Brenda Alpreza (2020) was the first in her family to attend college. During her senior year of high school she was accepted into the Korea Society’s Project Bridge Intercultural Youth Leadership Program. Project Bridge cultivated understanding of race relations and cultural practices between students from South L.A. and the Korean community. The year culminated in a ten-day study tour of Korea that led to an intense interest in Korean culture and language, which led her to major in East Asian Area Studies.
Her sophomore year, Brenda received a Foreign Language & Area Studies grant, which is awarded to Dornsife students who enroll in East Asian Studies courses.
In the summer of 2017, Brenda received two scholarships, Jasso & Sayoko Kono, to conduct research in Japan on Korean populations living there. She conducted interviews, with students of Korean heritage on the topic of identity and how they were impacted by anti-Korean sentiment in Japan. Brenda felt a strong connection with the young Korean students, as reflected in her own cultural experience in America. Her family are immigrants from Mexico and she understood their feelings of not belonging. She shared a strong empathetic understanding of what it is like to be an immigrant.
Brenda speaks three languages; Spanish, English and Korean and has immersed herself in Korean culture and also devoted time to the local community.
In 2018-2019 she was awarded the prestigious US Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship for study abroad research. This scholarship gave her the financial ability to attend Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.
After graduation Brenda taught English in a school in Korea. She hopes to use her international experience and multiple language skills to work for the U.S. Government to help enhance our relationships abroad.