This is a collection of personal statement topics and examples to help you write your personal statement. Use these examples to help you craft an effective personal statement that showcases your growth and experiences.
Winning a contest for my extracurricular activities
In college, I was a very active student in my department. As an economics major, I was most active in study groups with seniors in my department rather than in other clubs. These study groups were organized to bring together juniors and seniors with common interests to study the subject in more depth, which helped me get a leg up on school exams and even prepare for competitions held by various companies.
In particular, the Collegiate Marketing IDEA Competition, which I organized with five people, including two seniors and two classmates, in my sophomore year, gave us two topics to choose from. As a Hyundai Bank customer, our team chose the topic of how to expand the number of regular customers at gas stations and submitted an idea plan to the competition by researching and presenting a plan to expand the number of regular customers.
We had several meetings with five people to come up with ideas, organized detailed ideas on how to increase the number of regular customers of gas stations, and completed a neat PPT that was the most eye-catching. Not only did we have a unique experience of thinking a lot about gas stations, which we were not interested in, but we also won the prize and were introduced in the school newspaper.
Student body president and volunteering
As an economics major, I knew that economics was a great subject to major in because it was both academically rigorous and relevant to the real world. The deeper I got into the major, the more my eyes were opened to a new reality that I hadn’t known before.
As I prepared for my TOEIC and computer certifications, I studied intensively to ensure that I had a certification related to my major before I graduated from university, and my efforts were rewarded.
During college, I volunteered by delivering meals to the elderly living alone. I was raised by my parents to respect elders, so when I had the opportunity to volunteer, I didn’t hesitate to choose to help the elderly.
I thought that the elderly who live alone in the city have the biggest problem of eating, so I thought that delivering meals was the help they needed the most. At first, I thought I was just helping the elderly, but I ended up visiting them once a week and learning from their lives.
After I was discharged from the army, I returned to university for my third year and served as the president of my department’s student council. I developed a proactive attitude of taking the initiative and leading. I also met and worked with many classmates from different backgrounds, which helped me develop my ability and affinity to easily adapt to different cultures. I was praised by my department chairman and assistant professor for always being accurate and reliable in handling my department’s affairs.
Igniting youth through a national campaign
I participated in the ‘Homeland Campaign’ event organized by ○○ to gain various experiences during my college years. I was envious of my older brother’s tanned face and matured appearance after he went on a national trek in high school, so I applied the first day I heard about it. This experience was a time to ignite my youth. I experienced overcoming myself through the asceticism of walking and walking, and I gained the courage to overcome difficulties while enduring tough situations. I still keep in touch with my friends who participated in the program and reminisce about the experience, perhaps because our friendships were forged under difficult and challenging circumstances.
In my liberal arts class, we were assigned to do a team project, and because it was a liberal arts class, we had a lot of different majors. At first, I thought it would be better to do more specialized research within the same department rather than a mix of majors, but my professor organized the group so that we could have a mix of majors. While working on the project, I realized the importance of multifaceted thinking, which my parents have emphasized since I was young. I was surprised to see that different majors had different perspectives on the same problem. Through this experience, I deeply realized the importance of interdisciplinary thinking, switching ideas, etc. I will not forget this realization and strive to achieve the best results through creative ideas in my work.
Taking on multiple leadership roles with unwavering integrity
I inherited my father’s diligence and integrity, always doing his job silently, so I tried to do one thing right rather than multitasking like other students. In middle and high school, I always did my best in my work, and when I entered university, I focused on my studies with integrity as my basic virtue. However, in college, I didn’t just study in silence. First of all, I thought it was time to reveal my leadership qualities, so I stepped up as the president, and I proudly became the president, and I ran the operation in a very transparent and organized way. I spared no effort to support the activities of various societies, and I set the theme of MT to make sure that MT was in line with the purpose. It is difficult to satisfy all the students, but most of them were satisfied, and I served as the president for one year. In addition, I took part-time jobs to become a viable person, and most of the time I took part-time jobs to understand my father’s hard work and to be able to exert as much ability as possible as a man. In this way, I was able to grasp the overall framework and detailed structure of construction, and I naturally developed a strong sense of responsibility as I diligently performed my duties. This ability to be responsible also led to smooth teamwork with my colleagues and higher performance.
