Mentors Sought to Guide High School Students in Dragon Kim Fellowship

Calling all prospective mentors! Adult volunteers from a variety of professions and backgrounds can play a critical part as mentors in the success of The Dragon Kim Fellowship, an annual program of The Dragon Kim Foundation, an Orange County, California-based nonprofit - http://dragonkimfoundation.org.

The mission of the Irvine, California organization is to inspire our youth to impact their communities while discovering and pursuing their passions. The Fellowship program is an annual seven-month social entrepreneurship activity that awards community service grants to motivated high school students throughout Arizona, California, and Nevada to create and manage programs that will impact their communities.

The Foundation hopes to attract experienced adult mentors from the community to work with the high school students. Mentors generally have professional experience in the subject areas the students are serving. Projects topics often include musical and visual arts, academics, business, environment, mental health, STEM, robotics, and more.

To apply to become a Dragon Kim Fellowship mentor, visit https://www.cognitoforms.com/DragonKimFoundation1/dragonkimfoundationadultvolunteerinterestform

In 2025, the Foundation will have more than 60 projects in the new cohort, carefully selected from hundreds of total applications. Once chosen, the teens behind the projects will participate in three weekends of leadership and business training. Then next summer, they will implement their projects, supported by grants from the Foundation of up to $5,000 for each team. At the end of the program, they will present their project to a panel of esteemed judges at the Dragon Challenge to compete for additional funding to continue serving the community.

Since 2016, DKF has supported 457 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 2024, the Foundation supported 119 Fellows and 718 volunteers they recruited to directly serve 16,274 individuals as they logged 17,989 volunteer hours. The indirect impact over the last eight years of operations is immeasurable but is estimated as of 2024 to have impacted 51,438 people. 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.

“We salute our mentors who play an integral role in the success of Dragon Fellows share their business or industry knowledge by mentoring one of our Fellowship teams as they dream, design, and implement their community service projects,” the Foundation Co-Founder and Executive Director Daniel Kim said.

Kim said the many positive values of Dragon Kim Foundation mentorship include the opportunity to interact with an inspired high school student, a chance to learn more about their own style in terms of engagement and feedback as they help teens take chances in a safe environment that might have hobbled them otherwise. Mentors have a rewarding experience that can help change the world as they enjoy a wonderful way to give back to their community.

During the period of March through August, mentors are asked to attend an orientation, three leadership trainings, weekly check-in sessions and visit project in action. The total time commitment is about 20 hours over a six-month time period. They are also invited to attend the graduation ceremony and the Dragon Challenge. Prospective mentors must apply no later than February 10, 2025.

The Fellowship was founded 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.

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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 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.