Recently I traveled to the UK for National Geographic Society’s Field Ready program, a 7-month-long mentorship and training opportunity for Nat Geo grantees to advance their careers in natural history, science, exploration, and documentary filmmaking.

With mentees from Colombia to Nigeria, India to South Korea, and elsewhere, Field Ready’s only third cohort is – due to the pandemic – the first to be able to meet in person. To kick off the program, we were invited to @wildscreenorg, a wildlife film festival in Bristol that celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. We participated in a week of discussion panels, masterclasses, and screenings.

Coming from photojournalism rather than filmmaking, I initially felt a bit intimidated. However, the festival was a chance to practice and polish my elevator pitch on my Asian moon bear project, something I was only able to do because I really pushed myself to talk to many people. I realized that sometimes you just have to power through, even when you feel inadequate and not quite ready.

I am grateful for the opportunity to join Field Ready at this juncture of my career as I’m slowly pivoting back to more long-term storytelling. While I am continuing to work on my Asian moon bear story until next year, I am already planning the next chapters of my Korean Wave project as well as other projects – because there are so many stories I would love to tell and tell in more depth.

I look forward to the next 7 months of learning and growing together with my Field Ready mentors and fellow mentees.

(Copyediting by Marlies Gabrield Prinzl)

P.S. Flying out from London, I took the opportunity to visit “Hallyu! The Korean Wave” exhibition at the V&A, which was surprisingly well thought out.