I got involved in a project in my professor’s lab
As a master’s student at the time, my professor made me an unusual offer: He was an authority in his field and was known to be very picky about hiring researchers. In fact, he required that researchers working with him have at least a PhD. He had noticed me since I was an undergraduate student, so he suggested that I work with him on a project in his lab, where I could learn a lot by participating in research. The project was a collaboration with a university research institute in the United States, so I worked with American professors and researchers. During this process, I became acutely aware of the need for English. Although I thought I had good English skills, I realized that I was limited in my ability to communicate my research freely, and this spurred me on to study English. As a researcher, research is important, but being able to communicate my research in a way that others can understand is also important.
A collaborative and thoughtful person
These are the words on my middle school report card. It was written by my junior year teacher. At the time, my teacher and my class had a very close relationship, but she was not feeling well and was often absent from work. The vice principal came to me and said that she was going to have to be away a lot, and that if you wanted, she would be willing to substitute teach and run the class. I was the class president at the time, so I told her to give me some time, and we had a class meeting. I think we took it more seriously than any meeting I’ve ever had. I stepped up to the front and told them what we thought of our teacher, and then we gathered our opinions on what we would do if we changed her, and what we would do if we didn’t change her. The class, of course, loved her and wanted to stay with her for another year. After listening to the students, I sat down with my vice principal and came up with a plan. In retrospect, I think that was the first time I ever had a strategy.
I wrote down the routine of the teachers in my class: what they manage in the morning, what they manage during lunch and dinner, and then I looked at cleaning, and then I looked at the reporting logs and the class logs, and I looked for things that we could run ourselves as much as possible. We thought it was important to create the atmosphere of the classroom and maintain the cleanliness, like cleaning and roll call, and we voluntarily created a roll call system and a roll call table, and we decided to take turns with the class president and vice president and the secretary and the treasurer to inform the teacher of the corresponding parts of the teacher’s diary, and we reported to the vice principal that we wanted to do that, and he allowed us to do that, and our class went a year without a change of teacher, and we became really close.
That experience made me realize that strategizing is the way to go for people. I realized that it’s really important to create guidelines for people to act together when they want to protect something that’s really important to them.
I started marketing myself
As a college student, I enrolled in a business program and was strongly drawn to the subject of “marketing” because I thought that in a modern world where there are enough products to go around, it’s marketing that determines which ones stand out. It’s also marketing that effectively communicates new products to people that they can fully utilize. I was fascinated by marketing classes and decided to put it into practice while I was studying it, so I decided to make it my first task as a marketer to market myself as the student body president, and I worked on it like a project. I joined various clubs, from the tea drinking club to the mountain climbing club, and made my name known and participated in various activities with them. I also tried to dig into school issues and listen and participate in the process of understanding and solving problems. As a result, I was selected as a candidate in my third year and was able to serve as the student body president. While serving as the student body president, I tried to promote and utilize various welfare policies of the school and learned how to coordinate various interests in a space that was like a small society. It was hard work, but I think I had a more meaningful college experience than anyone else.
Learning to work with people
When I was younger, I was a greedy kid who tried to do a lot of things on my own. I tried to be first in my studies, I tried to be first in sports, I tried to be first in everything. I tried so hard, and it worked until elementary school, but when I got to middle school, it was completely different. There were subjects I couldn’t do well in, and there were times when I had to work as a team to get through school, and studying alone was exhausting, so there was a synergy that came from working together. I realized this when I was preparing for a cheerleading competition in my junior year of middle school. I was the class president at the time, and my class was pretty much a lost cause. Everyone was either sitting around exhausted or cranky, not even trying. But then I had three friends who helped me get moving, and it completely changed the group. We encouraged each other, and one by one, ideas started to come to us, and before we knew it, we were a class that was cutting back on sleep to practice our dances, and we ended up winning first place in our school and second place in our city. From that moment, and from the hot tears I shed, I realized that there are so many things that people can accomplish when they help each other. It made me realize that I can do anything better with people, and that I can grow myself while making happier and funnier memories.
