Kollaboration DC’s Volunteers Shine

By Jenny Chen

Washington, DC – It’s 2pm. The Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University seems clenched with anticipation. Nervous energy rockets from wall to wall. Young people with badges that have “Staff” stamped across them are setting up tables, organizing tickets and VIP bracelets. In the back, sound checks and light checks. A man in a dress shirt and jeans is calling out orders – “All staff – get together for a group picture! All staff downstairs! Volunteers – “

He pauses to acknowledge our arrival – “Asian Fortune is in the house!” he calls out.This man is Christian Oh, and this is his show. Or it was when he started it with Elliot Lee four years ago, but gradually, other community volunteers have stepped up to make this a team effort.

Kollaboration DC is part of a nationwide nonprofit – Kollaboration – which puts on Asian American talent competitions in 13 cities in North America to empower Asian Americans to get involved in the entertainment industry.

The DC event has garnered more interest over the years and grown tremendously during its short lifespan – this year Kollaboration DC showcased 10 finalists from the DC area, and brought guest performers such as girl band Blush, spoken word artists G Yamazawa and Franny Choi and rapper Gowe to the stage.

Perhaps most impressively, all of this effort is completely volunteer driven. Everyone from the directors to the ushers are volunteers and this year, Kollaboration DC had a total of 53 volunteers – including “staff” (who are volunteers that work year round on this event) and those who helped out at specific events.

Many of these volunteers are repeats. “I’ve been here since the very beginning,” said Erin Lee –

“At first I did whatever they asked me to do, the second year I helped out the Volunteer Coordinator, the third year I was the Volunteer Coordinator, and this year I was the Volunteer Coordinator as well.”

Lee is a clinical social worker by day, and the work she does at Kollaboration DC fulfills her. “It’s really about the mission – empowerment through entertainment,” she said.

Indeed, this mission is what attracts most of the volunteers here. Silvy Song started out as a photographer with Kollaboration DC but slowly got more and more involved. She is an event planner by day and found herself helping to organize volunteers and the acts until finally, this year, she was tapped to be Program Director.

“At first I was like…eh…it’s a big time commitment,” Song said. “But[…]if it’s not the mission then it’s definitely the people who make it worth it.”

The volunteer recruiting season starts with the Kollaboration DC event itself – the staff strive to make it an impressive event so that others will be inspired to join in on it’s making. The Kollaboration DC staff also travel to different high schools, and reach out to Asian American organizations in local colleges. This year there was so much interest in volunteering that interested volunteers had to be turned away, Lee said.

“The increase in volunteers has made it more possible for us to put on more events – sometimes the staff members just aren’t enough,” Lee said. This year, Kollaboration DC was able to host open mics, happy hours, and make appearances at Asian American events throughout the year in the DC area.

Song says that this year there were three professional event planners who volunteered their time on the staff and that really took the load off of co-founder Christian Oh’s shoulders.

“In the past it was him running around doing everything,” Song said. “It’s so much easier when there’s a team and everyone’s helping out.”

While most of Kollaboration DC’s C are college-aged students, there are also several high schoolers who participate.

Janet Lam, a student with Asian American LEAD (AALEAD), a nonprofit organization that provides support to Asian American middle and high school students in the DC area, convinced a whole contingent of AALEAD students to help out at this year’s Kollaboration DC. Lam had seen the event last year and contacted the organizers to see if they would be interested in having help.

“We love the students from AALEAD,” Lee said. “They’re so dedicated, energetic…they’re really great kids.”

“Our staff…really were amazing in both their dedication, work ethic and overall execution of our operations and things that needed to get done to have such a great show,” a tired but ecstatic Christian Oh wrote in an email on the night following the show.