Earlier this year I had the pleasure of speaking with Aaron Schrank, a religion and diaspora reporter who has produced great stories for KPCC (NPR affiliate) in Southern California as well as a number of other media outlets. He visited my class at UCLA and afterwards we discussed a range of topics and to be honest, I then kind of forgot about it for a while. Because pandemic.
It was right around then that COVID-19 cases were starting to cause alarm in the United States and soon afterwards we had to switch to remote teaching and shelter at home. Anyways. Here’s the story that came out in June 2020.
It’s always a little weird to put personal stories out there in public, but I’m impressed with what Aaron was able to put together. The story was published on LAist, and friends also told me they heard it on NPR. It’s kind of neat to read/hear in the story where I’m talking to students in person, actually. It reminded me how much I miss teaching face-to-face. Since the story came out, I’ve received a bunch of emails from strangers who wanted to send support and encouragement—and ask questions about Korean churches, ha ha—and thankfully no hate mail. This was probably one of the best experiences I’ve had working with a journalist, and I’m grateful for the opportunity and exposure.