Being a leader teaches you responsibility
I was asked by my teacher to be a prefect in high school because I was good at leading people and being responsible. At first, I didn’t think I could do it, but my teacher begged me to do it, so I did it. At first, I was tired because there were many days when I had to leave earlier than others and stay later than others, but I thought that I should finish what I started, so I helped my teacher without being lazy every day. Then, naturally, a new culture was established in the school, and I noticed that my friends took care of their uniforms. I also developed strong friendships with my teammates through my leadership activities, and I think it gave me a sense of how to get along with people, but it’s also important to take care of people, and how to work as a group. In college, I took on a unique sense of responsibility and became the festival director in charge of school festivals, and one of my most fulfilling memories was booking the most expensive singer at the time. After mobilizing all of my contacts and continuing to negotiate, I was able to get the singer at the price I asked for, and everyone enjoyed the festival. I think it was a proud and enjoyable experience.
Creating a cohesive class and leading unity
When I was in middle and high school, I set myself the goal of creating a cohesive class while serving as president, because I thought that a good atmosphere in the classroom would create synergy and improve everyone’s grades. In order to carry out this project, I listened to the opinions of my friends. I also set up a problem box to listen to my friends’ problems and come up with ideas to help them as much as possible if I can. My class did a project called “Wake up your neighbor.” Sometimes people fall asleep in class against their will, and the idea is to wake them up around you. We also organized learning mentoring, where friends who were good at certain subjects would help their classmates who were falling behind. The fact that we all had the will to harmonize the atmosphere of the class helped to create harmony. We were able to accept difficulties in the execution process by worrying about them, and we were able to become closer by listening to our personal problems and trying to find solutions. This spirit of prioritizing harmony continued when we went to university.
I joined a psychological counseling club, where I learned counseling techniques, etc. The club did a lot of volunteer work, especially at nursing homes for the elderly. I was very proud to see that the elderly people in the nursing homes were very happy to have someone to talk to. I believe that helping others is a great way to make our society healthier, and it was an experience that made me realize the importance of communicating with others, as it can ease conflicts between generations and lead to intergenerational integration.
A self-motivated study abroad experience
In college, I majored in accounting and gained expertise in ERP accounting and taxation, which laid the foundation for me to become a professional who can utilize accounting information for strategic decision-making.
When I look back on my university experience, the most memorable thing I remember is that I went on a language study abroad program in Canada on my own. I paid for it myself, thanks to the education of my parents, who instilled in me the confidence that I could do whatever I wanted to do. In addition to the savings account that my parents managed for me, I have been tutoring since I entered college and have saved all of my earnings since then. Of course, I was able to save all of the money I earned from tutoring because of my parents’ consideration. From the beginning, I told them about my desire to study abroad in Canada and my plan to pay for it myself. My parents were very supportive of my idea, and in exchange, they agreed to provide me with a stipend for the duration of my schooling, provided I didn’t slack off and earned a merit scholarship each semester.
I had a clear sense of purpose, so in order to gain my parents’ support and backing for my endeavors, I put my best foot forward in my studies and tutoring, preparing mock test papers during the exam periods of the students I was tutoring, and sacrificing sleep when it overlapped with my own exam periods, so that I wouldn’t have to give up either of them. Thanks to these efforts, I was able to receive a merit scholarship for the entire semester of my university studies, and with the help of my parents’ pocket money, I was able to save all of my earnings from tutoring to fully fund my training.
Because I was so self-sufficient, I didn’t waste a single hour during my study abroad program in Canada. When I wasn’t in class, I spent my time walking around the city of Toronto, exploring the alleyways and talking to people to fully experience the city.
I made the most of my time, so I was able to study English well. After I finished my program, I continued to take the TOEIC test back home to keep the momentum going. I currently maintain a TOEIC score of 900 and a TOEIC Speaking level 7.
