Kelly had always been enamoured with exploring different parts of the world and learning about various cultures. In her home country of Korea, she studied tourism and was driven to improve her English through traveling. While in college, her class visited Canada for a couple of weeks, which started her lifelong dream of moving to Canada. She knew she had to find a way back to Canada, so when she completed her diploma, she saved her money while working for a travel agency. Using her savings, she was able to spend a year in Canada, learning English and traveling on a travel visa. This was life for Kelly, living and working to travel. Her adventures took her to Ireland, the UK, France, and other parts of Asia. When she returned from her travels abroad, she transitioned to teaching children English, as such jobs were easy to find with her English skills.

During that time Kelly found love, got married, and had two children. She was living in Korea caring for her children when she discovered a new passion: sand art. Sand art is a unique art form where the artist ignites storytelling by animating images using sand. The use of sand as a method of hand-drawn animation captivated Kelly, and she was inspired to combine this form of art with teaching. She learned the art from two creators in Korea and started performing and growing her art practice while teaching sand art at a community centre. Kelly became incredibly successful in her field of choice; she was performing and teaching, and even had a talent agent representing her. Despite all the success, her dream of moving to Canada was still calling.

In the summer of 2023, Kelly made the big decision to start fresh in Canada. She moved to Calgary and after getting her family settled, she enrolled in Momentum’s Self Employment program. She will graduate in June of this year and is now ready to launch her sand art business. She is ready to share the joy of her art with Canada and the world.

Learn more about our Self Employment programs! Intake for our full-time Self Employment program starts in June!