Wesley Marshall
Seoul, South Korea
Student Senate for California Community Colleges
Student Senate for California Community Colleges
El Camino Community College District
Wesley Marshall is a Korean-American engineer, entrepreneur, and education advocate. He is the founder of WesOnSTEM, a platform focused on “helping students navigate the journey of higher education.” Marshall is a former foster youth from South Korea, and was later adopted into the United States. He transferred from El Camino College to Stanford University, where he built a self-designed major in Engineering Design and Business Administration. He is primarily known for his online social media presence WesOnSTEM which helps thousands of students across the world. He is also known for his student advocacy and the local, statewide, and national levels
Early life and education
Marshall is a former foster youth born into a poverty-stricken household in South Korea. Given the birth name Yoo Jaemin (Korean: 유재민), he was separated from his family early in his life. He was later adopted and moved to the United States, where he showed an early interest in creativity and problem-solving through building with Legos, an interest that later guided his path toward engineering. He has described navigating the education system largely on his own, having to build his own path through higher education.
Marshall attended North High School and El Camino College in Torrance, California, before transferring to Stanford University. He earned 11 associate degrees at El Camino College.
Career
Marshall's work centers on making the path to top universities more accessible, especially for community college students. He has pursued this through WesOnSTEM, his time at Stanford, and his work in student government.
WesOnSTEM
WesOnSTEM began in July 2023 as an article-based storytelling website sharing stories of success through STEM in the California Community College system. In August 2025, Marshall relaunched it as a company, and since his transfer to Stanford its focus has shifted toward college admissions and transfer strategy.
Today WesOnSTEM is both a content platform and a consulting practice. Marshall shares transfer and admissions guidance with a following of more than 9,000 across social media, and offers affordable one-on-one consulting for students who can't afford traditional admissions consultants.
Stanford University
Marshall was one of roughly 90 transfer students admitted to Stanford for fall 2025. Rather than choose between existing programs, he designed his own major, Engineering Design and Business Administration, to bring hands-on engineering and management together.
At Stanford, Marshall has stayed close to the transfer experience that shaped him. In summer 2026, unable to afford campus housing, he went into homelessness lived out of his car while serving as an Orientation Coordinator. Through this role, he led the planning and execution of New Student Orientaion 2026 for over 1800 new students. He is expected to graduate in 2027 and hopes to work in education technology, building solutions at the intersection of technology and policy that make education more accessible and equitable.
Engineering
The interest in building that began with Legos has carried through Marshall's engineering work. He has done research at UCLA's Center for High Frequency Electronics, built a Lego model of a robotic arm for GrayMatter Robotics, and at Stanford designed and fabricated the Cobtail Cannon, a corn-shaped cocktail shaker. More of his projects are collected in his engineering portfolio.
Educational advocacy
Marshall entered student government at El Camino College in 2023 as a representative for the Mathematical Sciences division. Encouraged by a supervisor who told him, “I could see you as Student Trustee,” he ran for the district's Student Trustee seat on a platform he called the “Marshall Plan” and won by a single vote in April 2024.
As Student Trustee, Marshall represented more than 30,000 students on the Board of Trustees during a period of budget deficits and reorganization, spending much of his term in office hours listening to student concerns. That work took him to Washington, D.C., to advocate for college access, and to the stage as a student speaker at El Camino's 2025 commencement.
His advocacy also reached beyond the district. He served on the Association of Community College Trustees' national student trustee committee and, as Student Trustee Caucus Chair for the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, co-authored the resolution “Ensuring Student Trustee Rights and Equitable Pay.” After transferring to Stanford, he returned to the Student Senate as a Legislative Affairs Director and later Vice President of Finance, serving through June 2026.
Non-profit leadership and affiliations
| Organization | Role(s) |
|---|---|
| Stanford University | Orientation Coordinator, New Student Orientation (2026) |
| Associated Students of Stanford University | Senate Associate (2025–2026) |
| Student Senate for California Community Colleges | Vice President of Finance (2026) Legislative Affairs Director (2025–2026) |
| California Community Colleges | Academic Renewal Task Force (2025–2026) Fiscal Affairs Advisory Workgroup (2026) |
| El Camino Community College District | Student Trustee (2024–2025) Citizen's Bond Oversight Committee Member (2024–2025) |
| El Camino College Foundation | Board of Directors (2024–2025) |
| Scouting America | Eagle Scout (2022) Adult Volunteer (2023–Present) |
| The Order of the Arrow | Vigil Honor & Founder's Award (2025) Adult Volunteer (2025–Present) |
Awards and honors
- JROTC Superior Cadet (1st award) — North High School JROTC, March 2021
- Eagle Scout — Boy Scouts of America, October 2022
- South Bay Regional Invention Convention Winner — Torrance Refining Company, April 2023
- Community Organization Award — Scouting America, May 2023
- JROTC Superior Cadet (2nd award, Bronze Lamp) — North High School JROTC, May 2023
- Dr. Albert Einstein Supernova Award — Scouting America, April 2024
- Vigil Honor — Order of the Arrow, June 2025
- Founder's Award — Order of the Arrow, August 2025
- The William D. Boyce New-Unit Organizer Award — Scouting America, September 2025
- Stanford VPUE STEM Fellowship — Stanford University Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education, February 2026
- Wood Badge — Scouting America, April 2026
Electoral history
2024 El Camino Community College District Student Trustee Election
| Slate | Candidate | Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Independent | Wesley Marshall | 144 | 49.3% |
| Red Ticket | Candidate 1 | 143 | 49.0% |
| Write-In | — | 5 | 1.7% |
2025 SSCCC Legislative Affairs Director Special Election, Region IV
| College | Candidate | Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohlone | Wesley Marshall | 4 | 66.7% |
| College 1 | Candidate 1 | 1 | 16.7% |
| College 2 | Candidate 2 | 1 | 16.7% |
2026 SSCCC Vice President of Finance Special Election
| Board Position | Candidate | Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| LAD IV | Wesley Marshall | 9 | 39.1% |
| Board Position 1 | Candidate 1 | 9 | 39.1% |
| Board Position 2 | Candidate 2 | 3 | 13.0% |
| Board Position 3 | Candidate 3 | 1 | 4.4% |
| Board Position 4 | Candidate 4 | 1 | 4.4% |
2026 SSCCC Vice President of Finance Special Election Run Off
| Board Position | Candidate | Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| LAD IV | Wesley Marshall | 14 | 60.9% |
| Board Position 1 | Candidate 1 | 9 | 39.1% |