Sahmyook University’s Glocal Institute for Social Innovation and University Innovation Support Project Group held the ‘2022 Social Value Realization Expansion Performance Forum’ at the central library on February 2nd.

The forum was organized to share the achievements of various social value realization programs operated by the Glocal Institute for Social Innovation with support from the University Innovation Support Project over the past year and to seek developmental application to this year’s projects.

The Glocal Institute for Social Innovation provides various special character education programs to students to’ nurture socially responsible glocal leaders’ and foster intellectuals with the correct thoughts and actions. In particular, it spreads good influence in the local community through student-centered, community-centered, and process-centered social service education.

The social value realization program of the Glocal Institute for Social Innovation is divided into △student participation category △service development category △major-related category.

In the ‘student participation category,’ there is the relationship-oriented camping program ‘Hope Camp.’ It is a non-curricular program that restores estranged human relationships by camping for two days and one night at the campus campground and is receiving enthusiastic responses from students.

Another student participatory program, “People’s Grocery,” is a project in which students receive urban agriculture education, grow crops on campus, and harvest them at the end of the semester to share with neighbors. It selects and operates the program with about 30 students each semester. Last year, lettuce grown and harvested by students was distributed to the underprivileged in Nowon-gu, and 80 heads (150 kg) of kimchi were made and delivered to 50 households.

The ‘service development category’ is a program that directly explores the fundamental problems of the local community and develops solutions based on them. Representative programs include ‘SU Ideaton’ and ‘Sahmyook Village Project’.

In particular, ‘Sahmyook Village’ is a project where students develop their own care services and match them with local beneficiaries by entering them online. It is a model that applies ‘community care’ to the educational field, which deviates from the facilities and establishes a regional care system at the village level. Last year, 103 students developed 11 care services and provided them to 150 beneficiaries.

In the ‘major-related category,’ there are ‘major-related volunteer clubs’ and ‘domestic and international volunteer services.’ The major-related volunteer club is a volunteer activity program that utilizes each department’s major. Advisors, seniors, and juniors from departments form teams to perform volunteer activities for 20 hours or more, at least five times per volunteer during the semester, in connection with the local community.

Among domestic and overseas volunteer services, ‘Change the World’, which is being developed in Bangladesh, is drawing attention. It is a service-learning project to change the local community by working with local students, away from one-sided charity service. In January, the project started with a launching ceremony at BASC (Bangladesh Adventist Seminary and College) University in Bangladesh. The plan is to establish cooperative relationships with local universities and communities over the next two to three years and, based on this, contribute to achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Meanwhile, at the performance forum, awards were given to teams that actively participated in each program and achieved excellent results. The ‘SU Talent Award (care category)’ award ceremony was also held to honor students who became “the light and salt” by practicing sharing with the local community, and the Korea University Volunteer Council commendation ceremony was also prepared.

Director Choi, Gyeong-cheon of Glocal Institute for Social Innovation, said, “Sahmyook University will continue to develop·operate diverse and specialized social value realization programs to nurture warm-hearted glocal leaders and contribute to creating a world where we live together.”