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By Amie Howell

Daily Bruin Contributor

The Korean American Student Conference will come to Los Angeles for the first time when it hosts its annual convention at the Westin Airport Hotel from March 29 to April 1. The convention will spend one day, March 31, at UCLA.

For some students, the convention in L.A. is long overdue.

“In order for KASCON to truly be a national conference, it has to be held in California,” said Jennifer Chong, a fourth-year political science and sociology student who is the executive director of this year’s KASCON forum.

Founded in 1987 by Princeton University students, KASCON has become the largest ethnic student conference nationwide, and annually meets to address issues within Korean American communities.

While at UCLA, the convention will showcase an interactive career center and Korean American exhibition.

The event is open to all UCLA students with valid school ID. Students will be able to speak personally with Korean Americans in professional fields ranging from law to media, and explore booths maintained by various student organizations.

Through this exposure and networking, the convention partly serves to extend connections to students who might otherwise gravitate to a narrow range of careers.

“You can be just as successful in any field,” Chong said. “We want to encourage people to pursue their dreams … pursue what they really want to do.”

Though typically an East Coast event, KASCON is meant to unify Korean people from around the globe.

“It’s about time people knew about this in the West,” said Grace Choi, a second-year political science and history student who serves as the director of media relations for the event.

Choi emphasized the conference’s goal of unifying Korean Americans to better serve their communities.

“We learn from the past,” Choi said. “Yes, we can actually achieve even though there are so many differences and difficulties. People learn to help their community – to go out there and do the best they can.”

One example of the need for community unification which will be addressed in the conference is the aftermath of the 1992 L.A. riots. The destruction to many Korean owned businesses will be a focal point for lectures and discussions because it is pertinent to KASCON’s presence in Los Angeles.

“The riots forced a lot of people to wake up because they were living their own lives,” said Kimberly Jo, a second-year political science student and speakers relation contact for the conference.

“They needed to unite. That’s one thing our community was really lacking. They didn’t have unity. Everyone was doing their own thing and they were being successful on their own,” Jo added.

In order to plan for the future, Chong made it clear that KASCON must examine the past.

“In order for us to progress as a community, and to move forward and to strategize for the future, we definitely need to go back, look at the past and then evaluate where we stand today,” Chong said.

In addition to examining historical precedents, the conference examines a variety of other topics pertaining to Korean Americans including the glass ceiling in the professional world, the changing expectations for men and women and the relationships between students and their parents.

“We’re a new generation. We’re not Korean and we’re not American, so we’re basically creating our own history,” Jo said. “We deal with our own specific issues, all of our own problems ... and even though we’re all at different ends of the United States, we share common experiences.”

The clash between generations is something that is addressed to improve communication in the Korean American community.

“We’re second generation mostly, and our parents are from Korea, so there are difficulties dealing with our parents because there are two different generations involved,” Choi said. “One is very conservative and the other is pretty much liberal.”

It is this desire to spread awareness and opportunities to Korean American students that inspired Chong to put the bid in for UCLA to host KASCON. She attended last year’s conference at Rutgers University. Though the convention will not be back in Southern California next year, her goal is to see withstanding effects once KASCON is over.

“I hope that next year, after KASCON comes and goes, we’ll know that it was here – we’ll see its effects on our student organizations and community,” Chong said.

EVENT: KASCON will be at Ackerman Grand ballroom on Saturday, March 31. The event is open to all UCLA students with a valid ID.