Meet KC: NCPT Volunteer Spotlight
Copyright © The Nanchang Project
By Nanchang Project
After a full and successful 2024, we are excited to welcome in the new year of 2025 by celebrating the people who make our organization run.
As an organization, Nanchang Project is able to connect members of the Chinese international adoption community – adoptees, birth families, parents, and beyond – through the support and dedication of our volunteers.
They dedicate their time, talents, visions, and voices to serve the mission of Nanchang Project. From birth family search and reunion, to cultivating a community of support for adoptees, our team of volunteers (adoptees and parents themselves!) are at the heart of it all.
At the top of the new year, we are shining a light on one of our volunteers, KC, who has been with NCPT since November 2023. Read on to learn more about NCPT Blog Team Lead, KC Lin.
What is your current role with Nanchang Project?
Blog Team Lead
Why did you join Nanchang Project?
When I first joined Nanchang Project, my real desire was to find community. I hoped to also find a way to continue the creative work that had first led me to NCPT. That work was centered on identity, self-exploration, and navigating the many nuances I encountered in my search for belonging and connection to my lost culture. And while the creative medium is now different, the work of uplifting and affirming the nuanced and first-hand experiences of those whose lives have been touched by Chinese adoption is the same.
Tell us about yourself! (School/work, family, pets, hobbies, etc.)
I am currently a Digital Marketing Analyst for a marketing consultancy that serves arts and culture non-profit organizations. In college, I majored in Contemporary Dance and Media Advertising. My younger sister is also adopted from China (non-biological). I would definitely categorize myself as a serial hobby-ist. I am a painter, seamstress, crocheter, cook, prolific Goodreads user, boba-enthusiast, cat-cuddler, Pinterest-addict, bibliophile, ramen-consumer, Korean-learner, and nocturnal furniture-rearranger.
What’s the next place on your travel bucket list?
Planning a trip to Japan and Korea with a friend in a couple of years (fingers crossed it makes it out of the chat)!
If you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Jjamppong – Chinese-style spicy Korean noodle soup!! Or white rice with dried seaweed – sometimes simple is best.
Where did you grow up?
Indianapolis, IN, USA
How do you connect with your Chinese heritage?
For me, having small influences spread across many facets of my life has helped me connect to my heritage (and other facets of my cultural identity more broadly) in a fulfilling and sustainable way. I like to surround myself with artwork from Chinese artists or artwork derived from a Chinese style. I love to read books relevant to varying facets of my Chinese-American identity (Chinese history, Chinese-American anthropology, historical fiction, Asian-American memoirs, etc.). When Chinese holidays come around, I have been trying out various Chinese recipes, even if they are not traditional (and always always make white rice and dumplings). I wear jewelry my parents bought while in China. And I like to consume various East Asian media as a whole (the cultures within the region do influence each other, and their histories are intertwined, after all).
Has any specific project or contribution during your volunteer work with the Nanchang Project been particularly meaningful or impactful to you?
Launching the blog has been especially meaningful to me. I have the trust of NCPT and many blog contributors whose stories I have the privilege and responsibility to uplift and share with our existing and growing community. Communicating with so many contributors with very different stories, perspectives, and experiences, I've found to be extremely grounding. There is so much nuance, vulnerability, joy, sadness, fun, and everything else in between to be found in the experiences of others.
Stay tuned for future volunteer spotlights and meet the rest of the team here.
For more NCPT news on DNA matches, search flyers, ongoing projects, volunteer spotlights, and ways to get involved, subscribe to our quarterly newsletter (sign up at the very bottom of our website)!
Our blog stories come from readers like you!
We invite you to send us your own story to share. We accept submissions from anyone whose life may have been touched by Chinese international adoption including, but not limited to: adoptees, adoptive families, birth families, friends, searchers.
Details in the link below!