One year ago, as part of an effort to cultivate students with a sense of community identity by emphasizing students’ personality education, Ewha established “Share Leadership” as a required course for freshmen students. With the aim of nurturing students with self-leadership, Share Leadership is composed of theoretical studies accompanied with students’ hands-on activities. Such aspects of the course made it become a topic of interest and controversy among students and faculty members throughout the year 2013. In this issue, the Ewha Voice will review the overall progress and responses concerning Share Leadership.
Share Leadership aims to raise future leaders through hands-on practices
Originally a general education course, Share Leadership was selected to become a mandatory course for all freshmen students in 2013. The purpose of the course is to train complete intellectuals who are able to reflect upon their communal life, ponder about the social meaning of knowledge and fulfill their perception into action in this rapidly changing society.
The classes for Share Leadership progress through a combination of theoretical education and practical education, by means of lectures, practice activities and presentations. The theoretical education is composed of five main topics: understanding share leadership, communication and empathy, community of regional society, global citizenship, and women and knowledge.
After finishing this theoretical education, students practice hands-on activities based on teamwork to directly experience the various social issues in their surrounding community.
“First-year students usually lack social experience and have narrow relationships,” said professor Yang Min-suk (Center for General Education), one of the creators of Share Leadership. “Through the activities of Share Leadership, those students can gain self-confidence and have the opportunity to think about various issues with other people, making it an appropriate and necessary course for freshmen.”
As this is a new, unique form of subject provided in university education, the course Share Leadership has its own benefits.
“The advantage of Share Leadership is that students can organize and carry out their own projects, putting their acquired knowledge into action,” said professor Kim Hye-ryung (Center for General Education), also one of the creators of the course. “The course content, which considers and describes the problematic situation of competition in modern society, is also its unique strength.”