Adding fuel to fire: CDC sponsors enthusiasm for contests

 Ewha students are competitive. When it comes to competition, they can even be fiery. And when student efforts are fueled by the Ewha Career Development Center(CDC), then comes the explosion of enthusisam, colorful experiences, memories, and lines to fill in students' once white and empty resumes. The CDC first began supporting "career clubs" in 2007 to allow students pursuing the same dreams and goals to be mentors and mentees for each other, to create more efficient networks and to help students bulid experiences together. Clubs include cultural service club Eruda, which recently won first place in the CJ Sharing Foundations Hope Project Contest, the marketing club EMOC and club HR-HUB. "Unfortunately, some clubs disappeared in the process, but others remained and were successful in achieving their goals," said Kang Oo-ri( Graduate School of Educational Technology), the first president of Eruda, the descending body of sang-bab(abbreviated Korean expression for "to earn living with imagination"). In Career Club, clubs have different themes and motives. Some are to study investment, while others are to develop cultural contents for society contributions. "Career clubs at first had almost no members due to lack of publicity" said Kand. When the original members left the club after their graduation or employment, there were no new members for a while. But since those clubs have won several national contests, their profiles have risen. The CDC also adcertised the clubs on the Ewha Portal and website to recruit new members. "Unlike other clubs we usually do not socialize during our regular meetings becaouse of the hectic schedule we follow to enter contests. So it might be a little hard for freshmen to join at first. We meet almost everyday when there are contests coming uo, and at least twice a week even when there are no contests, to share our general ideas on the theme that we are working on,"said Kang. Members of the clubs never seem to complain about their workloads. "At first it wasn't easy for me to handle all the work as a student and as a leader of my club. I even thougt about quiting. But I realized, it is only now that i can use all my energy to do what I really want to do and have good memories of my school llife,"said Kang.  "No pain no gain," said Yun Song ei(Sociology, 2), the current president of Eruda. "I remember all the days of toilsome effort it took to win on out first award from CJ. Those efforts were not worthless." Students not participating in the career club but preparing for  contest had positive opinions about the support from school. "It is surprising to see that the school and the CDC are making efforts to support students and give them a better future. I am not involved in any career club, but I think it would be helpful for me if I join the career club to get help preparing for my contest entry," said Kin Lee-soo(International Studies, 2)who is preparing for the LG Global Challenger contest together with friends at school. "We hope that students will get to know more about career clubs, create helpful human networks in the future,, and experience colorful and useful contests and events to prepare for their careers,"said Kang.