A Chat with STEAM Champion, Sun Family Foundation

We are grateful to partner with the Sun Family Foundation since 2020. This year, we have the pleasure of honoring them at our upcoming event “From The Heart” on Friday, April 19, because of their commitment to creativity, the students we serve at Child Creativity Lab, and the good of all students in Orange County.

Director of Partnerships, Katy McInnes, met with Sun Family Foundation Representative (Director, Investments), Daniel Mullarkey, to chat about the importance of investing in our community’s creativity, the foundation’s work, and all of the little moments that really build up.

KM: What does creativity mean to you?

DM: Creativity can encompass so many things, but let’s keep it simple… Creativity is a dynamic view of the world. 

KM: Why are creativity and STEAM education both so important for the students of Orange County?

DM: In the world that we live in, technology [T in STEAM] is becoming ever more important and creativity contributes to the well-roundedness of each individual. Even if you’re a rocket scientist, having some sort of global view of all disciplines of life is relevant. There are things you can take from all aspects of life and integrate into your work, rather than be singularly focused on something you’re good at. People who are singularly focused may be good at getting the job done, but they may not push innovation forward, because they are used to doing the same thing repeatedly. Innovation comes from external factors and skills to look at things differently or take a different approach to create solutions to problems. 

KM: I love that you said that because that is our organization’s definition of creativity! A lot of students, when first asked what creativity means to them, say things like, “Creativity is just painting, drawing, or fine arts” and we’re working to change that… Talking about external skills, I noticed that the foundation started because the founder’s mother was a teacher.[1] When the foundation first began, you all focused mainly on educational initiatives. Now the foundation supports so many facets of the community such as youth development and human services like housing, food insecurity, and more. How did the foundation expand that focus?

DM: After Joanna [Sun Family Foundation Executive Director, Joanna Kong] came to the team, we spent a lot of time thinking of who we wanted to help, geographically and demographically, and we came up with some core pillars. We wanted to try to break some of the set cycles in the world, whether that’s poverty or disenfranchisement, and a lot of that came back to education. Education is a pathway to success regardless of your starting point, and a good education can take you a long way. Along those same lines, we wanted to broaden the definition of education to include workforce development, re-skilling, later career education, and entrepreneurship. We’re also looking at early education, like literacy programs. The other thing that came out of our discussions was a geographic focus. The Sun Family felt that Orange County had given a lot to them, so we decided to focus on Orange County for our efforts. Our core pillars became education, homelessness, food insecurity, workforce development, and one we call “community need.” For example, during the pandemic, it became clear that food insecurity would be a real challenge. We ramped up this area of focus quite a bit in 2020 to help deal with that challenge. Another area we’re looking at now is aging. Orange County has a significant aging population and there are many unique challenges from an aging population, like health services – both physical and mental, housing, etc. This community need “bucket” can shift on a daily, monthly, or annual basis, and that allows us to create a more tangential approach to problem-solving.

KM: What are the key things you all are excited about at the foundation?

DM: One of the things that has been emphasized to us – which isn’t a pillar of giving, but an approach—is to take risks in philanthropy. David Sun has encouraged us to find smaller non-profits that solve a particular problem and to try to help them scale up. These non-profits don’t necessarily have a sure outcome as they have very limited budgets and only a few staff members, but they have big dreams and a long way to go to get there. We’re selective about this, but we try to find non-profits that are doing things a bit differently and can have a larger impact than their size may suggest. That’s one of the philosophical things that makes our foundation a bit different, that we’re not afraid to take risks rather than doing things the same way they have always been done. Not that we don’t support some very large, established non-profits, but I think our sweet spot is focusing on up-and-coming non-profits with strong leaders that we feel solve real problems.

KM: The Sun Family Foundation has been our partner since 2020, first investing in us in a critical time in student achievement when students could no longer be hands-on, were isolated, and only Zoom. You may have just answered this, but I’m curious why you first began supporting us and why you continue to support Child Creativity Lab?

DM: When we first met Tracey [CEO of CCL, Tracey Hill] we really liked her, and she had big goals to grow the organization. Child Creativity Lab’s approach to STEAM programs is unique, because of its emphasis on building student creativity. Despite not having a specific, measurable impact, we believe that Child Creativity Lab does make an impact— it makes for better communities, better problem-solving, and better humans in the future. CCL also falls into that interesting niche where you all are accomplishing what we call “a dual win.” You help the community in multiple ways. You’re helping young people with their STEAM learning, which is important to us, but you’re also benefiting the community by recycling all your materials and being efficient with waste. 2 We see this as being efficient with capital because of how you deliver your programs, as well.

KM: Thank you for that. It’s amazing to think about where we were in 2020 and where we are now. Back then, we were at 3 full-time employees, and now we’re at 9 full-time employees. We served 3,917 students in 2020 and last year, serving 42,510 children. It’s been tremendous growth for us, and I think it’s because of that dual approach you’re talking about. It’s also due to investment from Foundations like the Sun Family Foundation, so thank you for your support. What does the foundation want as a lasting impact of the work you all do?

DM: One of our core values is humility. Our work isn’t about naming rights or anything like that. It’s about putting our best effort into leaving a lasting impact on the community and embracing you might have just been the slight nudge someone needed to achieve their desired outcome, rather than taking credit for anyone else’s success. We don’t think about a “lasting legacy.” Our goal is to do the work and not take the credit for it…which is funny because we’re being interviewed for getting an award! But David and the Sun Family have typically shied away from public acknowledgment. We don’t seek it out, but we do embrace it and appreciate it when it happens. Hopefully, we can use the platform for the greater good, rather than individual acknowledgment.

KM: Do you have a favorite moment from your time at the foundation?

DM: There are a lot of little ones. It’s all about that inner human connectivity where you see someone and how a difference is being made in their life. One that stands out to me is our original scholarship program. We would do an awards ceremony to celebrate the recipients of the scholarship of the program, and their parents would come up to us, bursting into tears that their kids got a scholarship! It would be so difficult for our team not to be emotional! That one always sticks with me, but there have been a lot of things over the years. Just the smiling faces that you see, the people that you see that are enthusiastic about what they’re doing…all the little moments really build up.

[1] For more information on the Sun Family Foundation’s beginnings, click here to learn more about founders, David & Diana Sun, and David’s late mother, Guang Yuan.

[2] Interested in our programs and how you can support Orange County students with waste diversion? Please email us at info@childcreativitylab.org