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Speeches

2017 Matriculation Address 2017.02.24

February 24, 2017

 

 

Welcome, our honored undergraduates,

 

I sincerely welcome each and every one of you to Yonsei. Congratulations on your perseverance and diligence and making it here. I would also like to express my utmost respect and gratitude to all parents and others who went through challenging times day and night supporting you.

 

This year’s matriculation is the very first for incoming students to make a pledge of honor. As Yonsei students, all of you today have to promise that you will volunteer for others in the spirit of service and with open heart, to lead the advancement of academia through creativity and critical thinking, and to respect and be considerate towards other members of the Yonsei community. Your adherence to this pledge will be the foundational stone not only for your own individual development but that of the university and the society as well. All faculty and staff in Yonsei, including myself, will unite and do our best to help you fulfill this promise.

 

In your freshmen year, you will be educated at Yonsei’s Residential College (RC) - the only one of its kind in Korea. Nobel Laureate James Heckman once stated that to be a leader in the future society, one’s non-cognitive ability often measured by good interpersonal relations will be more important than cognitive skills like intelligence. In the age where information is easily available at your fingertips, soft skills such as social skills, empathy, and consideration towards others will be given greater weight than rote learning skills and knowledge. Hence, the importance of soft skills will outweigh that of learning and studying.

 

As you make friends and build a network of trust with your peers in Yonsei, you will learn to be more understanding and respectful, learn communication and empathy in addition to sharing and being considerate. Serving others and volunteering with an open mind is indeed what only humans are capable of in the age of artificial intelligence. The founders of Yonsei who have instilled in all of us the spirit of Yonsei since long before will act as a beacon in your college life. Today’s pledge of honor is a promise that you will be a Yonseian inheriting the Yonsei spirit and a vow that you will learn to be a talent called for by the future society.

 

As Yonsei students, you will not learn in solitude in lecture rooms or libraries, but will enlighten yourselves by being exposed to different opinions and knowledge through endless brainstorming and cooperation. Do not cage yourselves in to focus on mere “specifications” or qualifications. I recommend that you make as many friends from as many different circles as possible. This is because in the future society, creativity no longer refers to creation from scratch but is developed from interactions among dissimilar knowledge. Try sowing a seed of attention in whatever you find interesting or attracts you - regardless of how minor that might be – that will make you stand out from the rest. Once that tiny seed bursts into flames of passion, by the time you graduate you will have gained expertise sufficient to last a lifetime. We at Yonsei even offer research grants to satisfy your curiosity. Last year, a team that came up with a way to prevent forgetting your dorm room keys won the top award. I recommend that you do the same of taking up challenges in providing solutions to problems.

 

All of you here are super-centennials who will live until the 2100s. Based on scientists’ predictions about the future society, all of you will undergo not only many opportunities but also difficulties and obstacles. By the time you are in your thirties in 2030, about half of the jobs today will no longer exist. In about 2050, some scientists predict that artificial intelligence will have surpassed the intelligence of the human brain. As you have witnessed the prowess of AlphaGo, the quality of your lives and the depth of your happiness while you live 50 more years starting from the year 2050 depends on your four years in college. I hope you will spend the next four years happily even when you are busy.

I hope your college life will be as fruitful as the trees planted along endless streams. May you always be blessed and graced by the love of God.

 

Thank you.

 

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