Melissa Kim

I have had the privilege of preparing my children for the challenges of their future by homeschooling them from kindergarten to 12th grade while also pursuing my own training in ballet as well as volunteering monthly at the Milpitas Food Pantry. In addition, I served on the Santa Clara Ballet Association board of directors and worked as the Santa Clara Ballet School office manager.  

As the office manager at Santa Clara Ballet School, I was able to modernize and simplify the student management and bookkeeping structure by utilizing online software that fit the needs and price of the existing management staff. I created standard practices for onboarding new students to clearly communicate the school's dress code and tuition policies to each new family. I maintained open communication with the parents throughout their time at the school via school newsletters emails and individual emails. 

As a board member of the Santa Clara Ballet Association, I secured municipal funding for the annual Nutcracker performance by presenting annually at the Santa Clara City Cultural Commission where I gave an account of our activities to secure the next year's funding. I also brought the marketing into the digital era through social media and email campaigns. During live performances, I oversaw the front-of-the-house volunteers in concession, ticket sales, and boutique. 

After the unfortunate post-pandemic closure of Santa Clara Ballet School, I took these talents and used them to bring new ideas to San Jose Dance Theatre, where I was the props master for their 2023 Nutcracker.  I created a Props Master Handbook to document the resources I used and steps I took to create new props, the resources used to update old props, recorded a timeline of events, and more to ease the process for future Props Masters.

In August 2024 I was invited to be a committee member on the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards. I am pleased to use the skills I developed at Santa Clara Ballet School and Association to serve the Izzies as their webmaster, in addition to being on the Nominations Sub-Committee and General Committee.