Broad Spectrum of Social Service Projects from High Schoolers Highlights Dragon Kim Foundation’s 10th Cohort

The Dragon Kim Foundation (DKF), an Orange County-based nonprofit - http://dragonkimfoundation.org – has announced the selection of 84 California teens from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to its 2026 Dragon Kim Fellowship Program.

This year marks the 10^th anniversary of the social entrepreneurship incubator for high school youth established by the Foundation to inspire them to impact their communities while discovering and pursuing their passions.

Hundreds of teens from high schools in California, Arizona and Nevada applied to the Foundation’s newest cohort. The finalists will now refine and implement the 40 individual community service projects they had submitted as teams to the Foundation. The Foundation is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and has again put forth a diverse cohort.

The teens proposed projects that channel their talents and interests into a community service project that will help their communities. Projects come from a diverse set of subject areas, including academics, arts, athletics, culinary, environmental, financial literacy, immigration, health and wellness, STEM, and technology.

The teams receive three weekends of leadership training and hands-on guidance from invested professionals who are their mentors. his summer, the teams will implement their projects, supported by grants of up to $5,000 from the Foundation. As always, the leadership training, which elsewhere can cost several thousand dollars, is provided for free to each Dragon Fellow. The projects have the potential of benefiting thousands of people, including many living in challenged neighborhoods.

Since 2016, DKF has supported more than 500 high schoolers in channeling their passions into tangible impact by helping their communities via summer service projects. The Foundation helps them break barriers to be changemakers in challenged neighborhoods, where many also live.

In 2025, the Foundation supported a record-setting 63 Fellowship projects run by 138 high school students in three states. Together, all of the projects directly impacted 56,260individuals and indirectly impacted nearly seven million. More than 700 volunteers gave nearly 40,000 hours of service time to contribute to the Fellows’ vision and causes.

One hundred percent of Foundation’s graduating high school students go on to college or university, and 60 percent go on to attend the top 25 U.S. colleges and universities

At the end of the program, the Fellows present their projects at Graduation. Projects named semi-finalists then present to a panel of esteemed judges at the CEO Summit.Those selected as finalists go on to present at the Shark Tank-style Dragon Challenge where they willcompete for an additional $5,000 to continue their projects

The Fellowship was founded in 2015 in honor of the late Dragon Kim, a talented young musician, athlete, and scholar who wanted to help others. It has become a seedbed for the next generation of creative thinkers and entrepreneurs who want to create positive change.

”We are humbled and honored by the success of the Dragon Kim Fellowship Program,” said Dragon Kim Foundation Co-founder and CEO Daniel Kim. “We hope that our son Dragon would be proud of what has been accomplished over the last decade in his memory. We look forward to helping another cohort of teens bring attention to important issues in their communities that need changing and enabling them to strive to do that.”

For more information, visit http://dragonkimfoundation.org

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About the Dragon Kim Foundation

The Dragon Kim Foundation was established in 2015 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization by Grace Tsai and Daniel Kim to honor the memory of their late son Dragon Kim, who had been attending the Orange County School of the Arts. The mission of the Dragon Kim Foundation is to inspire our youth to impact their communities while discovering and pursuing their passions. Visit the website at http://dragonkimfoundation.org.