Yul Kwon, TV journalist?

You might think that after striking gold in "Survivor: Cook Islands," the Concord native would want to chill out a bit. But in the five months since his victory, Kwon has been a busy man -- supporting his favorite charities, making public appearances and producing a series of segments on the Asian-American experience for CNN.

"I figure I have my 15 minutes," Kwon says. "I don't want to look back and see that I squandered it on something frivolous."

The CNN project consists of three short pieces for the network's "American Morning" program next week. The first segment, which airs on Monday, deals with the image of Asian-American men in TV and films.

Unfortunately, "American Morning" airs at 3 a.m. out West. So to see Kwon's work, most of us will have to record the program and/or view it on CNN.com.

Still, the project is a major source of pride for Kwon, who has repeatedly emphasized that he went on "Survivor" to "present a positive image of the Asian-American man."

"There continues to be such a shortage of positive role models ...," he says. "And after the Virginia Tech shootings, there is a flood of negative images right now."

Kwon says that since winning "Survivor," he often gets asked how it feels to be a millionaire. Unfortunately, he doesn't know. He donated $50,000 off the top to the Asian American Donor Program (his college roommate at Stanford died of leukemia). Then, last month, he forked over a big chunk of his winnings to Uncle Sam.

"That was a sad, sad day for me," says Kwon, who wasn't about to pull a Richard Hatch.

Although he has recorded every episode of this season's "Survivor: Fiji" series, which concludes on Sunday (7 p.m., Channel 13; 8 p.m., Channel 5), Kwon hasn't seen much of it. Still, he's intrigued by the exploits of another Asian-American contestant from the East Bay: Yau-Man Chan.

"When you first see him, you think: Here's a guy who could feed into the stereotypes. A socially awkward, quiet and withdrawn nerdy Asian-American man," he says. "But actually, he's a very interesting guy -- engaging and intelligent and someone that people love to be around."