Her Campus McGill is excited to introduce this week’s profile, Daniel Kang! He is one of ten winners of the 2015 OZY Genius Award, out of 100,000 applicants from around the world. His innovative idea and ambitions caught the attention of the impressive OZY judges, Carlos Watson (OZY co-founder), David Drummond (Google executive) and Laurene Powell (Emerson Collective founder, and wife of Steve Jobs), who collectively granted him $10,000 for his socially conscious project. No big deal, right? Going from one project to another, Daniel has never shied away from challenging opportunities, especially ones that would set out to help others in difficult situations. Continue reading for more details about his awesome project, Remember the Elders and how it came to be!
Belle Kim for HC McGill (HC McGIll): Can you start by telling the readers a little bit about yourself?
Daniel Kang (DK): I’m Daniel Kang. I’m a U3 Finance student, 21 years old. I’m originally from Korea but I lived in Manitoba. I am a social entrepreneur, former cadet pilot, and now work as a management consultant.
HC McGill: How did you come across the OZY Genius Award? And can you tell us more about it?
DK: I run a Facebook page called Making Your Opportunities. There are a lot of people like myself who are disadvantaged in terms of social class, gender, ethnicity etc., and who don’t get access to a lot of opportunities. So while I was looking for rare, funded opportunities online, I came across the OZY program and was lucky enough to apply and receive the award, as did nine other people who did fascinating work. In terms of what it is, it was created by Carlos Watson, a Stanford Graduate. He created this program with some help from Google and Emerson Collective to help students pursue their passions for the summer. The idea is to create the next new genius, like the next Mark Zuckerberg [or] Oprah Winfrey. Obviously, we are not up to that caliber but the idea is to give students the opportunity to pursue what they want to pursue.
HC McGill: What was the process that went into becoming one of “OZY’s young geniuses”?
DK: The process wasn’t too bad. I needed to fill out an application form and I needed to pitch my idea, which could be done by an essay or a video. I did mine by an essay. I figured I could pitch it well as I know there are many other people who can do fancy things with a video.
HC McGill: Now onto the project itself. What inspired you to come up with the idea?
DK: The project is called Remember The Elders. Long story short, in my second year I got to work with a small NGO called Solar Ear, which initially got me into social entrepreneurship. Afterwards I got involved with the Clinton Global Initiative and in the midst of a project, while I was doing a lot of research, I found out about Senior poverty rates in Korea: about 45% in seniors living with family and up to 75% for seniors living alone. I think the biggest peak was also seeing my grandmother carrying cardboard boxes to recycling deposits to get her daily allowance.
I thought, “Why is this happening? Was there a problem in the public pension system? And if there is a problem, how can we fix it?“
That’s where I got the idea. And OZY media is really about making a difference and impacting society; I thought I was in a good position to help because I was already involved with the Clinton Initiative and had done [an] exchange at the Seoul National University where I knew profs who would help out in undergoing similar research. So that’s how I came up with it and how I pitched the idea.
HC McGill: Could you tell us more about your project?
DK: Well, I had to figure out what the problem was, at first. I figured it was best to go to Korea, and I approached the profs that I studied with at Seoul National University. Together, it became clear to us that the major contributor to the problem was the outdated pension system, which was created when life expectancy was 60. Now life expectancy is about 75, so there was a big structural imbalance. What I mean by that is in terms of the contribution that people made, the benefits they would receive were negative. Another big contributor was the demographic shift: there are too many people growing old and too fast. There was also the social issue as well that people just didn’t care enough. So the idea was, and is currently, to complete a research paper on the key drivers of the problem, and finding a solution. Once the paper is ready, we are supposed to present it to the National Assembly so they can look at it and come up with some plan to help the seniors. Our plan is to complete the paper by this summer.
HC McGill: On to a more positive topic. What was the first thought that came about when you heard that you won?
DK: “Oh my gosh, I won!” (laughs) They were supposed to get back to the applicants on April 1st but they never did, and I thought I didn’t make it, but after April when I was on a trip to Shanghai, I got an email that I had won.
HC McGill: $10,000 is quite a substantial amount of money; it must’ve been a little overwhelming at first. How did you plan to use (or how have you used) the $10, 000 check in accordance to your idea?
DK: In terms of the application itself, it actually requires you to come up with a budget for the project with a limit of $10,000. We didn’t need all of $10,000; we had a budget of $7000 or so.
HC McGill: What are some obstacles you’ve faced in implementing your idea into action?
DK: One major problem that we are focusing on is corporate governance, which concerns how the pension fund is run. Pension plans not operated by the government seem to do much better, and this is a common sensical idea. As in theory (not saying that they actually do), every time the government needs money, they can issue bonds, and they would always have buyers of this bond, which would be the pensions funds, which are also owned by the government. So basically, there is nothing stopping the pension funds from lending the money even without the best interest of the people contributing. This is how the current structure of the system works. If we treat the government as an entity, it’s kind of like me asking myself for money, and obviously I would say yes every time. It’s going to take a long time to reform the outdated system, which is the major driver of poverty. It will take a long time for the bill to be drafted and maybe it will pass. The most difficult part is that the final implementation is not up to me, it’s up to the people representing Korea.
HC McGill: Any advices for future young “Geniuses” who are also aspiring to make a difference in the world but don’t know where to start?
DK: Just because you may be qualified, you won’t always necessarily be given opportunities. But one focus that will add to the chance of success is think about why you and why now: what is it about your idea that needs to happen now, and by you?
Images obtained from: http://static.vibe.com/files/2015/04/ozy-genius-award-grant-undergrads.jpg and by the interviewee.