We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yena a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Yena, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
When I think about the terms confidence and self-esteem, they immediately make me ponder two different questions: how much faith do I have in my abilities, and how much effort have I put in seemingly unattainable challenges? I believe that self-esteem is the foundation of building one’s confidence. In order to have faith in my abilities, I need to show myself that I indeed have sincerely put in effort to the things to which I commit. In addition to my effort, one of the biggest factors that helped me become more sure about myself was my determination to do something big or small every day that challenged me–whether that was performing in class, striking up a conversation with a new person in the lunchroom, or even sharing a funny joke with peers. In other words, the more I expose myself to things I was initially scared of doing, the more I will embrace my vulnerability and become a better version of myself.
I’m currently a senior in high school, and my school was exactly the right place for me to gradually build my confidence and self-esteem. My willingness to commit to the tasks that others may be reluctant to do, and create potentially embarrassing yet worthwhile moments, brought me the confidence to start my initiative called Dreamers’ Palette. This mentality keeps me moving forward even when I feel aimless. Rather than being overcome by nervousness and fear when in the face of unexpected obstacles or challenges, my confidence and self-esteem will foster joy through new fun moments in the present that my past self wouldn’t have known about. Now, I know that there is so much to garner from a single challenge or experience when I am true to myself and let myself chase after my goals.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Although my dreams have always changed throughout my childhood–from an artist, pianist, writer, or movie director to entrepreneur–all of them had one factor in common: my drive for creative expression and innovation. My enduring passion for art since I was seven has always been the proudest tool in my backpack, and I was yearning to find out more ways to utilize it to the fullest potential. Over the course of my high school career, I realized my particular interest in children’s educational equity and I wanted to care for the local community through an empathy-driven mission. With the goal of furthering arts education for under-resourced children in the DFW area, I began my community initiative called Dreamers’ Palette, a nonprofit organization dedicated to widening the accessibility of arts to children and empowering them through creative experiences. Realizing that solely hosting in-person art workshops may limit my reach in the community, I added a special product to my project: children-oriented art kits. While in-person workshops had allowed me to directly provide children with art guidance and develop memorable relationships, art kits were powerful in that children could develop self-driven artistic skills and their creative independence by enjoying a one-stop-shop package with a printed blueprint, instruction pamphlet, and necessary supplies for the art project. In the long run, my hope is that children will be able to learn about diverse aspects of art-making and achieve self-actualization through exposure to artistic experiences. Up until now, Dreamers’ Palette has produced 30-50 art kits per month to donate to local nonprofits in the DFW area, with a total of 380+ art kits distributed.
In order to gather children in one area for in-person art workshops, I searched for DFW child-focused nonprofit organizations that align with Dreamers’ Palette mission. Over the course of two years, I was able to partner with multiple organizations, including Ronald McDonald House of Dallas, Community Partners of Dallas, Genesis Women’s Shelter, and Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center. In March 2025, I was given an opportunity to design a special art kit for children in Kenya through Kenya Connect, a children’s education nonprofit. Entitled “Design Your Dream Hut,” I designed the art kit to be culturally relevant and familiar for Kenya Connect’s community. All of Dreamer’s Palette’s art kit blueprints, pamphlets, as well as workshop stories are consistently posted on the website. I record all the behind-the-scenes work and participant reflections through a blog.
When I first decided to start this initiative, I crafted a mission statement to always remember what role Dreamers’ Palette should serve in the community: “to expose children to the joys that lie within the art world, invite them to include art in their future dreams and aspirations, and let their voices be heard in society through meaningful creative expression, valuing sincerity, equity, and inclusivity.” My Dreamers’ Palette journey has spurred me to delve deeper into discovering diverse ways of empowering children in my community and ultimately brings me one step closer to the goal of helping children unleash their potential.
For the upcoming months, I’m planning to execute a new project idea called an Artist’s Cycle of Empowerment (ACE). My vision is to empower children to help those with similar experiences or hardships to share what they have learned from their creative experiences. By partnering with a local nonprofit organization called the Work/Shop in Dallas, I hope to participate in the Teen Artist market, where I will be able to sell Dreamer’s Palette participants’ handmade trinkets to raise funds and reach even more children in the local community.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
No matter how many times I jump into a new project in my life, I always believe there are still millions of things out there I haven’t yet discovered and learned in the world. No matter how experienced I become in the path I’m currently on, I will always approach something with certainty that there is always something I can learn. With that in mind, my journey has always been accompanied by three crucial factors that completely changed how I viewed the path in front of me: gratitude, a methodical approach, and execution ability.
