Freshly printed copies of the Korea Herald would be delivered to every person on the first floor. Those working on the business section including a very nice Korean American studying at the Washington University in St. Louis would search for their articles on the business section. Same with the nation desk, entertainment desk and culture desk- the desk I was under. Being assigned to the culture desk was a relief as it gave me a flexibility that I could not get under the other desks. After all, culture is such a broad umbrella term. Under that section, I was able to delve into numerous fields: music, dance, food, movies, etc.
One week, I was interviewing May J. Lee, a choreographer whose videos I watched on YouTube countless times and whose videos get millions of hits. Another week, I was eating Cuban sandwiches and drinking pina colada using an actual pineapple as my glass at Little Cuba, a Sinchon restaurant I wrote an article on. As a person with multidisciplinary interests, I loved being able to learn about so many different fields. I enjoyed getting to know Seoul on a deeper level than I had last summer and I also enjoyed the Korea Herald as a company. I admire the fact that they try to constantly evolve by focusing on online media instead of print media and by expanding into other realms like the healthy food sector with Organica. I remember eating the coconut bars from Organica as snacks almost daily. Lastly, I value the friendships that I made through the program – my closest one being with a Stanford student interning for the summer. We still talk regularly and hearing her talk about her articles so passionately really inspired me.
September 12, 2016