Woosong Sports Day Festival: Bringing Departments Together

Woosong Sports Day Festival was held May 10th through the 11th on the west campus track and field. The Woosong Sports Day Festival is an annual competition held in the spring. Representatives from each department compete in the events.

There are nine events that consist of tug-of-war, ssireum (a kind of wrestling), group rope jumping, soccer, basketball, kickball, dodge ball, the six-legged race, and the relay.

A few weeks before the Sports Day Festival, many teams had the preliminary games about some events. Even though it is the preliminary games, it was too intense.

The opening ceremony was held on a grand scale. After opening ceremony, the Solbridge cheerleading team worked the crowd up before the match.

There was also a speech by John E. Endicott, chairman of Woosong University, to celebrate holding an athletic meeting. The chairman kicked the first ball, signaling the games to begin.

The grass fields were shaking with all the cheering. The students passionately cheered their team with beating drums and wild yells.

Sports Day Festival’s goal is to reinforce bonds among its members, especially for the freshman. By participating in the competition and cheering, all the freshman become intimately acquainted with each other.

“I’m so excited. And opening ceremony is really great, but the sun is so hot. It would be so much better if there were sunshades,” said Chloe, a freshman in the nursing department.

Students participated in special events. On the first day afternoon, club “Julju” and “Bacus” hosted sample non-alcoholic cocktails in front of the international dormitory. The purpose of sample non-alcoholic cocktail is to promote to students a correct drinking culture. Some students sold snacks like breads and beverages to benefit the University Development Fund.

The next day, there was the awards ceremony. This year’s athletic meeting ended successfully.

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Staff writer Lee NaKyung is currently a Woosong University student majoring in Nursing.

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SolBridge Model UN

SolBridge International School of Business is currently participating in an organization named Model United Nations (MUN), run by Professor Joe Iesue and Joshua Park. The objective of this Model UN is to seek, through discussion, negotiation and debate, solutions to the various problems of the world. And the goal of Model UN is to develop that global consciousness to the ‘next level’ through a simulation of the international multilateral diplomacy of the United Nations. Participants learn to adopt views and attitudes other than their own, and break away from narrow national self-interest and develop international cooperation. SolBridge students at MUN can get an insight into the world’s problems and understand the causes of conflict between nations.

Students in MUN adopt the role of delegates to the United Nations, and represent their chosen countries as a diplomat from the United Nations (UN) would. Since my fellow Solbridge MUN representatives and I are all international students from different countries, we need to do research and speak as a diplomat for the country we chose instead of our original one. Delegates need to play the role with integrity and authenticity. Role playing is a good way to help us learn more in order to improve ourselves. Cooperation is the primary goal of the delegate meetings and sessions but not always the norm, nor the most fun way of doing things. Belligerence, arrogance, irrationality, and even open hostility are openly encouraged during debate sessions, as long as these emotions and behaviors are within character for the country that the delegate represents.

Luckily, I`m taking an International Business Relations course lectured by Professor Joe Iesue this semester. We students chose countries which we want to represent at the beginning of the semester. Agendas are given before classes so that we can do some research and see how the countries would react towards the important global issues on the agenda. Every time in class, we sit as a “U” shape, like the real UN structure. Instead of being a delegate, we can also volunteer to be the “chair” for one class session. The Chair will go through each of the steps exactly based on the real UN system. Delegates can also learn about the flow path while they are presenting. It`s really good to actually experience the whole process rather than just listen to the lectures.

Besides, I`m also one of the MUN researchers currently assisting our honorable delegates prepare more effectively for the coming conference.

SolBridge MUN is a place where we will need to look up the updated news and frequently refresh ourselves. Also, we need to look through anything related with the United Nations like resolutions, threats, and White Papers, and then have a basic understanding of each strategy. Personal opinions after the research are also appreciated so that we can truly explain ourselves.

Having this kind of experience is really useful not only for resume-building, but-- the most important part of the Model UN experience-- for improving our own ability. I`d like to invite more and more students, not only those who are in SolBridge but also more Woosong students, to be involved in this program so that we can go ahead together.

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Guest writer Jing Zhang is currently a SolBridge University student majoring in International Business and Finance.

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UNIPEACE: Making Steps Toward a Peaceful Society

In May students from Woosong and other Korean universities took time off from their busy schedules to promote peace and understanding. The members of UNIPEACE, an intercollegiate peace-making club, presented a poster exhibition which was touring more than 100 Universities in Korea during the month. The Daejeon chapter of the club went to KAIST, Chungnam, Hanbat, and Daejeon Universities.

For 15 years, UNIPEACE has involved students in promoting a peaceful society through poster exhibition and presentation campaigns. The theme of May's exhibition was Empathy, or 'Dong-go' in Korean. The exhibition consisted of 7 large-size posters and a message board for visitors to share their responses. The posters were educational. According to one, the root of empathy lies in part of the brain called Mirror Neurons. Another presented methods for reducing school violence.

A translation of one anonymous message on the visitor’s board read, “This is a good exhibition for people living in a society like ours with so little sympathy.”

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Staff writer Kim HyoJun is currently a Woosong University student majoring in English.

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What is the Woosong Leaders Crotonville Program?

