She is a planner who views coffee as a language. After years of working in Seoul’s specialty coffee industry and experiencing numerous brands and projects, she settled in Jeju in 2019 and began to explore what it means to create planning that allows people to live together. Seeking ways for Jeju’s small coffee brands to thrive sustainably, she initiated Korea Coffee Week. This event has grown into an experimental platform that shares sentiments and messages, rather than a conventional trade fair. Each year, under themes such as “Coffee Is Blue,” dozens of brands interpret coffee in their own ways and create one exhibition together. She describes planning as “observing values closely and delivering them more clearly.” Today, she runs Cosmos Coffee Company on the first floor of the Jeju Communication & Cooperation Center, where new encounters between coffee and the local community continue to unfold.

A Western painter and migrant haenyeo, she began diving about four years ago in Taeheung 2-ri, a seaside village in Namwon-eup, Seogwipo on the southern coast of Jeju. Her studies in painting took her from Chugye University for the Arts in Seoul to Chelsea College of Arts in London, and in 2021 she graduated from the 7th class of the Beophwan Haenyeo School. The following year, she joined the Taeheung 2-ri fishing village cooperative as an active diver. In 2023, her first solo exhibition in Jeju, How I Accidentally Became a Haenyeo, earned her the nickname “haenyeo artist.” Much of her work is grounded in photographs and records taken underwater, shifting perspective between the surface and the deep. The Commute series captures haenyeo walking across basalt rocks into the sea with their orange floats, or taewak. The Floating Island series reimagines the taewak as both a safe zone and a small cosmos, while the more recent Na Haenyeo series expands the body and breath of haenyeo into images of cosmic navigation.

He runs the channel "Jeju Eddy," sharing stories of Jeju travel and local life with 140,000 subscribers.

Born and raised in Busan, he first came to Jeju in 2017 as a public health doctor, which began his connection with the island, and later he naturally decided to settle down here.

His main profession is Korean medicine, and after working in local clinics during his military service, he opened his own clinic in 2023.

While balancing the very different worlds of medical practice and video production, he continues to capture Jeju's landscapes, food, and daily life through continues to his content. From practical videos such as "Eight Reasons People Give Up Living in guides on local Jeju" to guides on local restaurants and travel courses, he offers information valuable to both residents and visitors.

Looking ahead, he plans to keep creating videos that highlight the real charms of Jeju while also expanding into overseas travel content.

Kim Bo ram is a traditional singer who carries Jeju’s folk songs and labor songs into the present with a modern sensibility. She first came to the island in 2006 after graduating from university for a performance project, and in 2013 she settled permanently after marriage. At Seoul Institute of the Arts, she majored in traditional performance arts, studying samulnori, pungmul, and mask dance while internalizing the power of rhythm and beat. During college, a class in Gyeonggi folk songs led her onto the path of singing, and in Jeju she deepenred her practice under the guidance of the late master Go Seong-ok. Her debut at the Jeju Folk Song Contest, where she sang “Nangttabi Sori” and “Cholhong Aegi,” remains an unforgettable stage in her journey. Today she performs pieces like “Cholhong Aegi” on stages, in schools, and on the streets, while also creating new works that carry Jeju’s sound forward.

Youngsook Kim and Nils Clauss are an international couple who have made Jeju their home for the past eight years. Youngsook, a self-taught baker, runs Breadpit, a baking studio specializing in naturally leavened bread, and is also active as an essay writer. Nils Clauss, who studied film in Germany and later learned cinematography in Korea, works as a filmmaker and photographer across a range of projects including films, music videos, commercials, and documentaries. Together, they value raising their children close to nature while maintaining a balance between life and work. Recently, with their two daughters, they completed a 14-day, 280-kilometer walk along the Camino de Santiago, from Porto to Santiago Cathedral. The challenges they faced along the way, as well as the kindness of strangers, became unforgettable memories for the family. They plan to continue pursuing new journeys through daily life and creative work in Jeju.

Karen Stritzinger is a creative technologist and founder of a software company based in North Carolina, USA. Through virtual reality and immersive media, she crafts stories that connect technology with environmental and social themes. In 2020, she adopted two Jindo-mix rescue dogs from Jeju Island—an experience that sparked her interest in the island and its people. Inspired by Jeju’s nature and the ways living beings adapt to climate change, she began developing a game rooted in these ideas and eventually came to the island to conduct research in person. She is currently developing a virtual reality game titled Waves of Jeju: Haenyeo School. To ensure authenticity, she enrolled in the real-life Hansupul Haenyeo School to learn freediving alongside local women divers, and is working with an indie game studio in Seoul to design characters and environments. A portion of the game’s profits will go toward preserving Haenyeo culture and restoring marine ecosystems. Her work is rooted in cultural respect, local connection, and hope for the future. She walks the line between tradition and technology, using both as tools to tell stories that matter.

Kim Hyung-jun began his career as an advertising designer in Seoul and became one of Korea’s first-generation web designers. Drawn to the ocean through freediving, he moved to Jeju with his wife and now works as both the head of the local fisheries association and a haenam, or male sea diver, in Sinsan-ri, Seogwipo. His wife became a haenyeo first, and after helping her at sea, he naturally found his own path in the water. He co-authored the book Merry Haenyeo to share a more joyful and empowered image of sea divers, challenging the common perception of the work as solely harsh and exhausting. He describes diving as a form of moving meditation, where solitude and encounters with marine life bring deep reflection. Outside the sea, he continues to work as a designer, speaker, guesthouse operator, and photographer. Although settling into village life as an outsider had its difficulties, he has gradually become a trusted part of the community. His dream is to share haenyeo culture with the world and build a global brand that honors their spirit and legacy.

Saramson Community is a cultural and arts planning organization based in Samdo-dong, Jeju City. It discovers local content from Jeju’s villages and transforms it into festivals, performances, and artistic programs. Sunyoung Hong founded the company in 2020 and has continued to lead projects that bring vitality to daily life through art created together with village residents. In particular, in Dwitgae Village of Bukchon-ri, she directed an outdoor play titled Dwitgae Halmaeng Dances, which portrayed the lives of haenyeo and featured actual villagers as performers. The performance was rooted in an archiving process that recorded the haenyeo’s words, gestures, and memories tied to the village. Hong approaches the village not as a backdrop but as the subject itself, exploring the connections between individual lives and artistic expression. She is currently working on a new performance centered around the old nettle trees in Bukchon, collecting memories and stories that local residents associate with the trees. The name “Saramson,” meaning “the hands of people,” reflects her belief in creation, connection, and hope within a community.