Learning from the heart through volunteering in China
As a Chinese major, I was selected as an exchange student in China ○○ in my second year of college and spent a year in China. I had been studying Chinese and English since I entered college with the goal of being selected as an exchange student, so I didn’t face many difficulties in my college life in China. I participated in various activities to experience as much as possible in my year in China. I participated in volunteer activities with my classmates, and I think that working with people of different nationalities gave me a broader perspective. I was a learning assistant in ○○, a slum in China, because I thought that if they were given the opportunity to learn, it would be easier for them to enter society. It was not easy to hold on to and teach children who were not used to learning, so we waited and didn’t rush. We taught them through play, following their progress. As the children slowly opened up and got closer to us, the learning started to happen. This made me realize the importance of being genuine and sincere. I think I was able to open my heart to the children because I sincerely wanted them to do well, and I will always work with a sincere heart without forgetting that.
How studying abroad in Canada led to a language breakthrough
When I was in middle school, my brother and I were sent to Canada by our parents, who wanted us to experience the wider world. I didn’t think I was ready, but my brother’s words, “If you don’t leave with everything in place, you’ll be too late,” convinced me to go. While staying with my maternal uncle in Canada, I studied English to death. I loved talking to my friends, but it was frustrating not being able to speak my mind and express myself because I couldn’t speak English. I became paranoid to the point where I thought that if they looked at me, they were talking about me. I hated how I was losing confidence, so I started to study English even harder. I would come home from school and catch my brother doing his homework and talk to him in English, saying anything, and I watched a lot of TV. I watched a lot of TV, especially the news, which at first I didn’t really know what was being said, just inferred from the screen, but I think it helped me to learn the correct pronunciation. After being mute for over a year, my skills improved dramatically. Once I was able to speak the language, I was never so relieved. I became my old self again, and I was able to make friends from all over the world and live a more active life. This growth process made me realize that “desperation makes you do things”. If I had gone to study abroad fully prepared with English, I don’t know if I would still be there, but I was forced to learn English to survive there, and I think my desperation maximized my learning. I try to live with this desperation every day, and I think it will help me succeed.
Studying in the U.S. after high school
After completing the language program, I enrolled in a state university and majored in accounting. With my Korean grit, I managed my grades so that I didn’t miss out on merit scholarships, and I actively participated in social activities on campus. I also joined the National Association of University Students to further my community service activities. As a result of these activities, I was invited to join a social club on campus, which allowed me to socialize more and meet people from all walks of life through the club and my community of friends.
I also participated in a presentation contest at my school with friends from different majors, and since it was a six-month project, it became more challenging not only to prepare the presentation, but also to divide roles and have different views based on majors. In this project, I played the role of a mediator to control and coordinate the needs of these different people so that the project could be completed well. I thought it was something that everyone needed, but it could have been overlooked because it was cumbersome and unobtrusive, and it could have become a big problem later on that could have caused the project to fall apart, so I stepped up to the plate. As a result, we were able to complete our respective roles more completely, and the project was completed well, winning third place in the contest.
Learning about different cultures through early study abroad
My father has sacrificed a lot for me and invested in my future. When I was in high school, when my father’s business was thriving, I went on an early study abroad program. My parents’ expectations for me to go out into the wider world and learn a lot weighed heavily on me. I was not familiar with English, so it was hard to adjust to life in the U.S., but I think I was able to survive because I was with my brother. My brother and I, who didn’t have much of a relationship in Korea, became closer in the U.S., relying on each other. I also think that my schooling in the U.S. gave me the foundation to think differently. Being in a classroom with kids from different countries and studying together made me familiar with their cultures. At first, it felt awkward to study in a classroom with friends of different colors. I think living in a place where different cultures were mixed gave me a relativistic start, and I think I was able to grow up without having any prejudices about cultures, and I think I was able to go through a growth process where we could be united as friends. However, my father’s business was not doing well due to the recession, so I moved back to Korea after finishing high school. My father was very sorry for me, but I actually felt sorry for him, because he had been accepted to a university in the U.S., but it was difficult for me to pay for my tuition. I felt bad for him because he must have struggled to pay for my education, so I realized that I had to go to university on my own by paying for my own tuition and managing it in general. I have always been confident because I have parents who supported and helped me to be independent and play my role.
