Hoping That Sharing and Giving Becomes a Part Of Our Life…… * Please introduce Yonsei Volunteering Corps to us. Our school has set three major goals and one of them is Servant Leadership. It insists that we become leaders that are humble and know how to share with our neighbors. A true leader must posses a mind for serving others. Until this day, our society has only experienced leaders that reigned over us. It is now time to throw away such models of leaders. Finding a new leader icon for the future is one of the tasks that our school must take care of. I personally think that the best model for servant leadership is Jesus. I’m sure we all know the story of Jesus, cleaning the feet of his followers? Lowering yourself and becoming a leader who can take care of others is the key importance in running the group. * What do you think is the true meaning of volunteering? There is a saying that I always tell other people: volunteering is physically experiencing the words, ‘living together.’ That is what’s most important - acknowledgement and execution of a society where people live amongst each other. Volunteering gives life and hope to the people who practice it and to the people who receive it. And I always tell this my students who volunteer with me. I tell them that ‘you are the sentries of hope’. In a sense, they are the ones that give and protect hope to the people in society. * How would you evaluate the Yonseians that participate in the volunteering? I was surprised. As I lectured in the freshman seminar and volunteering course, I was quite impressed by our fellow students. At first, they all came in with vague thoughts about what they are getting themselves into - thoughts such as ‘I will help others’, ‘I want to do a good deed’, ‘I want to obtain 1 class credit through this class.’ However, as they experience real volunteering, I can see their attitudes changing completely. They start to think constructive thoughts such as ‘What can I do to be of more help? What must I do here?’ I hope that more and more students jump into the real world of volunteering and experience it themselves. * We are interested in professors’ personal experiences as well. I am currently volunteering at a teaching position at an English clinic and helping senior citizens who live alone take their baths. I hope that I can be a model to my students at what I do because there aren’t many similar role models around them. This is also crucial for our students in forming relations in becoming mentors and mentees. It’s not that the mentor is especially great but because I think that it is very important for our students to ‘exhibit’ even minor and small actions that others want to learn and follow. I believe that this will be a great motive and stimulant for them. Bathing the elderly is a different sort of feeling of thankfulness. I have even built a special relationship with a particular senior citizen that I take care of. We look forward to seeing each other and I learn many things through these relationships that I make. I guess it’s another form of giving and receiving. I am really learning a great deal! * What is your current key goal for the YVC? There have been two new major projects that we have been promoting this semester. One is that the volunteering courses have been increased to 12 subjects and the other is the insertion if the Volunteer Certification System. Although sharing and volunteering is not a hard thing to do, our society still sees it as something special and rigorous. This is also the case within our campus. Therefore, I want to provide the opportunity for this and show them the key advantages of volunteering. I think this is very important. Seen at a glance, volunteering may seem like an effortless course and a chance to earn certificates, but this type of system provides much, much more than that. It provides a turning point in our consciousness that we must not miss such a chance. I feel that, until all of our students at Yonsei feels that volunteering is a habit, the YVC must take a leading role. * Do you have any hopes for the future? My biggest hope is for more and more students to attend school with bigger hearts by participating in lots of volunteering programs. Don’t you think that a person who has internalized such experience and attitude will become a great leader, wherever they go? And another personal desire is for all the members of our school become a ‘planter’ of hope for the people that are socially neglected. If volunteering becomes a habit, then it will easily become a way of life. Sharing your personal talents, extra wealth, and serving others is a life that I hope becomes the life of all Yonseians.