Sahmyook University established the ‘SU Award’ system, which awards students who played a role of being a light and salt in the local community through volunteer services. Candidate awardees are selected through a contest or recommendation, among which the final winners are chosen based on the quantitative and qualitative evaluations of their performances in the previous year. Celebrating the birth of the meaningful award system, the SU Exemplary Award selected a total of 12 awardees, including two Grand Prize winners and five Excellence Prize winners from the contest, as well as five Excellence Prize winners from recommendations.

Jo Yuna (a Junior in the English-Korean Interpretation and Translation Department), one of the two Grand Prize winners, participated in as many as 226.5 hours of community service last year alone. More specifically, she joined the English education mentoring program for children and North Korean defectors and participated in the Seoul Youth Center’s ‘Umnibus Community Service,’ which manages the center’s space for youths and plans, organizes, and operates youth programs.

Jo said, “It was a meaningful and invaluable time for me to gain various experiences through volunteering and to be able to offer a little help to my community.”

The other grand prize winner, Park Su-ah (a Junior in the Food and Nutrition Department), performed 178.5 hours of volunteer work. She participated in a social contribution program that helps ‘slow learners,’ such as children that are developmentally challenged or have borderline intelligence, to give explicit descriptions of their symptoms.

From February to June last year, Park provided contactless one-on-one mentoring sessions to slow learners. She used easy-to-read books and picture books in her teaching to improve her students’ communication skills. Moreover, she improved the quality of her teaching by creating and utilizing various methods and materials, including role-plays, quizzes, and bingo games.

“After the mentoring, they showed improved results in the examination of their disease description competency,” Park said. She continued, “Participating in this community service provided me an opportunity to not only pay more attention to various social issues but also to feel a sense of responsibility to bring about changes in our community by helping others.”

Yoon Jae-young, Head of the SU Community Service, said, “I am grateful to everyone who has participated in volunteer activities with a genuine heart in seeking the essence of community service. They are indeed a great example of SU and deserve to be awarded.” The Community Service Group of the SU Institute for Glocal Social Innovation plans to make the SU Exemplary Award an annual event.