Paris, the city of art
While I was interested in design, I was also interested in accessories from luxury brands. Whenever a new product came out, I would learn about it first through overseas sites, and I would share that information on my blog. I traveled a lot, so naturally, studying English was essential. In high school, I didn’t study English even if I was told to, but in university, I started studying voluntarily.
I went to hagwon to improve my English to the point where I could speak it without going on a study abroad program like everyone else, and when my parents offered to send me on a study abroad program before I graduated from university, I told them that I wanted to go backpacking instead. I wanted to stay in one place for a long time and really get to know the city, rather than traveling to different countries. The country I chose was France, of course. I spent two weeks in Paris, a city of artists where the city itself is art, and I explored every street corner. Although I regretted that my French wasn’t good enough to ask the questions I wanted to ask, my two weeks in Paris inspired and moved me more than anything else.
Traveling to the US and dreaming of competing with the world
Although I didn’t get to spend much time with my father due to his frequent business trips abroad, I was a favorite among my friends because he brought back rare things whenever he traveled abroad. Seeing how happy he was with me, he always advised me to live my life with a wide world view, which is probably why I was exceptionally interested in foreign languages. From the time I started to read, my father would give me gifts such as famous children’s books of that country, because as I became more and more literate, I needed to study the language to understand the pictures. Although my father did not directly tell me to study English, he made me feel the need for it and allowed me to study it on my own. I think this helped me grow into a person who makes plans and accomplishes things on my own, not only in foreign languages, but in all things.
In high school, I followed my father on a business trip to the U.S. It was my first experience abroad, and it gave me a different feeling from what I knew from TV and books. The U.S. was so vast in person, and my father took special time to take me to Harvard University. I’ll never forget the feeling of excitement I had when I saw the students everywhere, engrossed in their books, and the buildings were amazing. I think that’s when I started dreaming about college. My father told me that I had to work harder to compete not only with Korea but also with the world. My trip to the U.S. with my dad was an opportunity for me to work harder, because I became more motivated and eager to learn, which I was able to carry over to college. I want to be a person who competes with the world beyond Korea, and I have been living with this ambition since I was a child. I am ready to show my capabilities at ○○, which stands tall in the world.
Meeting friends from different nationalities through my study abroad experience in Singapore
I attended middle school in Singapore and high school in Korea. When it came time to go to college, I was faced with the decision of whether to attend a university in Korea or Singapore. After a long discussion with my parents, I decided to go to a university in Singapore. Having spent my middle school years in Singapore, it was much easier for me to adjust to university life. I was able to develop a deeper understanding of my major with friends from different nationalities, which laid the foundation for my professional development.
As an international university with a diverse group of friends, the festivals were characterized by cultural festivals that gave me a glimpse of each country’s culture. As a member of the Korean Student Association on campus, I organized the festival to showcase Korean culture, and the tteokbokki we prepared for the festival was very popular. I didn’t stop there, but I also sent out a survey to my friends who tasted the tteokbokki to analyze what we needed to improve. I thought it would be a good idea to analyze the tastes of different countries as many friends from different nationalities had tasted it. In fact, based on the survey data, we were able to draw conclusions on what we needed to improve to satisfy the common tastes of people from different countries, and we were able to improve the satisfaction of the next year’s festival. I believe that the effort to feedback the results and make corrections rather than accepting them as given will be the foundation for me to achieve high achievements year after year when I join your company and work in sales.
Asia-focused travel and language study
In college, I had the opportunity to travel to China on a free trip. I won a public service announcement competition with my teammates from a competition club, and the prize was a trip to China. It was my first overseas experience. I hadn’t traveled much before because I was too busy studying and going to school, but China was a new world for me. I realized that there was a big, new world out there that made all the time I spent worrying about jobs and specs seem irrelevant.
