I was born with a book. That’s what my mom used to say. I carried my books everywhere, reading in the car, at the dinner table, even as my eyes drifted shut. It drove my parents crazy. As the first Korean-American child of my immigrant family, language was a window for me to peer through. My parents often told me that “language is culture” and as I explored the rich world of Korean dynasties, culture in modern society, and family through the many books I borrowed from my local library, I began to understand what my parents meant. I found beauty in the Korean tradition of eating rice cake on Lunar New Year and the ease at which “Umma (mom)” rolled off my tongue. As I conversed with the Korean grandmothers in my apartment in Korean, my cultural perspective grew deeper as I learned about their experiences immigrating to America. As my fluency in Korean and English grew by the time I was 8, I had taken on the role of a translator in my family. Growing up translating between Korean and English from a young age, I was both fascinated by the connections I could create between people and also hurt by the discrimination my parents faced because of their “broken English”. I saw how difficult it was for my parents to join the workforce because of their perceived “broken English.” During the height of Covid-19, I spent hours translating governmental financial aid forms with my Korean immigrant parents in hopes of gaining financial and food support. As I translated these forms and documents, I realized the importance of financial literacy, especially for low-income, immigrant families like mine. I felt that the driving cause of families falling under the poverty line was income inequality and the cultural barriers against immigrants. I vowed to change this. I created Economy Club in 2020 to create opportunities for low-income students like me to gain financial literacy in their daily lives to support their families. Leading the club for three years, I’ve created countless job exploration and financial aid workshops for over 100 students, inviting guest speakers from UCLA, Netflix, and LAUSD. Furthermore, I created a website, “The Macro World” to share the resources and opportunities I had created through Economy Club with more families beyond my school through writing articles. As students shared how they used what they learned to support their families, I felt proud of the bridge I’d created for underrepresented students. As school opened back up and I read articles about the hardships that frontline hospital workers and patients faced, I wanted to create a way to bridge my school and my community. I created the Hamilton Uplift Performance, a music performance where I recruited student musicians to perform at a Kaiser Permanente Hospital for over 800 patients and staff to bring upliftment through cultural music. Within the two weeks I had to bring the performance to life, I faced an unexpected challenge of the unusual placement of the electrical outlets in the Kaiser Permanente performance stage. I challenged myself to view the placement as an opportunity and was able to create seating that better accommodated patients with wheelchairs, which turned out to be a success. On June 2, the day of the performance, I remember leading my team throughout the performance and the gratitude that filled me at the end as an elderly lady told me, “I’ve been at this hospital for a long time, and that was the most amazing thing I’ve seen. Thank you for bringing music to us.” Through my community leadership, I’ve felt the joy of creating bridges for underserved communities, bridging the gap between income inequality and different cultures. Stepping into college at Harvard University, I will be majoring in Economics in order to create long-term solutions to income inequality in America and countries in Asia, particularly those heavily impacted by poverty. Because my family is low-income, college expenses are a steep challenge and this scholarship will immensely help me to attend Harvard University. I hope to work as an economist to better understand how to implement sustainable labor systems to close the bridge of income inequality in both America and Asia.