{"id":21377,"date":"2026-07-23T11:14:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexforyouth.org\/?post_type=news&p=21377"},"modified":"2026-07-23T15:34:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T19:34:26","slug":"simon-kim-apex-for-youth-cote","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/apexforyouth.org\/ko\/news-and-announcements\/simon-kim-apex-for-youth-cote\/","title":{"rendered":"A Seat at the Table: Why Simon Kim and COTE Keep Showing Up for Apex Graduates"},"content":{"rendered":"


There’s a particular quiet that falls over a table when someone experiences real hospitality for the first time, the kind where every detail seems designed to make you feel like you belong. For Apex students walking into COTE, that quiet is followed by a realization: that this world, too, is theirs for the taking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s exactly the point, according to Simon Kim, Founder & CEO, Gracious Hospitality Management. For years, COTE<\/a> has partnered with Apex to host the organization’s Graduation and Scholarship Celebration, a lunch that honors graduating seniors, college graduates, and scholarship recipients.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Than a Meal<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“Apex provides access through scholarships, mentorship, and real exposure, but this celebration is about showing students what’s possible,” Kim said. “It’s important to me that the students experience the standards and energy of high-level hospitality and are celebrated in a way that reflects where they’re going. Many of these students have not had this type of dining experience, and I want them to experience it so that it’s not unfamiliar to them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That idea making the unfamiliar familiar is the same approach behind Apex’s workshops and career panels that shape our youth long before they ever sit down at COTE’s table. For Kim, a celebratory lunch isn’t a departure from that mission; it’s an extension of it. A youth who has already navigated a Michelin-starred dining room once won’t feel out of place doing it again in a boardroom, at a job interview, or in any other room they walk into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"simon<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Confidence That Outlasts the Afternoon<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kim is candid that the goal isn’t a single afternoon of celebration, it’s a shift in how these students see themselves going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I hope they carry a sense of confidence and the ability to celebrate themselves,” Kim said. “Learning how to recognize your own progress and milestones is just as important as the work itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a sentiment that shows up in the students’ reflections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alumni scholarship winner Vicki, now a nursing student, put it simply: “Apex and events like COTE remind me that progress is worth celebrating, even when there’s more ahead.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alumni graduate Michelle, who has attended the celebration with her closest friends from the program, said she gets to mark her graduation with the Apex community in a way she wasn’t able to with her own family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And graduating senior Kyle, an incoming freshman at Duke, described the celebration as marking the end of one chapter and the beginning of several new ones, college, new friendships, and a lasting place in the Apex alumni network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agency, Defined by Someone Who Found His Own Path<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Apex shows youth that there is no one path to success, empowering them to envision a limitless future with the resources and connections to get there. It’s a theme Kim relates to personally, having built his own unconventional route from studying hotel administration in Las Vegas to founding the country’s only Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I was lost for a long time before I found my path, so I deeply believe there’s no single path to success,” Kim said. “To me, agency is about having the courage to try different things, staying open, and surrounding yourself with the right mentors and support system. It’s through challenges and uncertainty that you eventually find clarity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a philosophy that mirrors what Apex students describe learning through their own mentors, that success isn’t a fixed destination but a series of milestones worth recognizing along the way, and that the people who show up for you along that path matter as much as the path itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"simon<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A Tradition Worth Repeating<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Assumpta Galang, Apex’s Associate Director of College and Career Success, the COTE celebration is one of the highlights of the year precisely because it brings all of these threads together, recognition, community, and a send-off into whatever comes next, all “over delicious Korean food.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Kim, hosting that moment is simple math: give students a seat at a table they might not have imagined for themselves, and watch them realize how many more tables are within reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to see more moments like this? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\uc790\uc138\ud788 \uc54c\uc544\ubcf4\uae30 \uccad\uc18c\ub144\uc744 \uc704\ud55c \uc5d0\uc774\ud399\uc2a4<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow our \uc778\uc2a4\ud0c0\uadf8\ub7a8<\/a> \uadf8\ub9ac\uace0 LinkedIn<\/a> to keep updated on our programming!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelin-starred restaurateur Simon Kim and COTE host Apex’s Graduation and Scholarship Celebration \u2013 a lunch that teaches confidence, hospitality, and agency. <\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":21379,"template":"","class_list":["post-21377","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Seat at the Table: Why Simon Kim and COTE Keep Showing Up for Apex Graduates | Apex for Youth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Michelin-starred restaurateur Simon Kim and COTE host Apex's Graduation and Scholarship Celebration \u2013 a lunch that teaches confidence, hospitality, and agency.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apexforyouth.org\/ko\/\ub274\uc2a4-\ubc0f-\uacf5\uc9c0-\uc0ac\ud56d\/simon-kim-apex-for-youth-cote\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ko_KR\" \/>\n<meta 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