Futures Lab is a full-day creative program for Bay Area teens ages 13–19 to explore storytelling, media, creative coding, and the arts through hands-on workshops led by working creators and educators.
Students will build creative confidence, experiment with emerging digital tools, meet peers, and gain a meaningful community-based learning experience they can carry into school, leadership, and creative opportunities.
Developed with input from teen leaders, Futures Lab reflects the creative tools, media platforms, and creative questions young people are already navigating today.
✨ Open to teens of all backgrounds. No Korean language ability, coding experience, or prior media experience is required. Lunch is included, and scholarships or approved partner/referral rates are available.
Futures Lab is presented by Korean Center, Inc. (KCI) with support from the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco and the Overseas Koreans Agency.
📅 Program Details
Date: Saturday, June 20, 2026
Time: 10:00 AM–5:00 PM. Doors open at 9:45 AM.
Location: Korean Center, Inc., 1362 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
Eligible Participants: Teens ages 13–19
Registration Fee: $50 per participant. Scholarships and approved partner or referral rates are available. Please contact Anthony Kim at anthonykim@koreancentersf.org with any questions.
Lunch: Included
Technology: Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop if they have access to one. If a participant does not have access to a laptop, please let us know during registration so we can do our best to make arrangements.
🎯 What to Expect
Futures Lab brings together hands-on workshops, creative experimentation, and conversations with working creators. The day includes:
🎬 Storyboarding for Well-being
Use humor, storytelling, and media-making to turn real-life challenges into storyboards that support reflection, connection, and emotional resilience.
📱 Digital Tools for Creative Storytelling
Learn how to use emerging digital tools to brainstorm story angles, develop hooks, draft short-form video scripts, and shape social-first concepts for creative projects.
🎭 AI Microdrama
Explore how a story idea can become a short-form video using scripting, visual generation, and basic editing techniques.
💻 Vibe Coding
Try creative coding as a way to prototype ideas, experiment with technology, and make playful digital experiences.
💬 Real Talk with Creators
Hear from artists, media-makers, and creative professionals about how they work, what they’ve learned, and where creativity can lead.
🕒 Schedule
Check-in opens at 9:45 AM. Programming runs from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
| 9:45 AM | Check-in opens |
| 10:00–10:15 AM | Welcome + Opening Remarks |
| 10:15–10:45 AM | Social Bingo |
| 10:45 AM–12:00 PM | Workshop Block 1: Reel Funny with SALT ED |
| 12:10–1:10 PM | Lunch + Korean Calligraphy Station |
| 1:20–2:20 PM | Workshop Block 2: Storytelling for Social Media with Wayne Hwang |
| 2:30–3:30 PM | Workshop Block 3: Microdrama with Serena Jiang |
| 3:40–4:40 PM | Workshop Block 4: Vibe Coding with Ayoung Cho + Team |
| 4:40–4:55 PM | Closing Remarks, Kahoot + Reflections |
| 5:00 PM | Program Ends |
Schedule subject to change.
Why parents should consider Futures Lab
Futures Lab gives teens a structured, creative, and culturally grounded space to explore emerging technology with peers and mentors. It is a good fit for students interested in media, storytelling, music, technology, leadership, or creative careers. The program is beginner-friendly, lunch is included, and scholarships are available.
Meet Our Workshop Leaders
Our workshop leaders are educators, artists, entrepreneurs, and creative technologists helping students explore new ways to tell stories, build ideas, and express themselves. Each session is hands-on, beginner-friendly, and designed to help teens leave with more confidence in their own creative voice.
Storyboarding for Well-being
In this interactive workshop, students will explore how humor, storytelling, and creative media can help them navigate conflict, strengthen emotional resilience, and build healthier ways of expressing themselves. Led by SALT ED’s Reel Funny program, the session invites youth to turn real-life challenges into storyboards that open space for reflection, connection, and joy.
About SALT ED & Reel Funny
SALT ED Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering youth to become accountable, socially responsible leaders through experiential learning, creative storytelling, and community collaboration. Its Reel Funny program uses self-expression, humor, and media-making to help students strengthen mental health, emotional intelligence, and real-world problem-solving skills.
Instagram: @reelfunny_official
Website: https://salt-ed.org/
Digital Tools for Creative Storytelling
Have a creative project you’re excited about and ready to share with the world?