I haven’t always intentionally considered gratitude, however, once I realized its impact, I can’t imagine my journey without it. When we get too engrossed in what is in front of us, we may be prone to losing sight of what mattered in the first place. While I strive toward future aspirations, I am motivated by my gratitude for the small things that keep me grounded in everyday life. Perceiving what I already had as “normal” and taking my comforts for granted was in fact a privilege–being able to work hard and even try something new is not something that is available to everyone. My ability to find gratitude offered me not only a lens to perceive my life with beauty but also the ability to embrace struggles and failures as gifts. People often say motivation comes and goes. However, I learned that if our habit of appreciating things is rooted in reflection, it can indeed be an enduring dose of motivation that moves us forward. Waiting for the right moment isn’t the way we should approach our lives. Instead, seizing the opportunities of today and focusing on the moments in front of us are going to further strengthen our present self.
Secondly, a methodical approach. I have always been called extremely organized with schedules, lists and three different Google spreadsheets open all the time. While being overly orderly can keep us from exploring the unknown, what I truly value in my methodical approach is that I’m always full of tools when in the face of aimlessness in my journey. Inevitably, all journeys will have moments when one absolutely has no idea where to start. In that moment, I always recall how I’ve felt in past moments. Knowing what I have done in similar situations and seeing my step-by-step approach keeps me pushing forward and helps me find new approaches.
Lastly, execution ability. As I meet new people and interact with them in new environments, I am always reminded there are so many ingenious ideas that have never been fulfilled or brought into the world. Seeing those ideas fade away without taking shape made me notice how big a difference there is between a person who only thinks and never chooses to take action, and a person who jots down even the most seemingly trivial idea on a blank piece of paper to find a starting point. The only reason I was able to establish and continuously run Dreamers’ Palette is because I was never afraid to send emails to DFW nonprofit organizations for a potential partnership. Sending hundreds of pitch emails and follow-ups, I ended up partnering with five organizations to date and expanding my project’s reach. Starting small is also very important. My idea for Dreamers’ Palette all started with my tiny vision of combining my love for art and children. However, in the long run, I added thousands of different components that shaped today’s Dreamers’ Palette. If I didn’t choose to research the current state of art education in DFW, children’s nonprofit organizations in my local area, and even the different types of efficient kit bags, I wouldn’t have been able to start my project. Choosing to take action by yourself is a big step, but also the least we can all do. When the time comes and an amazing opportunity is in front of us to seize, we have to be ready to grab it. Strong execution skills can build discipline and make us embark upon a new road.
To those who are early in their own journey of bringing their ideas to life, don’t choose an easy path! It may seem like there are those who have a remarkable knack of finding an easier way of doing things. However, in the end, those who were never afraid to give a hard path a shot and choose to do even the things others may avoid will have more opportunities set in front of them. Everything we go through becomes part of us, and I firmly believe in the notion that we don’t go backwards in our path. Even when we feel like we are declining and regretting the option we chose, all the things we have gone through inform our future choices.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
From my childhood up until only a few years ago, I have always labelled myself a prospective artist. However, as I began to study different fields in high school and learn about society and social issues through my hands-on experience with Dreamers’ Palette, I noticed that I was more of a generalist than a specialist in a single academic field. I believe that both generalists and specialists are crucial in today’s society. However, I’m inclined to want to try a new role, jump into a new field in which I have never imagined myself doing, and gain a diverse set of skills on which I can always count. Because of that, I do think there are a lot of advantages that come from trying to be more well-rounded than going all in on our strengths. For instance, when it comes to running Dreamers’ Palette, I had to go far beyond a sole passion for art. I needed to learn how to draft a compelling email pitch, delegate art kit production steps to volunteer members, and even distribute funds from a fundraiser to effectively develop the art kits and new workshop events. Furthermore, executing Dreamer’s Palette in Dallas’s downtown exposed me to the issues underlying systemic disinvestment in arts education. Dreamers’ Palette has led me to the intersection of urban development and art, spurring me to discover potential careers like urban planning and reflect on the role of art in the environment we live in. I believe my art and design skills are transferable across diverse disciplines, and in the current ever-evolving society, a mindset that embraces uncertainty and the pursuit of learning can indeed play a huge role in allowing us to approach new prospects. Exposing ourselves to new topics can present us with the ability to zoom out from where we are immersed and provide an opportunity to formulate our own form of expertise and applications!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dreamerspalette.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_dreamerspalette_/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dreamers_Palette
- Other: School Newspaper Staff Bio: https://ehscharge.org/staff_name/yena-nam/
Email address: [email protected]
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