On July 21, the government enacted the Humanism Education Promotion Act, which makes it mandatory for local governments and schools to have character education. In 2015, Keimyung University established the Keimyung Character Education Center to help students develop morally and socially. The Gazette will introduce the Keimyung Character Education Center.
● The Keimyung Character Education Center
The Keimyung Character Education Center was established in March 2015. The main focus of this institution is helping students to build an upright character and to contribute to character education’s development. The Keimyung Humanism Education Center is developing and offering training programs for students to achieve this. It is cooperating with several institutions and universities to make good character education programs.
● Character Education Program
The Keimyung Character Education Center’s main program is the Keimyung Global Citizen Program. This program helps Keimyung students develop leadership, sociability, and a spirit of challenge. 240 students participated in the first semester,and200 students are participating in the second semester.
The program consists of three stages. The first stage, Light on Me, helps students to find their true spirit through activities like finding their own vision and leadership activities. The second stage, Light on Others, helps students to communicate and co-exist with others. The third stage, Light on the World, helps students to live in harmony and to have social responsibility and multicultural ethics.
The first stage in the program helps students to improve self-esteem through various activities like presenting about themselves and drawing a vision map of their future dreams. In addition, the program helps them to find their own talents and spirit for the future. In the second stage, students learn about politeness and consideration for others. They also learn about responsibility and community spirit. In the third stage, students develop leadership and the ability to communicate with people. They learn about social responsibility from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They also learn about many countries’ culture and etiquette.
From next year, they plan to expand the program to the Keimyung Spirit and Service course for freshmen.
● Intensive Training Program
There are 4 intensive training programs related to the University’s educational principle “For the Kingdom of Truth, Justice and Love.” First, there is the You&I Program. This program focuses on students who are Christian. They talk about their feelings about God and recognize the relationship between God and themselves. In the Keimyung-Social Enterprise (KM-SE) Program, students learn about social enterprises’ meaning and values. In addition, the program introduces international social enterprises like One World Health, a pharmaceutical company that provides technical assistance to undeveloped countries. Students also learn about the importance of community service and discuss activities like helping multicultural families and saving the environment.
There are two more programs in the Intensive Training program. In Lao-tzu and Healing– Finding Myself, students learn about Taoism and Lao-tzu’s thought. Students have meditation sessions and study Lao-tzu’s teachings. In Kung Fu Panda and the Study of the Mind – Meeting Myself, students watch scenes from the movie Kung Fu Panda and feel emotions like joy, sorrow, hope, and fear. This program’s aim is empathy.
● Cooperation and Exchange with Other Institutions
The Keimyung Character Education Center is planning various programs through cooperating and exchanging research on character education with other institutions. They have signed an MOU with Andong City Hall to provide places where students can experience traditional culture like seowon, a private educational institute in the Joseon Dynasty. They have signed MOUs with Dosan Seowon Confucian Academy and the Korean Studies Advancement Center. Through these agreements, they will cooperate on character education, traditional culture, and understanding of history. In addition, they will do research on character education. They held an academic exchange seminar with Wonkwang University on November 13, and they are planning a conference with the Saehan Philosophical Society.
● Future plans
The Keimyung Character Education Center is developing various character education programs like a healing program that uses music, art, and taekwondo and a traditional culture experience program. They have a plan to develop programs for not only Keimyung students but also for elementary, middle, and high school students.
Interview with head of character education, Lee Hyun Ji
What is your work in the Keimyung Character Education Center?
I am developing and studying character education programs. I also manage the programs. In addition, I cooperate with other institutions like Wonkwang University and Seoul Women’s University.
After the programs, what is the student’ reaction?
Students say that they can have confidencein themselves after the programs. They say that it was good to experience various activities and communicate with other majors’ students. In addition, in the Keimyung Global Citizen Program, there were not only Korean students butalso foreign students participating. It was a good opportunity for them to develop self-confidence, leadership skills, a spirit of challenge, and communication ability.
Which programs do you recommend?
There are a lot of programs in Keimyung Character Education Center. If you want to expand personal relations and communicate with a lot of people, it is good to join the Keimyung Global Citizen Program. For students who are looking for a job and want to joincompaniesthat can helpsociety and have a good personality at the same time, I want to recommend the KM-SE program. In addition, Lao-tzu and Healing – Finding Myself can help people to find their own worth, and Kung Fu Panda and the Study of the Mind – Meeting Myself can help people who have low self-esteem.
Do you have any words for the Gazette readers?
Most programs in the Keimyung Character Education Center are long-term programs. Character education is lifelong education. We want many people to participate in the programs andhave an opportunity to look deeplyinto themselves and have the ability to understand others.
The Keimyung Character Education Center is developing various character education programs. Students can develop their character through these programs. The Gazette recommends you participate in a character education program that is right for you.