In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn how to use emerging digital tools as a creative marketing assistant to turn your ideas into engaging, social-first video concepts. Together, we’ll explore how tools like ChatGPT and Claude can support brainstorming, help organize story angles, develop hooks, draft short-form video outlines, and refine messaging for platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts.
By the end of the session, you’ll leave with a clear outline and script for a short video designed to showcase your creative passion project.
Participants should bring a laptop, a free ChatGPT or Claude account, and a creative project idea they’re ready to promote.
Instagram: @waynewhwang
AI Microdrama: From Idea to Screen
What if you could turn a story idea into a short film using AI?
In this hands-on workshop, students will explore how to brainstorm concepts, experiment with scripting, visual concepts, AI-assisted video tools, and basic editing techniques to understand how a story idea can move toward the screen. No filmmaking experience is required, just curiosity and a story to tell.
Bio
Serena Jiang is the co-founder of Bitz Films, an AI-native film studio exploring how generative AI can transform the way stories are created and distributed. With over 15 years of experience in technology, gaming, and digital media, she has worked at companies including Machine Zone and Toplooks.ai, which was acquired by Klarna.
Serena is passionate about helping the next generation of creators use AI as a creative tool. As a writer, producer, and entrepreneur, she combines storytelling with emerging technology to build films and digital experiences for modern audiences.
Vibe Coding
Learn to build what you imagine, NO CODING EXPERIENCE needed. In this hands-on session, you’ll use AI tools to turn your ideas into real, working products. From “I wish this existed” to “I made this” in one afternoon.
Bio
Ayoung is a UC Berkeley Haas MBA student, former educator, and founder dedicated to building AI tools that unlock human potential and support child development. With a diverse background spanning global strategy at McKinsey and seven years of firsthand classroom teaching, she brings a unique perspective to the intersection of technology and learning. She firmly believes that the most powerful skill of the next generation isn’t writing lines of code, it’s knowing exactly what to build.
An innovator in the field, Ayoung won 1st Place at both the UC Berkeley AI Hackathon and the Berkeley Civic Innovation Challenge, and was recognized with the Design Innovation Award at the New York Social IoT Project.
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/
Portfolio: https://ayoungcho.com/
Meet Our Teen Leads
Futures Lab is youth-centered from planning through program day. Our Teen Leads helped shape outreach, welcome participants, support activities, and bring their own perspectives on creativity, technology, and community. Their leadership reflects KCI’s commitment to creating programs with young people at the center.
I’m Vera (she/her), a sophomore student from Marin County. I’m a part of the 2026 Korean Future Labs planning cohort, where I’m helping design and lead a one-day program for Korean culture-connected youth in the Bay Area this June.
My connection to Korean culture has always been rooted in my upbringing, but it’s also something I’ve had to actively reconnect with and understand. While planning this event, I hope that teenagers can learn to see Korean culture as a part of themselves to embrace and explore, rather than push away.
Outside of KFL, I’m involved in the Marin County Youth Commission, where I lead our Racial Equity Subcommittee that directly interacts with communities of color through outreach and advocacy projects. And throughout it all, the Korean part of my identity has been something I’ve grown to embrace and share more openly, and that’s what I’m showing up with on June 20th.
My name is Justin Son, and I am a 2nd generation Korean-American from Corte Madera, California. Despite my experience of being born and raised in the Bay Area, I feel a strong connection to Korea as a part of my identity. I enjoy every aspect of my Korean identity, specifically history, media, cuisine and culture. One area of art that has captivated me for a while now is the fashion industry, as the clothes that I wear and use daily are my form of self-expression and are a keystone component of my day-to-day experience. This year, I will work to leave the Korean Futures Lab participants with innovative ideas from engaging activities, inspiring guest speakers and hands-on workshops. After the event, I am hoping for the participants to be inspired by the Lab and feel the impulse to further explore their Korean heritage.
Hi, my name is Elliott Matschoss, and I was born in Nürnberg, Germany, but I now live in San Francisco. I am half Korean, and enjoy my mom’s Korean food daily. My favorite is her bibimbap. I am extremely interested in shoe design, and love sketching shoes in my free time. I am looking forward to building community and learning about other’s experiences in art and technology through the Lab.
My name is Quinton Liu. I am a 14 year old half Korean and host Taiwanese who lives in San Francisco with my mother, father, and little brother. I am in 8th grade and will be going to Saint Ignatius high school next year. When not in school I play waterpolo or hang out with friends. I also have a cooking and baking YouTube channel. I make cooking and baking videos for fun and for a nonprofit called Kids Cooking For Life.
