Hyungtae Kim, a graduating U.S. History Major, is one of eight recipients of President Gutman’s Engagement and Innovation Prize Winners for 2020. The prizes “empower Penn students to design and undertake post-graduation projects that make a positive, lasting difference in the world. Each Prizewinning project will receive $100,000, as well as a $50,000 living stipend per team member. The Prizes are the largest of their kind in higher education.”
Hyungtae is collaborating with fellow students Kwaku Owusu and Mckayla Warwick on their proposed project, Collective Climb. The project aims “to increase economic prosperity among communities in West Philadelphia through a novel financial literacy initiative and innovative debt forgiveness model. Owusu, Warwick, and Kim will adapt and create a culturally relevant and historically inflected financial literacy program that simultaneously connects, empowers, and celebrates the West Philadelphia community. Their debt reduction model centers around “community pots,” collections of monetary contributions that leverage collective wealth to obliterate debt. Owusu, Warwick, and Kim are being mentored by Glenn Bryan, Assistant Vice President of Community Relations in Penn’s Office of Government and Community Affairs.”
Although he majored in US history, Hyungtae’s intellectual curiosity led him to pursue a broad set of interests at Penn, including contemporary American law, medieval society and culture, Black feminist theory, Japanese popular culture and Italian language. Hyungtae also participated in the Penn and Slavery research project under the direction of History Professor Kathy Brown. According to Hyungtae, his training in History played a significant role in his contribution to the Collective Climb project:
“Though it may not be immediately appreciable, our epistemic frame towards financial literacy is deeply historically inflected. We look to historicize our teachings and situate its pedagogy around cultural relevance. Even the premise behind our "community pots" finds its roots in the department; I first learned about immigrant collective wealth strategies from Professor St. George's class on the American West!”
Congratulations to Hyungtae, Kwaku and Mckayla!