Extracurricular activities are a part of campus life. Since much time is spent in study, students really need something fresh to revitalize themselves. With this reason in mind, students gather in clubs to share their interests, views, and hobbies. Apart from the activities organized by the School, clubs with their diverse activities are playing an increasingly important part in KDI student life.

School clubs are different in their activities but share the same objective, i.e. to create a venue for students to overcome their differences in language and culture and allow for participants to get closer to each other. By linking members from different parts of the world, clubs create a truly global environment at the KDI School as they strengthen friendships and mutual understanding. Joining clubs affords students the chance to discover their potential lying inside by actively socializing in School life. With many different activities, student clubs are helping students explore Korea and enjoy their valuable time in the KDI School.

  The School has been fully aware of the role of student clubs play in the lives of students. In order to assist in further developing student activities, the administration provides support in the forms of information about their field, guidance in choosing an advising professor, as well as financial aid. Semesterly, each club receives an allowance of W200,000. Additionally, the School helps to organize club activities by providing the necessary facilities for each club to operate. Each club is supervised by an advising professor, which helps enhance the social connections between KDI school student and professors.

For the 2005 academic year, up the School currently has 5 clubs, namely the Marathon Club, Maht Jip Club, KDI School Golf Club (KGC), KDI School Tennis Club, and the International Food and Drink Club. Each club has its own particular features, mission, and message to call out to students with the same interests. The Marathon club, whose representative, Dong-Ki Kim, has been a professional athletic for years, has the advantage of a less-expensive sport-for-all. With little effort, what the students will gain is “more than health and vitality.” Another club, the Tennis Cub, is attracting students with its mission to “make student more healthy and give chances to meet others.”  It also helps members “enjoy tennis at low cost and all their lives” with regular competitions every term. Their sister group, the KDI School Golf Club, has the calling to be a club to “promote friendship and mutual understanding among all its members through social experience and business information.” Apart from supplying members with the needed capacity, KGC also focuses on providing a meeting place for students, staff, and faculty members at the KDI School and from other institutes who are interested in playing golf.

In the field of cultural activities, two clubs have been established to introduce Korean culture to international students. Maht Jip club impressed students by its name, which comes from the words “Maht Jip Moet Jip” meaning “Delicious Food & Nice Place” and by their mission to create an amiable atmosphere for Korean and international members through delicious dishes and trips to famous places in and outside of Seoul. Its counterpart, the International Food and Drink Club, aims at “exchanging the interesting stories about the origins of each special drink and dish.” It is attracting students with their commitment to create a vibrant atmosphere to “meet, learn, taste food, and have fun.”

With the above missions and meaningful activities, student clubs are playing a significant role in enriching the students’ campus life in the KDI School. Student clubs can be the bridge to cross differences in language and culture, bringing students closer through the exchange of the unique values of their culture. In that way, what students gain at the KDI School is all the more knowledgeable, skillful, and global.

By Hieu Thi Minh Vuong (2005 MPP)