Kam Otteson Blends Cultures and Builds Her Own Path

Growing up as an adopted child in a multicultural family, Thompson Valley High School senior Kam Otteson learned the importance of acceptance at a very young age.

Kam was adopted from Korea as an infant, and her parents, who are white, took Kam and her older brother to Thailand to live when they were small children.

“I grew up in an Asian country, so my parents were the ones who stuck out there,” she recalls.

Kam became fluent in Thai and English at the same time, and she learned a lot about Thai culture before moving to the mountains of Colorado, where her family lived off the grid for some time.

“It was very rural, and not very diverse, so it was good for me to have seen the different cultures,” Kam says. She remembers living on her family’s 44-acre plot of land in a sustainable home made of mud, tires, and straw bales, and having to trek over a mile to get to their car when large snowstorms made the roads impassible.

“We would have to wake up early to walk down to the car to get to school. That’s kind of what made us move down,” she says.

When Kam was in eighth grade, her family moved to Loveland, and she enrolled at TVHS — the school her mother, uncle, and aunt had all attended. She remembers feeling shocked at the large number of people in town, but as she always had, she set her sights on academic success.

“I have always put a lot of pressure on myself about grades, trying to be the best I can be,” she says. “Now, looking back at it, I did my best. I was trying and I understood. At the end of the day, the grades don’t matter, as long as I learn.”

Kam Otteson Finds Meaning in Challenge and Growth

Like her classmates, Kam found her early high school years challenging due to COVID, but eventually she was able to settle into life at Thompson Valley High School, finding her home on the tennis team and being active in the National Honor Society and the GiveNext program. She also keeps busy learning what she can about Korean culture and learning to speak Korean.

“In the past couple of years, I’ve really been interested in learning more and exploring different things about Korea,” she says. “I like to listen to Korean music and watch Korean shows. I try to keep up on the news in Korea. It helps me feel more connected, and I would love to go back there.”

In the meantime, Kam plans to attend Pacific Lutheran University in the fall, where she may study mathematics and linguistics. She feels like her years of learning in widely varying environments will serve her well.

“Because I grew up in so much diversity, I enjoy seeing people’s lifestyles and what they do with what they have,” she says. “There’s a lot of different sides to it, but we are all human. Everybody deserves a chance, no matter what they look like.”