KYUNG HEE UNIVERSITY

Two Kyung Hee students were named among the recipients of the Talent Award of Korea 2018: Hyeon Woo Kim (Oriental Pharmaceutical Science, ‘13) of Oriental Pharmaceutical Sciencesand Baek Jeong (Child and Family Studies, ‘15)

The Talent Award of Korea program is designed to discover outstanding young people and help them to grow into key players in society going forward. At the same time, the awards serve to heighten public awareness of the importance of human resource development. Each year, fifty high school students as well as fifty university students and regular citizens are selected for this honor.

Student Hyeon Woo Kim helps the public to improve scientific knowledge; he also is involved in protecting children’s rights and contributing to educational endeavors.   
This past May, Student Kim won a top prize in the FameLab science communication competition, in which participants gave presentations in English on research results, theory or experience. Thereafter, he was appointed “science communicator” and promoted the popularization of science through street performances and lectures at middle and high schools.  

Student Kim has also been engaged in community service and research activities. He has spent more than 430 hours performing volunteer work over the past three years, and he has a scholarship for public service volunteers at the Seoul Scholarship Foundation, participated in the Young Saver Plan at Save the Children International, and helped to plan various community service programs as a member of the Happy Pro Bono Service Corps at the Seoul Metropolitan City Council on Social Welfare.

Student Kim has also been busy cultivating his academic research capabilities during the past two years, participating in internships at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) and University of Science and Technology (UST). His involvement in so many activities has earned him a wide recognition, and he was officially named a “talent with both academic and practical competencies” in October 2018. This year, he also received a Laughing Lion Award (in the Scholarship and Research category), an annual prize given to Kyung Hee undergraduate students for outstanding achievements.

Upon receiving the award, Student Kim said, “I’ve been working to make a difference in various parts of society and am honored that my efforts have been judged so highly. I would like to continue to spark and spread positive energy in the world.” 

Student Baek Jeong, helping to advance local communities as a leader of diverse youth activities
Student Jeong is one of this year’s recipients of the Laughing Lion Award (in the Community Service category). He is also a MENSA member who, as the MENSA Korea Education Committee chair, oversees the Summer Vacation Classroom, a community service program that provides rural children with beneficial hands-on activities.

Student Jeong is involved in various other community service activities as well.
With the support of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, he founded “Rainmaker,” a civilian nonprofit organization that seeks to develop the skills of children and teens and improve local communities, and he runs the Dongchimi (an acronym for a Korean phrase that means “full of great laughs with our younger brothers and sisters) Project, providing mentoring through alternative school channels.  

From May of this year, he has headed the Cheongdi-guard (Youth + Bodyguard) Team, a teen safety organization under the auspices of the Korea Youth Work Agency (KYWA), offering education on teen violence prevention and organizing related public service campaigns. Cheongdi-guard, which consists of Kyung Hee students currently enrolled in the Department of Child and Family Studies, was recently named for having outstanding activities as a youth promotion organization, and also received the Minister of Gender Equality and Family Award.

Student Jeong revealed his strong ambitions
for future and said, “I’m honored to hear such a steady stream of good news at the end of my university life. This award has bolstered my dreams still further. I will remain in the forefront on the effort to create a Korea in which all teens can be happy.”