Ladies and gentlemen, meet Sok Lyhim (MIPD, 2022) one of the winners of the Share Your Happy Place in KDISejong. He responded by saying “the KDI School dormitory kitchen is a simple place, but the story behind the kitchen is worth sharing.” Please enjoy my conversation with Mr. Lyhim. 

Could you kindly Introduce yourself to the audience?

It is a privilege to introduce myself to the public and share my memorable moments at the KDI School. My name is Sok Lyhim from Cambodia, home to sixteen million people and a member state of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN). As a World Intellectual Property Organization-sponsored student, I enrolled in the KDI School in the spring semester of 2022. Unfortunately, COVID-19 posed a serious threat to travelers, so my plans to travel to Korea were postponed until the summer semester. 

When did you arrive at campus and how significant was that moment?

May 15, 2022 was the day I arrived at the KDI School and also marked a milestone in my educational journey abroad. Looking back, I realized that it took me seven years to reach the decision I made regarding the major I wanted to pursue for my higher education, as well as the country I wanted to study in. The seven-year gap from undergraduate studies in 2015 sounds like quite a long period of time, but it didn’t bother me. What I was most concerned about is my passion and my ability to apply the knowledge I acquired to my future career. 

Therefore, I gave myself time to explore things in order to find my own passionate career and develop more self-awareness of my strengths and weaknesses. That’s why I didn’t enroll in higher education sooner, because I found no reasons to pursue a master’s degree. As time passed, I came feel passionate about intellectual property rights after I had served in the intellectual property department for a while. Eventually, I became determined that my future career would be as one of the Cambodian representatives for World Intellectual Property Rights. 

What makes the dormitory kitchen a happy place?

The dormitory's kitchen is a place that makes me feel at home and feel connected. "How is your day?" is a common expression that I always hear from KDI School students. It sounds so simple, but it always makes my day. The kitchen time is not all about cooking; it acts as a time where we can build a community that has a culture of sharing and being supportive, in spite of diverse backgrounds, nationalities, and religions. The friendliness and smiles on the face of students who I meet every day also makes me feel a sense of belonging. I can think of a lot of beautiful places, but the kitchen is one of the places that makes my academic life beautiful. I believe that although the activities we do together, the fun we share together, and the smiles we give each other, and the food we share in the kitchen will come to an end in the near future, these memories and once-in-a-lifetime experiences will last deeply in our hearts when we return home.

Finally, why did you choose KDI School for your master’s?

After thorough research, I was so excited to see the Master in Intellectual Property Rights and Development (MIPD Program) at the KDI School. The most impressive thing about this extraordinary course is the trilingual cooperation of KDI School, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). I was confident that the trilingual cooperation offered by the IP practitioners, IP policymakers, and academics would be used to structure a curriculum that is highly responsive to the IP issues and global demand for IP experts. It was no wonder that the more I learned about the curriculum, the more I desired to enroll at the KDI School, because the designed course really did fit what I was looking for to upgrade my IP knowledge. Today, I am in my second semester, and I am very satisfied with the experienced professors and library resources. The school has offered me more than just knowledge; it has also provided me with the opportunity to experience the smart technology deployed at school for the kind of self-service that I never experienced before.