[Seoul Wellesley Club]: Thanksgiving Dinner recap

Dear Seoul Wellesley Club Members,

It was great to see so many Wellesley alumnae at our Wellesley Thanksgiving Dinner, and thanks to our VP Carol who secured us a wonderful restaurant with beautiful views of Seoul!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we want to pass along a story from one of our Officers:

 

I want to tell you a story. When I was at Wellesley I wanted to write a paper on Korean Contemporary art. It took me weeks of searching the Internet to find two Korean artists—DoHo Suh and Michael Joo—who I could write a paper about.

I later wanted to pursue a masters or PHD in art history, and especially in Korean Contemporary art. Prof Heping Liu in the art history department had studied under the eminent scholar James Cahill. Cahill himself had studied under another eminent scholar, Max Loehr. Because there were generations (more than 50 years!) of scholarship on Chinese art, my classmates at Wellesley—who wanted to pursue a career in Chinese art history—could go on to study from the disciples of the Max Loehrs and Cahills of Chinese art.

For me, because I didn’t find confident there were great mentors in the field of Korean Contemporary art, I looked for something else.

Why am I telling you this story? Because it is an example of the lack of scholarship on Korea, and because of it we lose generations of people who are interested in Korea. It also means that because we are not satisfying the demand for classes on Korea we are losing opportunities to develop interest in our country—in arts, as well as in culture, languages, politics, history….

What does this mean for you? It means that if you pursue a career in diplomacy, negotiating deals and partnerships become that much harder because your peers have a far less understanding about Korea. If you are in sales, you may lose a big sale to your Japanese or Chinese competitor. It means your father, brother, sister, daughter, mother, son will hit the glass ceiling quicker than their Chinese counterparts. If you or your children want to pursue academia in a Korea related field, it will be that much harder for them to succeed.

The sad thing is, there is a lot of demand for Korea-related classes from a diverse groups—not just Korean—at Wellesley. However, as it is right now:

-Wellesley offers Japanese and Chinese language majors, but no Korean majors.

Ÿ -In the East Asian languages department, there are a total of 28 language courses offered, yet only 4 are for Korean. In this same program, there are 17 people on the faculty. Yet only two can offer Korean language classes.

Ÿ -In the East Asian Studies program, there are 63 classes offered. Of those only 4 are on Korea.

What does this mean to the current generation of students studying at Wellesley? It means because no great significance has been placed on the scholarship of Korea, Korea is irrelevant.

But is Korea irrelevant? Not really.

-ŸThe global market share of smart phones is owned by Samsung, not Apple. Yet at Wellesley, Korea appears irrelevant.

Ÿ -When PSY has 700 million Youtube hits for Gangnam Style, has taught Barack Obama, Ban Ki-Moon, and MC Hammer his moves, Korea is relevant. Yet, at Wellesley Korea appears irrelevant.

You can change this. And thus, I am asking you to support the Korean Studies Fund. By showing your support by giving as little as 1만원 it sends a signal to the College that Korea must be relevant.

By credit card :

http://new.wellesley.edu/alumnae/give/gift*

*you will have to send an e-mail to the College (giving@wellesley.edu / +1 800.358.3543) that your gift should be directed to the Korean Studies Fund

By wire transfer directly to the College :

http://new.wellesley.edu/alumnae/give/ways/cash

By wire transfer to the Seoul Wellesley Club :

Hana Bank 하나은행 /Acct# 128-910318-75707 *

*Please indicate in the transfer the money is for KSF. The SWC will transfer the money to Wellesley College. Please note, gifts coming from the SWC will be processed as a single gift from the SWC and unfortunately cannot be credited to the individual donor per US regulations.

Sincerely,

Seoul Wellesley Club

President: Kim Hunmin '80

Vice President: Kim Soeun (Carol) '95
Treasurer/Webmaster: Park Heather '05
Secretary: Choi Jayoon '02, Paik Min-Jung '06
Assistant Secretary: Ahn Jee Yoon (Ashley) '11
Admissions Rep: Nam Jee Eun (Karin) '06