Kang Jin, a researcher at the Career Development Center (CDC) is pleased at the successes of the Social Action Projects that students have completed for her leadership training class.
The Social Action Projects have been assigned in the Leadership Training II class since 2006. They are team projects where students work to solve social problems they observe in or out of Ewha.
As a first step in the projects, each student in the class talks about her own vision that she has in front of other students. After making such presentation, students who have similar interest make a group. After about two months of campaigning, the group projects are evaluated.
Kang said that such training is different from team projects in most other classes. “Students organize their own groups based on similarity of interests,” said Kang. “This is different from being assigned randomly in teams, which is usual in other classes.”
To Kang, the most memorable team project was the one-line campaign in front of the elevators at the Ewha-POSCO Building. Before the campaign, students crowded in front of the elevators, thereby causing many inconveniences. The group made a difference by calling attention to a problem that everyone was aware of but nobody had ever tried to change. With help from the student council of the College of Social Sciences, the crowds of pushing students were changed into orderly lines.
“I valued the fact that the group involved the student council very highly because working with others is a very important factor in leadership,” said Kang. Kang said that although each student has her own potential to work as a leader, it should be improved by continuous training and also by drawing on help from others. “When you work at a job, it is important to be a "team player" who works well with the other people, rather than a “star player” who is capable of given tasks, but does not know how to interact with others.”
Kang said that the Social Action Project is a good opportunity for Ewha students to take the lead in making social changes and in changing themselves from passive to active people.
“It is meaningful for students to find a problem around them by themselves and try to solve it by looking for possible solutions. Through this experience, leadership can be built,” said Kang. “Ewha students need to make full use of their smartness and also be armed with trained leadership skills, which can be built through our training.”
저작권자 © Ewha Voice 무단전재 및 재배포 금지