Ilju Academic and Cultural Foundation Awards Full Scholarships to 162 University Students This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Taekwang Group Ilju Academic and Cultural Foundation (Ilju Foundation) selected 55 domestic undergraduate scholarship recipients for the 29th term of the 2021 academic year on the 15th and awarded scholarship certificates covering full tuition for three years. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the scholarship certificate awarding ceremony was omitted, and the certificates and souvenirs were sent individually by mail. Including the 55 selected this time, Ilju Foundation will support a total of 162 university students this year with scholarships amounting to 1 billion KRW.

Following the selection of domestic undergraduate scholarship recipients, Ilju Foundation also runs the 'Overseas Doctoral Scholarship Program,' which provides a total of $120,000 USD per person over four years to students entering overseas graduate doctoral programs. The total amount the Ilju Foundation will support for these two scholarship programs this year is 2 billion KRW.

The Ilju Foundation scholarship program began in 1991 based on the philosophy of the late Chairman Lee Im-yong, the founder of the foundation, who believed that "countries without resources must nurture talent." It has reached its 29th term of selection and has supported a total of 1,029 scholarship recipients to date. Over the past 30 years, it has awarded scholarships totaling 39.3 billion KRW to 1,711 domestic master's, doctoral, and undergraduate scholarship recipients.

Domestic undergraduate scholarship recipients participate in volunteer activities such as mentoring youths living in 'Child and Adolescent Group Homes' starting from March. Now in its 10th year, Ilju Foundation’s group home mentoring program is a social contribution activity that connects scholarship students with group home children to provide academic guidance and career counseling. Up to last year, 620 domestic undergraduate scholarship recipients participated in the mentoring program, accumulating a total of 39,645 hours of face-to-face volunteer service.

Ilju Foundation has supported 900 million KRW over the past three years for the education support program for families with disabled parents and siblings, and plans to donate 230 million KRW this year as well.