Lily Chaeyoun Kim never considered participating in a pageant until she was approached by a Korean designer at a hair salon in October.

“When I decided to run for this Miss Korea pageant I didn’t realize how much time or how much effort (it would take),” Kim said. “I got to learn so much from this pageant, this whole Miss Korea experience, that I definitely would do it all over again if I had to.”

Kim said her most memorable moments involved working with her friends during the preparation process. Lily Kim’s friend Michael Kim, a rising second-year design media arts student, helped Lily Kim promote herself on social media and provided feedback as Kim and her close friend, Carisse (CJ) Zepeda, a rising third-year design media arts student, planned out the swimsuit design for the bikini walk.

“(Kim) and (Zepeda), they’re both really out there, so they would come up with all of these crazy ideas and this was one of them,” Michael Kim said.

It only took two days for Zepeda to design Kim’s swimsuit for the Miss Korea USA pageant.