Hello! My name is Stephanie Drenka and this eponymous blog is where I document my thoughts, travels, life, and occasional outfit of the day.
I was adopted from Seoul, South Korea at the age of 3 months. I’ve lived previously in Chicago, Atlanta, and New Jersey, but ended up making my home in Dallas. In high school, I was heavily involved in show choir and theater.
My very first job was as a performer in the Crazy Horse Saloon show at Six Flags Over Texas. I am a classically trained singer (mezzo soprano), though nowadays my performances are limited to karaoke nights and playing showtunes on our mid-century console piano handed down from my mom.
I received my Bachelor of Arts in Communication from DePaul University, minoring in Asian American Studies and Women’s Studies. During my junior year there, I served as president of the Asian Cultural Exchange, which won the Organization of the Year award from the university. In 2008, the now-defunct Asian Week Magazine named me one of “Ten Asian American Young Women Who Will Change the World” for my work as a steering committee member of the Support 121 Coalition, a grassroots effort that helped pass U.S. House Resolution 121 (aka the "Comfort Women Resolution") which called upon Japan to issue a formal apology for the sexual enslavement of more than 200,000 women and girls during World War II.
I was previously the Strategic Optimization Manager at rewardStyle, working with fellow bloggers to help optimize their websites, improve social media engagement, and increase sales conversions.
I found my next home in the non-profit world as the Senior Communications Manager at Big Thought where I was able to leverage my passion for the performing arts, photography, visual communications and technology to promote creative educational programs for Dallas youth.
Inspired to tell more stories of the incredible community work happening in the city, I left the organization and formed my own business, SD Media LLC.
As an INFJ Myers-Briggs Personality Type (with an Altruistic Service Predictive Index Pattern), my ultimate goal in life is to leave the world a better place than I found it. I am a committed advocate for equity, access, and representation. I believe in authenticity, transparency, and ethical storytelling through a lens of intersectional feminism and racial/social justice.