Priscilla Rahn has recently been elected as the Vice Chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. She is a proud, the first Korean American elected to this statewide executive board. On March 27th, the future of Colorado Republican Party has shifted to female leadership as party officials also voted to elevate Vice Chairman Kristi Brown to Chairman as part of the first all-female officer group in state party history.
Rahn, as a minority woman, who is both African American and Korean, shared her honest stories with Colorado Times and her future goals for being elected as a Vice Chair of the Colorado Republican Party.
“My mother is Korean and she immigrated from Korea to America. She learned Taekwondo, Jiujitsu, and Hapkido. She always used to tell me ‘to get ahead, you have to work while others are sleeping.’ She is my inspiration and motivation that gives me my positive energy and passion.” Rahn herself also lived in Daegu, South Korea for two years in her childhood. Since her father is an army veteran, she moved often due to her father’s obligations to the US army.
“When I first arrived in Korea, I was 10 years old. I went to school in Daegu for 2 years. Among many countries that I have been to, Korea definitely felt like home and I could really solidify and strengthen my identity as half-Korean,” she said. Her unique background and passion for education have driven her to take more and more roles to promote diversity and equality in our community.
“One of my goals as a Vice Chairwoman of the Colorado Republican Party is to be in charge of community outreach and to go into areas where Republicans have not typically gone. I want our elected officers and decision makers to effectively reflect the community. As a minority, I can go to different communities and make them feel familiar and ensure the fact that we all have to co-exist.”
Priscilla Rahn’s another goal is to let the Korean community know that she is always here to advocate and support Korean community. “When they need help with starting a new small business, receiving children’s scholarship, going through a citizenship journey, protecting their religious freedoms, I want you to know that I would love to help with the solution and support the Korean community,” she said. She also emphasized that she would like to work with a closer relationship with Aurora Colorado Sister Cities International and many other major Korean leadership communities.
Especially, Rahn is also a Master Teacher, an honorary title held by less than 1% of Coloradan teachers. With her 27 years in education, she has been a principal, teacher, evaluator, coach, and much more to many of her students. She was also the first teacher in Colorado to become National Board Certified in Early Adolescent/Young Adult Music.
“I would like to ensure that we address any education gap. We have a long summer ahead, providing summer school programs to lot of students, seniors and juniors who missed out on a whole year’s worth of vigorous education. We also need to ensure that we have conversation going on between public schools. Moreover, we need our legislators to see if there are new policies that can be passed so that students are not penalized for missing education.”
It is so proud to see her accomplishments and continued work toward forwarding the quality and equality of education for Colorado’s future generations. “This is the first time Colorado Republicans elected an all female executive team. I think people can start expecting to see a different Republican Party going ahead,” she said.
To find out more about Rahn’s efforts, accomplishments, and future goals as a newly-elected Vice Chairwoman of the Colorado Republican Party, you can visit https://priscillarahn.com/ for more information.
