Chemistry Is Fun, As These Kids Are Learning

LOS ALAMITOS, CA—It's the perennial question: What will you do on your summer vacation?

A Los Alamitos High School student has answered that typical question. Riley Yew combined her passion for chemistry with her interest in cosmetics to create Cosmetic Chem for Kids.

It's a camp with a goal of proving how chemistry can be fun and how it can also be integrated into everyday life. The camp serves underserved kids and piques their interest in science. Another goal is to fuel their interest in an academic career.

Yew created the camp with the support of the Dragon Kim Foundation.

That's an Orange County nonprofit with a mission of inspiring youth to have a positive effect on their communities while also figuring out what they're passionate about.

Through interactive projects and fun experiments, Cosmetic Chem for Kids shows a side of chemistry that is interesting and applicable to everyday life. It also provides an outlet for self-expression at home.

And, the camp encourages kids to use more environmentally-sustainable products, those that are homemade rather than mass-produced.

Recently, Yew's partners-in-chemistry were eager kids at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Anaheim and Cypress. During the course of the camp, they made bath bombs, toothpaste, sunscreen, moisturizer, lip balm and bubbles.

"Cosmetic Chem this summer has been such an amazing experience," Yew said in a press release. "The joy and amazement on the kids' faces every time they learned something new is the most rewarding feeling. Listening to them talk about how excited they were for the next project and how much they would miss us when we had to leave made all of the work worth it. I am eternally grateful for this experience and all of the connections I was able to build."

Her project is one of 28 sponsored already this year by the Dragon Kim Fellowship. The overarching aim of the fellowship is to grant close to $150,000 to local communities. It plans to do this with grants of up to $5,000 for each team or founder selected, to help them bring their community service project to fruition.

The teams receive three weeks of leadership training and hands-on guidance from mentors/experts from the community. They have diverse backgrounds in fields including business, real estate and computer science.

"As a first year Dragon Kim Foundation mentor, I am thrilled to be a part of Cosmetic Chem and working with Riley," the project's mentor, Tammy Ho, said in the press release. "It has been an amazing journey so far watching her create and develop her ideas into a program that finds unique ways to make chemistry relatable. I admire her passion for education and her enthusiasm to make an impact to the kids and families in her community."

At the end of the program, Dragon Fellows are expected to present their project to a panel of judges at the Dragon Challenge on September 19. The top projects may be eligible to compete for additional funding to continue.

The fellowship was founded in honor of the late Dragon Kim. He was a musician, athlete and scholar whose life mission was helping others. It's evolved into a "seedbed" for the next generation of creative thinkers and entrepreneurs who want to create positive change, according to the release.

For more information on the fellowship, click here.

The foundation was established in 2015 by Grace and Daniel Kim, Dragon Kim's parents, to honor his memory. He had been attending the OC School of the Arts.