To provide financial expertise, the Ewha Finance Alumnae Association (EFAA) was founded to provide a voluntary project, called “Kong-Al-Han-Jjok”—which means “One of the Beans” in Korean—as the second program of the Ewhain’s Talent Donation on Nov. 14 at the Ewha Campus Complex Theater. The EFAA will launch its first official Kong-Al-Han-Jjok event in January next year.
The EFAA originally belonged to the Career Development Center under the name “Finepeer,” a career group of Ewha alumnae working in the finance field. Finepeer then became the EFAA of the Office of University Relations and Development and broadened its activities from networking to volunteering.
The EFAA, consisting of 350 Ewha alumnae working in finance, recruited 60 of its members to participate in the newly formed volunteer program Kong-Al-Han-Jjok.
“We wanted to function in the community and society as ‘beans,’ which are full of protein and provide a lot of energy and nutrition, thereby creating positive energy for others,” said Yoo Mi-kyoung (’86, Economics), a representative of EFAA who works at Woori Bank. “Alumnae became great mentors and career coaches in Finepeer for one another. But we thought we should do more than that and reach out to people in society by sharing what we can do best, which is what Ewha also aims for.”
Kong-Al-Han-Jjok projects will be carried out both online and offline. On its Web site, the Kong-Al-Han-Jjok volunteers will provide practical financial information, guidelines for self-managing finance, and advice in personal financial planning, each specifically fitted to the life stages women pass through and each intended for all women in the community, including Ewha alumnae.
Also, it plans to open free offline finance classes for teenagers in order to stimulate and nurture their interest in money management at an early age.
Kong-Al-Han-Jjok is the second project of Ewhain’s Talent Donation, through which Ewha alumnae will donate their knowledge and talent in finance to other people under the theme of “Non Nobis Solum,” a Latin phrase meaning “Not For Ourselves Alone.”
Ewhain’s Talent Donation was started by the Ewha Law Alumnae Association, which has been providing free legal counseling to Ewha students, faculty, and alumnae since September 2011.
The Kong-Al-Han-Jjok project is in its preparatory stage, with the EFAA currently organizing the details of programs and events along with building its Web site. The project is expected to launch in January 2013.
The vision of the EFAA is to guide women to lead valuable lives and embrace others living in contemporary society.
It thus decided not to focus only on Ewha alumnae and faculty for their voluntary projects, but also to set a goal of widening the range of its voluntary work to include women outside Ewha and ultimately all members of the community.