Gyeongnam National University Selected for 5 Consecutive Years for 'Multicultural and Talbuk Students Mentoring Scholarship Program'

Selecting Mentors to Provide Educational Opportunities for Multicultural and North Korean Defector Students

Gyeongnam National University was recently selected for the fifth consecutive year as the lead university for the Gyeongnam region in the Multicultural and North Korean Defector Student Mentoring Scholarship Program, organized by the Korea Student Aid Foundation.

The "Multicultural and North Korean Defector Student Mentoring Scholarship Program" is a project where university students and multicultural and North Korean defector students meet as mentors and mentees to share knowledge and experiences, implement government education welfare policies, and achieve co-growth with local communities.

Gyeongnam National University has been selected as the lead university for the Gyeongnam region in the multicultural and North Korean defector student mentoring scholarship program.

Since 2011, Gyeongnam National University has operated special programs linked with various institutions and rural special activity programs in cooperation with organizations in farming and fishing villages, producing more than 150 student mentors annually. Starting this year, the number of mentors has been expanded to 200 to provide more equitable educational opportunities for multicultural and North Korean defector students.

As a result, the university’s excellent management capabilities in the project have been recognized, leading to its selection as the "Lead University for the Gyeongnam Region" this year. Notably, it has achieved the remarkable feat of being selected as the lead institution for five consecutive years since 2019. The project will run for one year until February 2025.

With this selection, Gyeongnam National University has secured approximately 1.32 billion KRW in scholarships and plans to support educational activities aimed at strengthening school life adaptation and basic academic skills improvement for multicultural and North Korean defector students in cooperation with about 200 related institutions in the Gyeongnam area.

To this end, 200 mentors composed of enrolled students were selected, and on the 19th, a pre-education session for mentors of the "2024 Multicultural and North Korean Defector Student Mentoring Scholarship Program" was held at the multipurpose hall on the first floor of the Industry-Academic Cooperation Building.

The training was attended by Dean Kim Jeong-hee of the College of Education, related personnel, and mentor students. It included a presentation on the current status of the Gyeongnam National University Multicultural and North Korean Defector Student Mentoring Scholarship Program and a special lecture by Professor Kwon Eun-kyung from the Department of Education titled "The Attitude of Student Mentors and Understanding the Characteristics of Youth Mentees."

Dean Kim said, "I am grateful to all Gyeongnam National University students who participated in this project to support the education of multicultural and North Korean defector students and the educational welfare of the local community," adding, "Under the guidance of Professor Hyun Ho-geun, the project supervisor, I hope this will be a meaningful time as various educational activities are carried out to spread a culture of knowledge sharing and enhance the capacity to solve local community issues."