Time flies fast like an arrow, and I can’t believe that I am already a senior. When I look back at my school life here at Woosong University, there are a variety of precious footprints embedded in my memory: good learning, nice classmates, great foreign professors and friends, and excellent experiences in the Crotonville program. The Crotonville program in particular contributed improvements to my life in many ways. Through the Crotonville program, I had a chance to meet many students from different departments and learned about what a global leader is by domestic training and training abroad. Many people do not know much about this great program. This is what I would like to introduce here.

The goal of Woosong Leaders Crotonville program is to teach students leadership and sensibility skills. In the United States, Jack Welch has set up a General Electric (GE) Crotonville training institution and has created initiative education regarding changes and value realization in globalization, service, Six Sigma and e-business. Therefore, Woosong University has made these into a module and applied it to the academic environment of our university. Through the program, our school wants to cultivate talented and smart Woosong leaders and top elites.

Woosong Leaders Crotonville program was founded in 2010, and I was chosen for the program as one of the first participants with 124 students from diverse departments. I attended a two-week domestic training program and a ten-day overseas training program in China. Through the domestic program, we learned about self development, making plans for the future and global leadership. During the program we visited Posco Company in Pohang and were encouraged to be enterprising leaders. After the program, in winter vacation, we participated in continuous education with personality, aptitude, and vocational tests. In the summer vacation, we attended training abroad in China and visited diverse universities in China such as Chunghwa University, Peking University, University of Peking Foreign Language Studies, University of International Business and Economics, and General University and traveled to various historical places. Such experiences helped us to think differently from before and feel proud of our school.

For the second term of the Crotonville program, 120 students were selected to learn about self-development with a view toward creative thinking and seeing things differently. Afterward, they spent the week in Japan traveling, seeing various educational, cultural and industrial centers. They were hosted by Kasai University.

For the third-term of the program, 120 students were selected to participate in a week-long domestic extensive program for cultivating global leadership skills, which included a trip to Jeju Island. As a continuous program, they learned leadership through a new form of acting called 'play-within-a-play' for the development of conflict management in various situations. I participated in this third program as a coach. In the winter vacation, the students who were selected from the diverse leadership program attended overseas training in Malaysia and Indonesia, visiting University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), BINUS University, famous high schools, and famous companies such as Petronas Oil Company and Posco Steel Company. They delivered speeches on various topics and Korean culture shows with such features as K-Pop, Hanbok fashion, and Korean traditional plays.

Through these programs, the students had good opportunities to meet excellent people in various fields and places, share different ideas and improve problem-solving skills. Also, they could understand more clearly about other cultures and themselves and make a specific plan for their future. Knowing this, what are you waiting for? Attend this leadership program so that you can prepare for your future as a global leader!

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Guest writer Veronica Yang.

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Yeosu EXPO 2012: Reflections (Part 1)

Back in 2010, there was the “City Makes Life Better” Expo held in Shanghai. I was so excited that I purchased tickets in advance. However, according to the news, there were so many people that normally it would take people 6-8 hours to wait for a premier pavilion. Not only that, the trip itself would be costly, which made me make the decision: not to go.

How fortunate I am to be a member in the Woosong Herald, which offers its staff the most wonderful incentives. This time, it offered all its staff a 2 day-1 night trip to Namwon and the Yeosu Expo.

Everyone was so inspired that no one was late for the scheduled departure: 1:00 on May 11th. After one day staying in Namwon, we headed to Yeosu the next morning. We were worried whether there would be a traffic jam due to the opening ceremony, but it turned out that was not necessary. We arrived at 9:30 and we were able to enjoy the expo for a good eight hours.

This year's expo theme was related to marine life and ecology, which is easy to understand because Yeosu is a city on the coastline. It is about time for humans to pay more attention to the ecology as well.

The first thing that impressed me was that there were so many volunteers. Even in the restroom, a volunteer would never leave his position, which made me “uncomfortable.” It was not proper to ask him questions in the restroom, so I made a short interview with another volunteer, Chonghua Lee, at the gate. According to her, not all the volunteers are paid for this event, some of them regard this as their temporary job with a sustainable pay, others were simply helping for one day or two.

“This is my current job. I am doing this because I like to meet people. While I am doing this, I feel I am doing something good for everyone. I am very proud of myself,” said Lee, a 27 year-old volunteer.

We made two appointments for the Theme Pavilion and Aquarium. After waiting for about 10 minutes, we were able to visit the Theme Pavilion. It was scientific, informative and entertaining at the same time. In the Theme Pavilion, there were all sorts of important facts about marine life and ecology. And there was an adorable dugong telling the mysteries about the sea.

After this, we visited many international pavilions, all of which were connected to the theme.

The most visit-worthy part of the Yeosu Expo, in my opinion, would be the Firm Section. All high technology-supported shows were there, like Samsung and Hyundai. The employees were not allowed to take any interviews, so I chatted with two of them, wanting to know more about the big companies’ perspectives about marine life.

“Seventy percent of the earth is covered by water; who dominates the sea dominates the earth,” said an anonymous, ambitious employee from Samsung.

“Our mission in [the] 21st century is unlocking the mysteries about the sea,” said another employee form Hyundai.

It was an interesting and meaningful trip. All I hope is I could visit the Yeosu Expo again shortly and explore the rest of it.

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Staff writer Ying Cheng Hao is currently a Woosong University student majoring in Railway Electrical Engineering.

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