Sabrina Ochoa

Hometown: Boynton Beach, Florida
Year: 2021
Major: Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
Minor: Korean Studies
 
Sabrina first became interested in Korea through a research project on Hallyu, the increase or "wave" of global popularity of South Korean pop culture, and its relation to Japanese colonialism. Growing up in an area of the United States without much Korean diaspora or exposure to the culture, she has embraced several opportunities at Penn to explore this part of the world. From taking Korean language classes to being involved as an Associate Editor of Penn Asian Review, where she manages academic articles on contemporary and historical topics pertaining to Korea, Sabrina has discovering the tension between the familiar and unfamiliar that accompanies cultural immersion. She looks forward to studying abroad in Korea in the summer of 2019 and, through the Kim Program, hopes to gain the language skills and cultural insight to immerse herself in an ever-increasingly globalized country with conventions dissimilar and yet in many ways still similar to her own Latin-American background. As a 2018-2019 Undergraduate Fellow Sabrina is excited to engage in and promote the study of Korean popular culture and soft power due to its rising role in globalization and international politics.