The University of Ulsan has a heartwarming scholarship in which many students, alumni, and professors participate to support students who are going through financial difficulties. The members of the school stand together in sharing their ideas of support, pulling money from their pockets little by little to fund the “Love for Schoolmate scholarship.”
The student council first came up with the proposal of this scholarship to help their fellow students with financial problems. Accepting the council’s proposal, the school created the Love for Schoolmate scholarship. Students can sponsor the program by adding an extra 50,000 won or 100,000 won when they pay their tuitions, and professors also occasionally contribute to the scholarship.
“I started donating to the Love for Schoolmate because I wanted to provide students who are having financial difficulties with equal educational opportunities,” said a staff who has been sponsoring the program. “I think the Love for Schoolmate scholarship is very meaningful because students come forward and help other students. I feel proud whenever I witness the recipients studying hard. I plan to sponsor the scholarship as much as I can.”
The school endeavors to promote the good intention of the scholarship by having the school president send letters to parents with the information of the scholarship and informing students of the usage of the contributions.
Having started in 2010, the scholarship was given out to students 11 times. After five years, many of the students who have benefited from the Love for Schoolmate scholarship have graduated from school and are now employed. In order to return the support they have received when they were students, the previous Love for Schoolmate recipients made donations from their salary.
“We aim to nurture a beautiful donation culture where students support fellow students,” said an official from the Office of Student Affairs of University of Ulsan. “On top of that, we are hoping to create a continuous cycle of alumni to return what they have received from their fellow classmates to other students in their school.”
Mileage system, encouraging students to win their scholarship
Seoul Women’s University and Kyung Hee University have their own kind of scholarship to aid students with their tuitions costs. Both universities established a unique type of scholarship, requiring students to accumulate mileage points by participating in various activities and achieving improvement in their studies, converting the points into cash.
Seoul Women’s University was the first school to have found the mileage type scholarship under the name “C-Money.” The scholarship was established in 2010, motivating students to participate voluntarily and passionately in academic activities, job searching activities, and other programs. The school provides mileage points for over 90 programs, and is annually adding activities so that more students can benefit from the program.
“The school came up with the idea from a credit card advertisement while thinking of a way to help students enjoy their campus life and encourage them to participate in various advantageous programs the school provides,” said an official of the Advancement for College Education Team of Seoul Women’s University. “At first, it was planned to be like a real mileage system where students can accumulate points through activities and convert them into cash right away. However, due to practical challenges, the plan was modified to be the current C-Money system.”
Under the current system, every 10 points can be converted into 10,000 won. If a student collects more than 200 points, she is able to receive 200,000 won or more for a semester. Almost every student benefits from C-Money at least once before graduation. In many cases students obtain the scholarship without even intending to, since taking English courses or improving their GPAs also adds up the mileage points. So far, more than 741 million won has been provided to 3,398 students.
“At first, I did not know much about the C-Money system,” confessed Kim A-reum, a senior of Seoul Women’s University. “However, as the students who benefited from it wrote postings about it on the school website, I got interested and started to actively accumulate points. I often attend lectures and career searching activities at school. By participating in such programs and taking particular courses, I could earn many points. In the end, I received a considerable amount of money in my scholarship. It is a scholarship easier to obtain if a student is willing to work hard. I want to recommend it to other students too.”
Kyung Hee University started its own mileage-type scholarship, the Mosaic Scholarship, two years after Seoul Women’s University established C-Money. In order to receive the scholarship, all the students need to do is to enjoy a dynamic campus life.
Similar to the C-Money, the Mosaic Scholarship allows students to collect points by participating in school programs and converting one point into one won. Students can accumulate these points from the following four areas: learning, community service, internationalization, and others. Students can receive a minimum of 200,000 won to a maximum of one million won by writing papers, doing voluntary work, or scoring well on foreign language exams.
“We would like to expand the areas so the students can accumulate their abilities in more diverse fields,” said an official of Scholarship Support Team of Kyung Hee University. “We hope that students enjoy their university years more through the Mosaic Scholarship.”
Park Kyoung-eun, Yang Hae-in
evoice@ewha.ac.kr