EARLY YEARS
My journey of discovering my voice and helping others do the same began by watching and listening to journalists whose voices were oft unheard because of the culture of the time. In 1995, I witnessed history unfold on television as news anchor and journalist Maria Bartiromo became the first-ever reporter to broadcast live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The tenacity she showed on television by standing up to men who tried to push her aside left an indelible impression on me.
A decade later, the valiant and unapologetic effort Bartiromo and other female reporters put forth to pave a path for women in journalism gave me confidence to break down barriers even further by race—I was one of the few Asian American women I knew interested in pursuing a career as a reporter.
In a traditional Korean immigrant household, like the one I grew up in, first-generation parents encourage their children to study law or medicine. Parents begin preparing their child at a young age by enrolling them in ACT or SAT classes in middle school, so they can take the standardized exams as early as sophomore year of high school and focus the rest of their academic career studying for the LSAT or MCAT. That was what happened to me. I studied for the LSAT from senior year of high school until senior year of college, and I did what was expected to honor my hard-working parents.
At the end of the day, something didn’t feel right. It took courage to stand my ground and stay true to who I am—a storyteller. I decided to major in journalism and minor in political science as a way to appease my parents. Even so, I kept my sights on becoming a journalist. In 2010, I got hired as a news desk writer for CNBC where Bartiromo worked at the time. I was responsible for monitoring news wires around the clock and publishing breaking news stories alongside seasoned reporters. I handled up-to-date reports during the Gulf of Mexico oil crisis, stock report roundups and wrote stories on the retail spending habits of millennials and e-commerce trends for Consumer Nation.
In 2011, I fell in love with radio journalism and started dabbling in this medium starting with a role as a multimedia producer at an NPR-affiliate radio station, Illinois Public Media (WILL-AM 580). Not only would radio give me an opportunity to experiment with writing copy for the ear; it also afforded me the privilege to feature voices in the community that are underrepresented or unheard.
After a year in radio, it was time to head to the East Coast. Find out where under EDUCATION.