The K-Pop at Innovation event took place on the MHS Extension at the Innovation Campus on March 14 and featured games, activities, dance workshops led by professional dance crews, and dance performances from dance teams Arkade and Eclipse.
The event was an opportunity for people to have fun and find a common interest together, co-organizer and math teacher Seejee Kim said.
The event was successful, “just based on the people here and seeing how people are enjoying the event,” Kim said.
Activities and games featured in the event included a photo booth, bracelet making, photo card top-loader decoration, and dance lessons led by some of the dance groups invited to the event, Kim said.
The activities included “are pretty common amongst people that are in the K-Pop community,” Kim said. “We knew it was something that they would definitely enjoy.”
The event also included a food sale, Kim said.
“We had some Korean street foods, like bungeppang, which is a fish-shaped red bean bun,” Kim said. “We also had hotteok, which is a Korean sweet pancake, as well as gimbap.”
The event has been alright, but could have been a lot better, freshman Jose Turizo said.
“The Innovation Campus is a work in process, so we need a lot of attempts so we can get things right,” Turizo said. “It’s not like the main campus where you can hold any event and most likely, you’ll get a lot of students coming.”
The planning and scheduling could have been a lot better, Turizo said.
“The mapping was off, especially classroom-wise,” Turizo said. “Because you go here, you go there – it should have been closer together.”
The event went really well for their dance team, Eclipse dance member Johnny Zhou said.
“I really liked the energy,” Zhou said. “(This performance) is one of my favorite performances. I feel like people gave really good reactions, and everyone was just supporting us.”
Eclipse organizes performances all over California, and they were invited by an event organizer to perform at the Innovation Campus, Zhou said.
“I think next time we will come back, with an even more fun set dance with a different concept,” Zhou said.
Based on the success of this event, the Innovation Campus will definitely have a K-Pop event next year, Kim said.
“Later on this year, we’ll definitely have more community events, though maybe not K-Pop related,” Kim said.