2020 KSEA-NC The Triangle event: “Career Fitting Room at The Triangle: Career talks and legal aspect”

The annual KSEA North Carolina (NC) event, the Triangle, was held virtually via Zoom on October 23rd, 2020. This year’s Triangle, titled: “Career Fitting Room at The Triangle: Career talks and legal aspect,” provided a venue for social networking, advice on visa-related legal issues for Koreans and Korean Americans, and discussion for career options for students and young professionals.

The event was led and organized by the President of KSEA NC Chapter, Prof. Minyoung Suh, Ph.D. (North Carolina State University). The organization team included the Vice President of KSEA NC Chapter, Prof. Sung-Ju Kim, Ph.D. (North Carolina State University), the KSEA NC Science Chair, Mr. Namwoo Cho, and three KSEA graduate student members, Mr. Daihyun Kwon, Mr. Inhwan Kim, and Ms. Min Jin Lee. 

Despite its limitations as a virtual meeting, the event was a huge success, garnering close to 30 participants. The event reached not only to the universities in the Research Triangle Park area (Duke University, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University), but it also brought together many Korean communities in other universities in North Carolina as well as other KSEA-NC members. The attendees included graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and young professionals in their early career stage.

The event started with the opening remarks by Prof. Suh, who provided a brief history of KSEA and its mission statement, introduction of the North Carolina Chapter and of its leadership team, and the upcoming KSEA or KSEA-NC sponsored programs of the year. The Secretary of KSEA-NC also made an appearance at the event and gave brief greetings and opening remarks.

Following Prof. Suh’s introduction, Ms. Tiffany Cho took over and gave the first presentation of the event: the legal issues for Koreans and Korean Americans. Ms. Cho is an immigration attorney from Chang Law Group. She provided a thorough presentation on legal issues that are pertinent to Korean international students and immigrants. The topics included changes made in immigration laws by USCIS during the COVID-19 pandemic and the fast-changing nature of those rules. Ms. Cho provided insights into the permanent residency application process for scientists and engineers (EB1/NIW) and J-1 visa. She also generously provided her DIY (Do-It-Yourself) J-1 waiver checklists to those who are interested and offered complimentary virtual counseling to the KSEA members. 

The second main session of the event was the career discussion panel. Four very talented and successful young professionals were invited to offer insights into career options in academia and industry, both in the United States and in Korea. The four panelists included Dr. Woochul Jung, Ph.D. (LG Chem, South Korea), Dr. Joonmoo Huh, Ph.D. (Intel Corporation, USA), Prof. Jinung Do, Ph.D. (Gyeongsang University, South Korea), and Prof. Jackie Relyea, Ph.D. (North Carolina State University, USA). The panelists shared their personal experiences of making career decisions, their preparations and development, their current roles and work environments, advice to those seeking to pursue similar paths.  

Dr. Jung, Dr. Huh, and Prof. Do used to be active members of KSEA-NC while they were pursuing doctoral studies at North Carolina State University. Graduating from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Prof. Relyea has also been very active in many KSEA-NC events, and she recently gave a presentation at the 2020 KSEA-NC Interdisciplinary Research Conference.

Following the general discussion session by the four panelists, the event split into three breakout groups for more specialized Q&A sessions. The three discussion groups were led by the industry panels (Dr. Jung and Dr. Huh), the academia panels (Prof. Do and Prof. Relyea), and the legal adviser (Ms. Cho), respectively. The breakout sessions fostered great discussion and had to be extended to accommodate all of the questions. Many of them were centered around career choice, advice on career development, job search and interviews, and the importance of networking.

The Triangle events have a history of providing excellent networking opportunities to the participants. To overcome the limitations of being held virtually, the event this year held occasional photo times and offered raffles of $5, $10, and $20 gift cards throughout the event, as well as additional meal vouchers for participants who attended the event in its entirety. For the closing of the event, the current President of KSEA, Prof. Soolyeon Cho, Ph.D. (North Carolina State University) gave a brief final remark on the event.

Despite the challenges of being virtual and occasional technical difficulties, the event was overall successful and well-received by both the attendees and the panelists. We hope to be able to host the next Triangle events in person in the near future.