Since May 2009, the Office of Student Welfare has overseen the Dream Start mentoring program, which is designed to provide high school students from low-income and disadvantaged backgrounds with educational and cultural opportunities meant to stimulate their interest in learning. The program is intended not only to improve the academic performance and self-confidence of the high school students, but also to allow Yonsei students to meaningfully contribute to the community and actively learn through their service. In addition to the Yonsei mentors and their high school mentees, Yonsei graduate students serve as supervisors in the program. Providing guidance on mentoring, these graduate students regularly meet with the Yonsei mentors, reviewing their mentees’ report cards and offering feedback on their weekly mentoring reports. Each year, the mentors for Dream Start are selected through a competitive application process which evaluates the leadership, teaching, and counseling capabilities of the applicants; in particular, the selection committee looks for exceptionally motivated Yonsei students who have demonstrated a dedication to service and sensitivity to gender-related issues and multicultural contexts. The participation of the high school mentees is voluntary; however, they must be recommended by their high school principal. Each year, about 100 Yonsei mentors are assigned a mentee, while each supervisor oversees a group of around 15 mentors. Dream Start’s mentoring activities mainly focus on education, self-confidence, and culture. For the first of these, the Yonsei mentors provide basic guidance intended to improve their mentees’ learning and reading skills. The mentors also act as counselors, speaking with their mentees about the issues they face inside and outside of school, and encouraging them to think about their future career and goals, the person they would like to become, and how they can best prepare themselves to achieve these aspirations. Lastly, both the mentors and mentees take part in cultural events, attending plays and concerts, visiting museums, and taking field trips. Dream Start strives to instill an appreciation for fine arts and culture in the mentees, something that can be difficult in a consumer culture saturated with advertisements and images of pop stars. Since its inception, the Dream Start mentees have consistently shown improved academic achievement; and, this spring, four mentees from last year’s Dream Start were admitted to Yonsei.