With Citizens, Full Effort to Support Local Talent Settlement and Strengthen Educational Capacity
A Total of 19 Scholarship Students Selected for 'Local Universities - Local Employment and Startup Connection'
The Gyeongbuk Gumi Scholarship Foundation (Chairman Kim Jang-ho) held the ‘Scholarship Fund Donation and Scholarship Certificate Award Ceremony’ on the 27th at the city hall auditorium.
About 70 people, including scholarship fund donors and student representatives, attended the event to brighten the occasion.
▲ (By citizens) This year’s cumulative scholarship fund reaches 1.063 billion KRW... second highest ever
Through this year’s largest-scale scholarship fund donation ceremony, a total of 27 cases amounting to 191.82 million KRW were additionally donated, bringing the cumulative scholarship fund for 2024 to 1.063 billion KRW. This is about three times the amount of the previous year, marking the highest amount in the past nine years since 2015 and the second highest since the foundation’s establishment. The total fund raised to date amounts to 33.7 billion KRW. (Highest ever) 1.323 billion KRW in 2015
This achievement is a valuable result created by the voluntary participation of citizens from all walks of life who empathized with the need to expand ‘local talent-centered scholarship projects’ to overcome the local community’s crisis of declining school-age population and outflow of local talent.
In particular, since Chairman Kim Jang-ho’s inauguration, donor appreciation policies such as the establishment and operation of the ‘Hall of Fame’ (June 2023), full exemption of public parking fees (June 2023), and listing donors’ names in the city newsletter (October 2024) have received great responses from citizens, injecting new vitality into the scholarship fund raising.
The Gumi Scholarship Foundation plans to continue strengthening donor appreciation and maintaining citizens’ trust through transparent fund management.
▲ (For citizens) Full effort to nurture local resident-type talent and strengthen educational capacity
Following the donation ceremony, scholarship certificates were awarded to eight representatives of scholarship students under the ‘Local University - Local Employment and Entrepreneurship Linkage’ program, and a session was held to share attendees’ opinions on the development direction of city education and scholarship projects.
The newly established ‘Local University - Local Employment and Entrepreneurship Linkage’ scholarship this year is a type introduced to build a virtuous cycle system connecting local talent’s admission to local universities, employment or entrepreneurship, and settlement in the region. A total of 19 applicants who were employed or started businesses in small and medium-sized enterprises within the jurisdiction after graduating from local universities were selected through document screening and scholarship committee review, receiving 1.2 million KRW each, totaling 22.8 million KRW.
This year, the Gumi Scholarship Foundation selected 336 scholarship students in 14 categories and awarded scholarships totaling 383 million KRW. This is an increase of 117 students and 89 million KRW compared to last year’s 219 students and 294 million KRW, showing the further expansion of the foundation’s scholarship projects.
In particular, by reforming the existing scholarship system focused on academic excellence and expanding the selection of ‘local university development and local university-employment/entrepreneurship linkage’ scholarship students, a foundation was laid for local talents to enter local universities and settle stably in local companies. Additionally, the foundation plans to strengthen local education capacity and secure diversity and sustainability in education by providing incentives to outstanding local teachers and discovering and promoting specialized education policy projects linked to the Gumi Education Development Special Zone designated in February this year.
Mayor Kim Jang-ho said, “Despite difficult times, thanks to citizens’ interest and participation in nurturing local talent, we were able to achieve valuable results. We will continue to spare no support so that local talents can grow and settle together with the local community.”
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