Ayla Kim, 2021 Significant Challenge College Scholarship Finalist
For Ayla Kim and many other Richie’s Spirit supporters, organ donation is a deeply personal subject. Ayla reflects on this in her essay, remembering the feeling of losing her mom to a brain aneurysm on December 12, 2020. After making the decision to donate her mom’s organs, instantly saving at least one man’s life, she launched an initiative called “Spread Joy.” In memory of her mom, she hopes to provide the same coordination, transparency, and understanding about organ donation that she needed when faced with the selfless decision of donating a loved one’s organs.
“I was drowning in a sea of troubles and needed to cling on to something. Staring at the electrocardiogram at Mom’s bedside, I found that something. I realized that, like Mom’s heartbeat waves, I will fall to low points, only to rise up from them—and I needed to rise up.” Ayla found organ donation to be that positive aspect on which to cling, and plans to continue her mother’s legacy of giving through raising awareness for organ donation.
As a senior at Fort Lee High School in NJ, she shares her story “to show the world that organ donation cannot only save families’ torn hearts when their loved one passes, as it did for me, but also that—together—we can save lives.” Ayla is now a first-year student at Brown University.
Richie’s Spirit Foundation congratulates Ayla Kim on being selected as a 2021 Finalist!