After my trip, I didn’t stop planning for my next trip – I personally planned trips to Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, all of which I followed through on. When I went on a trip, I didn’t just think of it as something I would enjoy for myself – I felt rewarded by the process of working to provide a quality travel experience for the team members I was traveling with. So, a month before my trip, I would create an itinerary, detailing accommodations and restaurants, and share it with my team. Seeing my plan and budget, my friends invested in the program, and the result was a trip that we all enjoyed together.
By the second semester of my third year of university, I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to graduate as I was, so I arranged to go to the Philippines to study abroad. I decided to take classes at a university in the Philippines to earn credits, take English classes, and interact with native professors. In the process, I traveled to various natural environments in the Philippines, felt the beauty of Asia, and decided that I would definitely make traveling my hobby when I became a professional.
What my first overseas trip taught me
I first traveled abroad when I was a middle school student. My middle school at the time offered a short-term educational program to China, and I joined the program with the goal of going abroad during my school break. My parents told me that I should wait until I was older to go, but I knew that I really wanted to travel at that point, especially since China was a much more appealing option to me than places like Japan or Hong Kong, so I insisted and appealed to my parents.
As a result, I was able to take advantage of my summer vacation to go on a two-week trip to China. Two weeks is a short time in some ways, but it was a very fulfilling and long time for me. Living in a foreign country was a completely new experience for me, having lived in Korea for a long time and in the same area, and I had a lot of fun adjusting to a completely different place, not only in terms of climate and weather, but also in terms of people and food culture. The moods, emotions, and temperatures of being in a foreign and new place still stay with me to this day. This first trip led me to decide on my career path and made me promise myself that I would do something related to China. I have been saying ever since that I would be the best Chinese teacher I could be, and I have been working to fulfill that dream ever since.
Volunteering makes me happy
In high school, I volunteered at a facility for the blind, and I often made mistakes because I wasn’t used to helping them eat and do activities, but instead of getting angry at myself, I was encouraged by the warm words of the blind people who helped me. I learned that not being able to see doesn’t mean you have to be blind, and that you can really see people with your heart, so I visited the facility whenever I could.
My relationship with the blind facility, which began in high school, grew even deeper in college. For all four years of my college career, I was an active member of a service club called the 26-year-old organization, which has been delivering lunches to the elderly who live alone, making regular visits and helping with household chores, and tutoring children from single-parent families. Along with these activities, I also regularly scheduled time to assist with activities and lend my voice to the blind facility I was involved with in high school. The more I volunteer, the more I realize that it’s not just about helping others, but about making myself happy.
Volunteering and improving my language skills through various volunteer activities
I did a lot of volunteer work when I was in high school. I was grateful that I had the talent to do these volunteer activities, such as translating letters with overseas children through an NGO organization, and volunteering with the Cultural Heritage Corps to introduce Korea’s cultural assets to foreigners visiting Korea. The reason I was able to do these volunteer activities was because of my language skills, which I had been studying consistently. I realized that not having talent doesn’t mean you can’t volunteer, but the more talented you are, the more you can help. Therefore, I studied Korean history to clearly communicate my culture to foreigners and obtained the first level of Korean history in my senior year. I also thought that computer skills were important in the information age, so I obtained a number of certifications to utilize computers. After entering college, I was able to utilize my talents in various volunteer activities, including helping foreign exchange students adjust to Korea, and volunteering for computer education for low-income children. Volunteering is an activity that gives me great reward and joy when I help others. I will continue to do so in the future, and I believe that this spirit of service and caring for others will be valuable to your organization.
Volunteering from the heart
By the time I got to middle school, I was very physically fit, unlike when I was younger. I wasn’t just fat, but I was very athletic because I was always playing sports, so my friends would call me when I was playing sports, and I was always involved in intra-class and interscholastic sports. I won a lot of championships, but I was always trying to be the best I could be, and I wanted to be the best of the best.
By the time I got to high school, I was the kind of person who was genuinely committed to doing the volunteer work that everyone else was doing. I didn’t like that because other kids tended to just do what everyone else was doing, and I didn’t want to do that. In fact, I focused my volunteer work on two organizations, a nursing home for the elderly and a rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, rather than doing a lot of volunteer work, because everyone does volunteer work, but few people do it with their heart and soul.
