment. Anybody could come and enjoy this festival.

Bollywood Night: Helped with the food and line monitoring crew. Bollywood Night is an event to spread awareness of the culture in the south-eastern Asian countries. We served various type of popcorn to go with a Bollywood movie we were playing, had several performances, and mango lassis.

Lunar New Years (LNY): My org and I volunteered to throw a huge LNY festival for the campus of UT to spread our Asian American culture. We catered free food to students/faculty/staff, and anyone affiliated to UT Austin. We were able to bring in over 750+ people into our event! We also held musical performances, dance routines, and skits. I volunteered with managing the entrance line, food line, managing food, and being a runner for our event coordinators in charge.

Roadtrip: UT's Biggest Football Watch Party - my organization that I'm a part of is Asian American Culture (AAC), which is also a branch of Events and Entertainments (E+E), and E+E hosted a big watch party for students and staff/faculty. We helped manage one of the booth which people could play while watching the football game. We had a giant connect 4 game, giant jenga game, and a game where a person wears one sleeve of stockings on their head with an apple at the end and try to knock down as many cans you can in a minute.

East Bouldin Creek Restoration: we went to a creek to try to get rid of invasive plant species and clean up some trash that washed up from the floodings in the previous months. We had tasks of killing the outer layers of the trees (invasive species) so they don't get nutrients anymore and later they will die out. We would push down long weed grass so they die, but also give nutrients to the soil so we can plant more of our natural trees in later. Lastly pull out the invasive weeds. I found it extremely fun to work and see progress in the long run.

Try Culture: A Trip Around the World - I volunteered for a cultural event that's sponsored by Events and Entertainments. This event is for UT affiliated students, faculty, and staff. We had the branches of African American Culture Committee (AACC), Mexican American Culture Committee (MACC), and Asian American Culture (AAC) have a joint event to spread awareness of how we express our cultures. We had many fun activities that were in booths, and once completed that activity, you would get a colored ticket. Once you have 2 tickets of the same color, you can get in line to get food. For my org, the Asian American Culture, we had red tickets, so once someone had 2 tickets, they could get dumplings, samosas, and boba tea. The other orgs had their own food and activities as well. All the while, we had a big stage for performers to perform their cultural arts. Some performers consisted of Texas Wushu, Austin Chinese Dance Company, Students of East Africa, individual performances, and etc. I helped with the food staff of unloading, serving, and managing lines.

Volunteered for the Bus Welcoming Committee for Explore UT!!! I was in Samantha's and Marissa's team for the morning shift! It was really fun greeting the children and being the first face for them to see in UT!