We couldn’t exist without the love and support from KKOOM Donors! Jin has been a strong supporter of KKOOM as a recurring donor and he delivered a virtual keynote speech at the Dream Big Gala. We asked Jin to share why he loves KKOOM and he sent us this blog post.
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In many ways, I have lived the American Dream, and like so many immigrants past and present, the United States has opened up countless opportunities for my family and me. Throughout our journey, I’ve had numerous conversations with my mother to try and understand the motivations and hardships she endured to unroot her family to the opposite side of the earth into a foreign land where she neither spoke the language nor understood how to navigate its culture in the early 1970s. What kind of effort and force of will did this 5’2”, 105 lb woman have to muster to raise 3 young children on her own?
As I look back at the paths we walked, I can clearly see that at those most important and oftentimes desperate moments of our lives, there was always someone there to make sure that we were okay. First, it was the Brown family who offered not just moral support but friendship and connections to jobs, housing, and furniture in 1974. It could have been a smile, an assuring hug, or the extra attention from a teacher. There was always somewhere there, and we were never truly alone.
Recently, I started looking for a small way to help others, just like others had helped me and my family. This is how I found KKOOM. As soon as I read about KKOOM’s mission and learned about its programs and the impact they are having on Korean children, I immediately wanted to help and contribute. Seeing the pictures from the various programs, from the Preschool to College Scholarships, and all of the hope and promise embodied by the Korean children, I became so inspired. Here was KKOOM, providing financial and on-the-ground support to these beautiful children and adults, letting them all know that they are not alone and that there is a community of caring adults rooting for them and supporting them in their lives. Of course, I had to contribute!
Thank you Jin for helping to fund the KKOOM Soccer Camp! We removed the names of the boys to protect their privacy.
In August 2023, KKOOM funded a trip to take 9 elementary and middle school boys to a Soccer Camp in Seoul, South Korea
One of my favorite moments in 2023 was contributing to the KKOOM campaign to send a group of boys to a soccer camp in Seoul. The small soccer ball signed by those boys and sent to me by Grace sits on my desk in my office. It is as precious to me as my diploma and my patent awards. It represents something that deeply touches the core of our collective hope and promise for our future.
JIN CHUN
Jin Chun is an IT Executive and currently SVP Head of Cognitive Computing and IT Fellow at Fidelity Investments. Based in the Boston area, Jin was born in Seoul and immigrated to the United States at the age of 3. Jin is a graduate of Yale University and part of the first generation of his family to graduate from college.