I have always taken the initiative to create topics and lead my teammates in projects, which is something I often do in college. Mechanical engineering projects often required experiments and hands-on work, and I was always careful to ensure that no accidents occurred. I believe that accidents can be prevented by following principles and rules.
A meticulous and calm personality has given me a variety of experiences
I always strived to be honest and was trusted by my teachers as a child who would never lie. I was also trusted by my moral teacher because I was meticulous like my father and calm like my mother, so I was especially trusted by my moral teacher and went to volunteer work with her throughout my middle school years. It was fun to go to volunteer work alone with my teacher, and the variety of experiences I was able to have was a great asset to my growth. I met people who were much poorer than me, people who couldn’t even afford to eat, and people my age who had both parents but were sick and had to take care of their families. Seeing so many of my friends made me appreciate my life, and I realized that everyone has their own reasons for living, and it made me more understanding of people. I’ve come to respect and value people more after realizing that even the strangest people have their own reasons for living. After growing up in middle school with a variety of experiences, I entered high school, served as class president once and vice president twice, and entered college to major in public administration.
Continuing to volunteer at the nursery school
When I was living in a dormitory at university, there was a volunteer group in the dormitory, so I spent a year caring for children at a nearby nursery school. Although it was called caring, it was actually a job that required some guidance and training, as I had no professional knowledge and had to deal with children, so at first I helped with laundry and cleaning. The directors were very happy to see us and asked us to do various things that hadn’t been done in the facility during the week, and it made me feel proud to know that the children were safe in the spaces we cleaned and touched. After about six months, there was an athletic competition at the nursery school, and I followed the teacher as an assistant. I had very little face-to-face interaction with the children, but after playing and sweating with them, we became like big brothers and sisters. But strangely enough, I walked home that day with a heavy heart. The nursery school warned me to be careful not to have unrealistic expectations or relationships with the children unless I was able to come consistently or meet them, as they were emotionally vulnerable. I had a lot of studying to do and was tempted to be lazy on the weekends, but I remembered the children’s faces waiting for me and being happy to see me, so I continued to volunteer at the nursery school for another six months until I got a job. Now, although I can’t visit every week like I did then, I opened a sponsorship account to repay a small debt of gratitude.
A program that taught me the importance of nature
After living away from nature until high school, I went to college and lived in Seoul. I was sad to be away from my parents, but I was bold enough to forge my own life. I applied to the Department of Forest Resources, where I was able to actively utilize my inquisitive mind and curiosity. I participated in competitions based on my eco-friendly ideas and even won a grand prize. I realized that I should not only know about the importance of nature but also practice it, so I became a volunteer at the Youth Nature Camp supported by ○○, a program designed to help young people from elementary school to high school, known for its camping equipment, feel the importance of nature by experiencing eco-friendly living. College students were recruited as volunteers, so I participated in the camp and led the youth. At the camp, I became a celebrity among the youth and other volunteers for my knowledge of plants, birds, and other natural resources. It was an experience where my knowledge shone through. Some of the students were not used to camping, so they didn’t adjust well on the first day and looked for their parents, but I comforted them, told them stories about my childhood, and made them curious. Volunteering at this camp helped me discover a new ability. I discovered another talent of mine, which I strived to develop further. I was taking a liberal arts course in business administration, and it had a lot of project assignments. In doing these assignments, I had many opportunities to present in front of a large group of students, which helped me develop my presentation skills to make things more understandable.
