▲ Students who participated in Dream Growing Mentoring are taking pictures for their activities.



 

From August 1 to August 12, a special meeting was held between community youth and SeoulTech students. Twelve middle school students in Nowon District and nine members of the newspaper and broadcasting station in SeoulTech met to conduct Dream Growing Mentoring, an activity that explores career paths through experience and practical activities.

 

SeoulTech is a national university established and operated by the state. However, in Korea, skepticism about universities being run by the state has long existed among the public.

In response to this view, the government implemented the National University Development Project. The project, which started in 2018, was conducted not only to reinforce the education and research activities that had previously been the role of the university, but also to contribute to the local community. As part of the project, Dream Growing Mentoring was implemented in Nowon District, the area in which SeoulTech is located. The specific purpose of this activity was to secure trust in the existence of a national university and to establish a system that contributes to nurturing local talent.

For this Dream Growing Mentoring, students from SeoulTech Times and SeoulTech Broadcasting System (STBS), the newspaper and broadcasting station in SeoulTech, were selected as mentors. Divided into a broadcasting station team and newspaper team, the students participated on the team related to their desired career paths. The activities of both teams were based on actual activities being carried out in television broadcasting stations and newspapers. The broadcasting station team participated in the entire broadcasting process, from planning to filming to editing. After that, they even conducted their own screenings and watched the results together. The newspaper team started their activities by holding a planning meeting together to decide what kind of articles to write. Next, they conducted reporting activities and wrote articles together. Finally, after proofreading, the program was completed with typesetting.

Dream Growing Mentoring seems to have succeeded in creating the expected results. The event had a positive effect on SeoulTech students as well as providing middle schoolers with a good opportunity to explore their careers. One of the mentors reflected on the experience in this way; "I took part in this activity because I thought it would be a great opportunity to directly pass on the experiences I had learned and mastered for over a year at the SeoulTech newspaper.

While preparing for the activity, I was able to check what I knew once again and identify the deficiencies that needed to be improved. I was grateful for the experience as I also learned a lot.

In addition, I was able to feel a sense of pride in seeing the students participating diligently.

 

We hope that there will be more events such as Dream Growing Mentoring in the future where the local community and SeoulTech can influence each other in positive ways.



 

Reporter,

Jonghun Park pjh79937@seoultech.ac.kr