The Sorting Instinct Lina sits on the BART train, the hum beneath her feet steady as a heartbeat. Her laptop bag presses against her knees, filled with the weight of two worlds — one humming with spreadsheets and strategy decks, the other with grocery lists written in her mother’s clipped English. Her phone buzzes. A Teams notification: Need your input on Q4. A WeChat message from her aunt: 你吃了吗? Have you eaten? She toggles between apps the way she’s toggled through life: Eng

Kimjang and other communal traditions remind us that leadership isn’t only learned in boardrooms. For first-gen professionals, these practices reveal hidden skills of collaboration, empathy, and resilience that shape our careers.