I have experience in educational outreach
I love to tell stories, which is how I stumbled upon learning oral storytelling. Having grown up watching cartoons and dreaming of becoming a voice actor, I fell in love with it when I saw it on TV. So when I found out that the department store cultural center had an oral storytelling course, I immediately signed up for it and worked hard enough to get a certificate as an oral storytelling instructor. During my sophomore year of college, I realized that this talent was too good to sit on the sidelines, so I organized a volunteer program. As an active member of a service club, I approached a local organization that ran hands-on activities for kindergarten and elementary school children, and I volunteered to teach young students the joy of reading and life lessons through oral storytelling. As we worked together, we didn’t just want each child to do well, but we thought about the impact of multiple children to ensure a good outcome for everyone. In addition, I saw a child with a hearing impairment and I felt so bad that he couldn’t hear my oral stories. This inspired me to learn sign language. Although using my hands to communicate was not enough to fully express my emotions, I worked hard to learn and participated in many sign language volunteer activities for the deaf and hard of hearing. In these activities, I felt that it was not just an individual volunteer activity, but a team of people working together to achieve a good result. Therefore, I believe that the true meaning of teamwork is when everyone works together to bring about a more desirable result.
Volunteering to take care of children from multicultural families
I grew up being told from a young age that I had to be proactive, so I always took the initiative to get things done or lead my friends, so when I was in school, I was a class officer and a school officer, and I did my best to make sure that my work was done neatly and that my schoolwork was not a distraction. But one of the things that I enjoyed the most was volunteering. From my sophomore year of high school through my junior year of college, I volunteered to babysit children from multicultural families. It started as a suggestion from my homeroom teacher, who asked me to pass on my know-how in math to the children, and I realized that I was getting help from them rather than helping them. When I first started, I had some prejudices about the children, but as time went on, I became more and more ashamed of myself for treating them with colored glasses. I was treating them like strangers just because they were from a multicultural family and their skin color was a little different from other children. I wondered if the children had noticed my thoughts. I was relieved that they didn’t, but I felt embarrassed that I thought I had an open mind, and that I had been so narrow-minded for a moment. I had a moment of reflection, wondering if I had been pretending to think about the stability, harmony, and integration of society rather than my own comfort. I used to help elementary school students with their homework once a week, and they were so cheerful. Seeing them struggle to solve things they didn’t understand made me want to study as a teacher, so I think I was faithful to my school studies. When I became a university student, I worked as a mentor for middle and high school students. I was able to reflect on myself as I gave heartfelt advice and counsel to my mentees who were lost in their lives. It was a meaningful activity in that it made me realize that I was useful to someone through tutoring and mentoring, and I was able to examine the direction of my life.
Volunteering for cultural property management
During my high school vacations, I participated in a cultural property management service at the ward office as a volunteer project. It was a simple job to go to cultural property facilities and help clean or guide them, but through this process, I became very interested in the cultural properties around me and learned about their charms, which were different from the ones I had seen during school trips and picnics. After that vacation, I went to the person in charge of the volunteer program to learn more about cultural interpretation and guide service, and after receiving training for a certain period of time, I have been volunteering to guide the palace on weekends since then.
I decided that I needed to start my career as soon as possible, so I decided to go to a high school for business and commerce. The things I was learning at school were really my aptitude and I enjoyed them, so I was able to get excellent grades and get certifications earlier than any of my friends. I also got a part-time job because I got certified so early. Most of them were office assistant jobs, and although it was physically difficult to work while going to school, it was exciting to be able to earn my own income, and to be able to apply what I had learned in school and studied for my certification, and to be able to actually use it in the company’s work, and as I got used to the work, I developed my own know-how and was able to enjoy it.
I saw a different world through volunteering
The most meaningful experience for me was volunteering. I applied for a company’s free volunteer abroad program, which was over 100:1 competitive, and they chose me because I was healthy. I went to a place where there were tons of people without water, food, or even a home, and we built them a home while we fed ourselves and suffered from thirst. We pushed ourselves to the limit and there was definitely some discord amongst the team, but how we dealt with it instead of turning away from it helped us to redefine what it means to have a relationship with people. And after we finished building the houses, I had an experience where I couldn’t stop crying. It was a 15-day journey, but through that experience, I saw a different world, and because of that volunteer experience, I’m always grateful for everything that I have, and I’m grateful for the people around me, and one more thing, life is precious and you only live once, so you should enjoy it to the fullest. It was an invaluable experience that allowed me to see a different world.
