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Mentors Sought to Guide High School Students in Dragon Kim Fellowship
The Dragon Kim Fellowship is seeking adult volunteers from a variety of professions and backgrounds to play a critical role as a teen mentor
Calling all prospective mentors! Adult volunteers from a variety of professions and backgrounds can play a critical part as mentors in the success of The Dragon Kim Fellowship, an annual program of The Dragon Kim Foundation, an Orange County, California-based nonprofit - http://dragonkimfoundation.org.
The mission of the organization is to inspire our youth to impact their communities while discovering and pursuing their passions. The decade-old Fellowship program is an annual seven-month social entrepreneurship activity that awards community service grants to motivated high school students throughout Arizona, California, Nevada and the western region to create and manage programs that will impact their communities.
The Foundation hopes to attract experienced adult mentors from the community to work with the high school students. Mentors generally have professional experience in the subject areas the students are serving. Projects topics often include musical and visual arts, academics, business, environment, mental and physical health, STEM, robotics, and more. In the past 10 years, more than 300 adults have stepped to mentor 600 Fellows, directly impacted 125,000 plus people and millions more indirectly. .
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To apply to become a mentor, visit http://bit.ly/4qJw6Rk Prospective mentors must apply no later than February 9, 2026.
During the period of March through August, mentors will be asked to attend an orientation, three leadership trainings, participate in weekly check-in sessions ,and visit projects in action. The total time commitment is about 25 hours over a six-month time period.
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In 2025, the Foundation supported a record-setting 63 Fellowship projects run by 138 high school students in three states. Together, all of the projects directly impacted 56,260 individuals and indirectly impacted nearly seven million. More than 700 volunteers gave nearly 40,000 hours of service time to contribute to the Fellows’ vision and cause.
Every year, once chosen from hundreds of applicants, the teens behind the projects participate in three weekends of leadership and business training. Then they implement their projects, supported by grants from the Foundation of up to $5,000 for each team. At the end of the program, they will present their project at graduation, with semifinalists going on to the CEO Summit, before the finalists face the judges at the Dragon Challenge to compete for additional funding to continue serving the community. Mentors are invited to attend these events.
One hundred percent of Foundation’s graduating high school students go on to college or university, and 60 percent attend the top 25 U.S. colleges and universities.
“We salute each of these talented and experienced professionals who play an integral role by mentoring one of our Fellowship teams as they dream, design, and implement their community service projects,” Foundation Board CEO and Co-Founder Daniel Kim said.
Kim said the many positive values of Dragon Kim Foundation mentorship include the opportunity to interact with inspired high school students, and gaining a chance to learn more about their own style in terms of engagement and feedback as they help teens take chances in a safe environment that might have hobbled them otherwise. Mentors have a rewarding experience that can help the Fellows change their corner of the world as they enjoy a wonderful way to give back to their community.
The Fellowship was founded in honor of the late Dragon Kim, a talented young musician, athlete, and scholar who wanted to help others. A decade since, it has become a seedbed for the next generation of creative thinkers and entrepreneurs who want to create positive change.
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About the Dragon Kim Foundation
The Dragon Kim Foundation was established in 2015 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization by Grace and Daniel Kim to honor the memory of their late son Dragon Kim, who had been attending the Orange County School of the Arts. The mission of the Dragon Kim Foundation is to inspire our youth to impact their communities while discovering and pursuing their passions. Visit the website at http://dragonkimfoundation.org.
