Yeungnam University selects 31 'WTW' and 20 'WTK' teams
1 million won per person given for Europe and US backpacking travellers during vacation
[December 18, 2008]
WTW and WTK teams departing for backpacking trip (from front row on the left in counter-clockwise direction: Lee Jeong-yeob, Kupina, Kwon Yong-wook, Doh Hyeon-ji, Nam Hye-ran, Lee Hwa-jeong, Lim Jong-hyeok, Lee Dong-jin, Lee Min-jeong)
"Though the exchange rate sky-rocketed and the economy is doing bad, I really wanted to go backpacking overseas before the graduation. Fortunately, the university will pay for some of the expenses so I will make sure that I will experience as many things as I can and learn as much as I can."
Lim Jong-hyeok (24) a senior in the School of Architecture at Yeungnam University will be backpacking in Australia early next month. Three months ago, he made a team called 'Studio A+' with his classmates Lee Dong-jin (24) and Lee Min-jeong (24, female) and made thorough preparations. His team was selected by the university's overseas backpacking support programs, and won 3 million won (1 million won per person) by the university. He's enjoying every day of his life these days.
Being an overseas trip right before going off into the real world, their purpose is quite clear. Fitting to their status as students of architecture, they wish to find plans for urban-branding Daegu through 'public design'. Public design refers to creating an image of urban sceneries starting from light poles, benches, signs, bus-stops to building facade design and skyline planning. This is because they are convinced that their roles as students of architecture is to present a public design strategy that takes full advantage of the urban identity for Daegu in preparation of the 2011 IAAF World Championships.
For this, they are planning to visit Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, which are the 4 major cities of Australia in 12 days. These are all cities that succeeded in urban-branding through public designs for the Sydney Olympics. Lim stated, "We will study the 4 major cities of Australia and present public designs unique to Daegu that show the history and rich sentiment of Daegu."
Thus, Yeungnam University is paying for part of the expenses needed for travels to students who are departing for their 'prepared backpacking trip'. Starting from this winter break, the university will also provide expenses for backpacking in Korea made up of teams combined with foreign and Korean students. This is for a greater effect in 'Two-Directional Global Education'.
Firstly, 'Window to the World'(WTW), which has been in place for 6 years, 13th term, is a global program that is best known in Yeungnam University. In the last summer vacation, 93 students in 34 teams received financial support from the university and went on overseas backpacking trips. In this winter vacation, 85 students in 31 teams departed for the US, Europe, Australia, Japan, Southeast Asia and India. There are almost 1,200 students who have experienced the world through the WTW program so far. Yeungnam University gives 600 thousand won per student going to China and Southeast Asia, 800 thousand won per student going to Japan and 1 million won to students going to Europe and the US. Depending on the results of their reports, the 1st place team will be awarded 700 thousand won, 2nd place team 500 thousand won and third place team 300 thousand won as scholarships in order to encourage global experience learning.
MESA (Doh Hyeon-ji and 2 students) is composed of female students in the School of Management, and was selected for the WTW and will be heading off to India in January. The title of their trip is 'Exploring India's Medical Tourism City'. Their objective is to search for a plan to distinguish 'Medical City Daegu'. For this, they will be travelling to distinguished medical tourism cities of India, such as Delhi, Agra, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Chennai for 2 weeks. They will also visit a nursing college in Chennai to examine the current situation of fostering specialized human resources.
Doh Hyeon-ji (23, junior in the School of Management) pointed out that "Medical tourism is a blue-ocean industry that creates 40 billion dollars in profits globally every year. Even in Korea, There is fierce competition for promoting medical tourism in Daegu, Busan, Incheon, Yeosu, Gangneung and Jeju. The problem, however, is that there is no unique feature in the plans for promoting medical tourism in Daegu." She also added, "We should benchmark the successful strategies of India, such as Ayurveda, Yoga, Therapy, etc to find a plan to promote medical tourism in Daegu."
Meanwhile, Yeungnam University will, for the first time, sponsor the 'Window to Korea'(WTK) program from this winter break. WTK is a program for providing 300 thousand won in expenses for domestic backpacking trips for teams composed of 1 or more foreign student(s) and 2 Korean students at Yeungnam University.
Lee Jeong-yeob (26, junior) of the School of International Economics and Business and Kwon Yong-wook (23, sophomore) of the School of Electronic Engineering, Communication Engineering and Computer Science will explore Seoul with Shefki Kupina (23, junior) of the School of Management on the 21st. Their team name is 'Hello Korea' and Kupina first came to Korea last September as an exchange student from Sixion University in the Netherlands. Thanks to his 'buddy' (1:1 friend between Korean and foreign students), Lee Jeong-yeob, he was able to find much help in his school work and felt the warm hospitality of Koreans. However, he still does not know many things about the Korean society. Seoul, where the past, the current and the future of Korea coexists, will help him expand his horizons on the Korean society.
Kupina is greatly looking forward to his travels to Seoul. "In Europe, there is little information and lack of the latest information on different countries and especially on Asia. I also did not know Korea properly," said he. He also added, "I want to experience Korea as much as I can while I'm here as an exchange student and then when I return to my home, I will share the real fact of Korea." Lee, who will join him in his travels to Seoul said, "My pride was hurt and it was quite shocking that he thought Korea was an under-developed country before he came here as an exchange student." He added, "I want him to learn and feel Korea properly through this opportunity. That's why I've been studying the history and culture of Korea for a couple months now. Through this, I was actually able to learn by realizing the true meaning of 'what is the most Korean is the most global'."
WTK, which was launched with the goal that we need to know ourselves first before we can be truly globalized, will send a total of 20 teams all around the nation during this winter break.
