Meet a VC Summer Intern: Jeana Cho

Learn about one of our 2019 VC Summer Interns, Jeana Cho, the LACAC Marketing & Social Media Intern.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Jeana Cho (she/her), and I just graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Communication and minors in Film, TV, & Digital Media and Asian American Studies. I have been doing Production Design for short films since my freshman year of college, and have recently been enjoying designing for music videos! Production Design is definitely something I am trying to pursue, particularly for music videos since it combines two of my deepest loves, filmmaking and music. When I’m not listening to music, I enjoy my free time playing with my 2 cats, watching ghosthunting videos, and drinking lots of coffee.

How did you hear about VC and what drew you to apply?

I heard about VC through Asian American Studies classes at UCLA. Immediately, I knew I wanted to be involved with them in some way. VC was the perfect combination of my major and minors (communication, film, Asian Am) so it sort of felt like my calling. But what drew me the most was the people. The sense of community. Before this internship, I had volunteered for the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, where I met a few staff members for the first time. Even though I was just a volunteer, they made me feel so welcome and I very quickly grew strong bonds with some of them. They had such a genuine and exciting chemistry with one another that I had never seen in any other workplace before. And now that I’ve stepped inside, that perception definitely holds true. No matter how tired I am, there isn’t a day that I dread coming into the office.

What do you do at VC? Which part do you find most interesting?

I’m the Marketing & Social Media Intern here at VC so I’m usually making graphics, pushing content across all our social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), writing blog posts for our website, sorting through pictures from #LAAPFF2019, and just generally keeping our online presence alive and exciting. I find making graphics the most interesting part of this job, so I utilized that a lot for our marketing campaign for “At First Site,” the event that my fellow interns and I curated and planned!

What is your favorite thing about working here? Any memorable moments?

My memorable moment may be small, but it really made me feel a deep appreciation and gratitude for my fellow interns. It was about a week before our event so we were scrambling for the home-stretch, on top of worrying about all the other intern projects we still had left. We were all sitting at a table together-- I was making graphics to promote our event, Rachel was finalizing sponsors to donate food for our receptions, Rino was hand-drawing illustrations of our featured artists, and Shoop was digitizing their illustrations into an animated trailer for our event. In the midst of all the chaos, I stepped back and took one second to look at all of us, and just thought, “Wow, I love this.” My favorite kind of people in the world are those who are dedicated to their work and go above and beyond to make it the best they possibly can. And in that moment, I really could see that each and every one of us embodied that. It made such a stressful task enjoyable and so worth it. So thank you, Rachel, Rino, and Shoop for being such inspirations. ♡

What’s your go-to karaoke song and why?

It depends on my mood. When I’m feeling hyped up, my go-to song is ‘PRAY’ by my favorite band FTISLAND, 2 keys higher. It has a very deep meaning, and it also allows me to channel my inner Aggretsuko (aka my spirit animal, literally me in anime character form). But when I’m feeling emotional, I sing ‘보물섬으로의 향해’ (Voyage to a Treasure Island) by 스프링쿨러 (Sprinkler), original key. It’s a song that resonates strongly with me, and has been one of my favorites for many many years.

My Experience at the LACAC Arts Summit

By Jeana Cho

Let me tell you-- Wednesday, June 26, 2019 was a LONG day. A long, but eventful and exciting day. June 26 was the day of the LACAC Arts Summit where we got to meet all of our fellow interns throughout LA County, as well as attend workshops and site visits. We had to be in downtown LA by 8am, so I woke up at around 6am to have enough time to get ready, pick up my fellow LACAC intern Rino Kodama, and drive to DTLA all the way from Westwood. It required a fat cup of coffee to get through the morning.

When we arrived at the Music Center, we were met with people who helped us sign up for our two workshops for the day, as well as a light breakfast array of muffins, croissants, and some fancy jams. After we grabbed our food, Rino and I debated whether to sit off on our own, or to be brave and meet some new people-- we decided on the latter. We joined someone who was sitting alone, and soon, our once-sparse circle of chairs was filled, with both people and chatter.

After everyone arrived, they led us up an elaborate staircase for the welcome ceremony, where we heard from speakers of various aspects of the LACAC internship program. Once that concluded, they split us off into our workshops-- I had picked “Navigating the Gig Economy” and “Art Without Borders” as my two. The gig economy one was particularly helpful for me as that is the terrain that I would be treading through as I pursue production design. It was reassuring to hear that everyone in that workshop also had all the same concerns as I did, such as “How do I know if I’m cut out for this?” or “How do I make sure I get paid for my work?” or “How do I do what I love without dying inside?”  It was nice to feel that I wasn’t alone in this process.

Next on the agenda was lunch, where we were fed boxed meals consisting of a sandwich, chips, fruit, and a cookie. It was so cute! We were also able to meet our Peer Groups at this time, with whom we would have two additional events with throughout the internship. Afterwards, we went on to performances and site visits. We watched two spoken word artists (Yosimar and Danyeli), whose poems made me very emotional, especially the one Danyeli gave about her mom. Then we visited The Broad (which was exciting because it was actually my first time there!) and The Colburn School of Music. Afterwards, we all congregated to watch one final performance at REDCAT. Upon conclusion of the entire summit, we were treated to Cafe Dulce donuts (felt like home!) and (finally) COFFEE-- I really needed it after all the socializing and walking around throughout the day.

That night was actually also the Sundance screening for THE FAREWELL at the Ace Hotel, which the VC staff and interns all got tickets to watch. Rino and I, along with another Little Tokyo LACAC intern, Darica, rode the bus to the Theater at the Ace Hotel. We met up with the rest of the VC crew, who came together on a different bus (pictured above!). We were the first ones in line so we got really good seats (and saw a bunch of celebrities)! The film was so good, so emotional, and actually a lot funnier than I expected! 10/10, would recommend you go watch it if you have not already!!