Newport Beach high school students are encouraged to apply for the 2026 Fellowship cohort of the Dragon Kim Foundation, http://dragonkimfoundation.org, whose mission is to inspire youth to impact their communities while discovering and pursuing their passions.
The deadline to apply for the seven-month leadership program for high school students is January 9, 2026. Prospective applicants are invited to sign up for an online or in-person inspiration session and/or to apply by visiting https://dragonkimfoundation.org/fellowship.
The Newport Beach area has a rich history of local high school students wanting to make a positive difference in their communities who were members of previous Fellowship cohorts.
Last summer, Sage Hill Newport Beach students Saachi Heer and Sophia Belasco created Echoes of Widom that focused on preserving the life stories of seniors to foster connection across generations, while Jonathan Yan founded Ride Smart. The project aimed to ensure cyclists and scooter riders were safer through the use of technology and education.
Another Sage Hill student, Abigai Wang, and her project partners created Camp Buddy & Beyond, a week-long summer camp, where neurodivergent children were paired together to foster positive social interactions and genuine friendships.
In 2024, the CodeQuest Kids project was conceived by Evan Razmjoo and Preston Kousoulas, both of Corona del Mar High School. CodeQuest Kids introduced underserved children in 6th to 8th grade to coding skills.
Constructive Journalism 101, a project developed by Sage Hill High School students Darren Huang and Grace Yan, had two parts: a kids’ news app that had already been made and a seminar series to teach critical analysis and journalism skills.
Debate Discovery Kids was the project of Sage Hill High School student Courtney Tetteh-Martey and her partner. The project offered two week-long summer camps to teach underserved students debate fundamentals. Junior Medics was developed by Alexis Fazeli of Sage Hill High School and her partner. The project centered on a summer camp that equipped children with life-saving skills, medical terminology.
Sage Hill High School student Caden Isola and his partner created Roots and Shoots that empowered underserved youth with sustainable gardening skills.
In 2025, the Foundation supported a record-setting 63 Fellowship projects run by 138 high school students in three states. Together, all of the projects directly impacted 56,260 individuals and indirectly impacted nearly seven million. More than 700 volunteers gave nearly 40,000 hours of service time to contribute to the Fellows’ vision and cause.
The Foundation plans to award community service grants of up to $5,000 each to support projects devised and implemented by motivated teens. High school student teams of two or three teens are encouraged to apply for the program. Applicants must be at least 13 years old and be U.S. citizens or legal residents of the state in which they are applying.
The Foundation will announce applicants selected for the Fellowship in the first quarter of 2026. These Fellows will participate in three weekends of intense leadership and business training at no cost to them that elsewhere can costs thousands of dollars. They will also be paired up with mentors with experience in their project area.
At the end of the program, they will present their projects at Graduation. Projects named semi-finalists will then present to a panel of esteemed judges at the CEO Summit. Those selected as finalists will go on to present at the Dragon Challenge where they will compete for an additional $5,000 to continue their projects.
The Fellowship was founded in honor of the late Dragon Kim, a talented young musician, athlete and scholar who wanted to help others. It has become a seedbed for the next generation of creative thinkers and entrepreneurs who want to create positive change.
The Dragon Kim Foundation was established in 2015 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization by Grace and Daniel Kim to honor the memory of their late son Dragon Kim, who had been attending the Orange County School of the Arts. The mission of the Dragon Kim Foundation is to inspire our youth to impact their communities while discovering and pursuing their passions.
Visit the website at http://dragonkimfoundation.org for more information.
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