| Sookmyung Women's University | |
|---|---|
| 숙명여자대학교 | |
| Motto | Modesty, Wisdom, and Justice 정숙•현명•정대 (貞淑•賢明•正大) |
| Established | May 22, 1906 as Myeongshin Girls' School, renamed to Sookmyung Women's College on December 1, 1909, re-established as a university on May 22, 1948 |
| Type | Private |
| President | Han Youngsil |
| Academic staff | 371 |
| Students | 15,803 |
| Location | Yongsan, Seoul, South Korea |
| Campus | Urban |
| Mascot | Nunsong-i (Snowflake) |
| Website | www.sookmyung.ac.kr |
| Sookmyung Women's University | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 숙명여자대학교 |
| Hanja | 淑明女子大學校 |
| Revised Romanization | Sukmyeong Yeoja Daehakgyo |
| McCune–Reischauer | Suk'myǒng Yǒja Taehakkyo |
Sookmyung Women’s University is a private university in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1906, Sookmyung is Korea’s first royal private educational institution for women.
Contents |
Sookmyung Women's University consists of a Main Campus and a Second Foundation Campus. The Main Campus is in a beautiful setting in harmony with nature. The Second Foundation Campus, constructed upon the second founding and declaration of the university, is the cultural center of the university and home to the 'S Leadership Program'. The Renaissance Plaza, which has become a landmark, symbol and hub of Sookmyung Women's University, especially features a variety of cultural attractions and activities.
Sookmyung Women's University has been traditionally known as one of Korea's leading universities and has successfully created an embracing and engaging campus environment. In 1998, Sookmyung started to operate Wireless LAN.
In September 2008 when President Young Sil Han was inaugurated, Sookmyung Women's University set up the education goal of cultivating creative and visionary intellectuals. Since then, the school has endeavored to improve its education systems and build its education capabilities with a view to fostering capable people equipped with basic knowledge of liberal arts, creative expertise, unselfish enthusiasm, and global leadership.
To accomplish the goal, Sookmyung Women's University commissioned the Samsung Economic Research Institute to consult on establishing Sookmyung’s vision for the future, which includes mid- and long-term development strategies. The consultants suggested five strategy directions and 17 strategy tasks to become a world-level university leading the cultivation of future talented people. The Blue Ribbon Project was founded to effectively carry out these strategies and will serve as a road-map for accomplishing the common education goals of universities and building the inner capabilities specific to Sookmyung Women's University.
A mission and strategies to strengthen Sookmyung reinforce the characteristics of Sookmyung Women's University and its aim to intensify student competitiveness. First, to improve the students' multi-cultural awareness, in 2012, half of the students shall stay in a foreign country for at least one semester as exchange students or to attend a service program offered by the Sookmyung Cultural Center, a foreign branch of Sookmyung Women's University. Furthermore, a job capability index specific to Sookmyung Women's University (SM-CLA) shall be developed; the index of each graduate shall be raised by more than 20% compared to her initial days on the campus.
Sookmyung Women's University is to set a new social contribution model by establishing and extensively implementing the advanced systems it has developed. Before anything else, the school plans to properly train advanced students identified in the process of screening core talented people so that they may be able to serve society. Sookmyung Women’s University also plans to provide unemployed graduates with such after-graduation services such as post-bachelor courses and a life-long mentor system. This mentorship program will build a connection between professors and their students that will be maintained. An open-style knowledge-sharing system or ‘SNOW 2.0’ shall be upgraded and extensively used to allow students to expand their knowledge base.
Sookmyung Women's University intends to uplift the competitiveness and satisfaction of its students by means of a student-centered school administration, which is one of the core points of the Blue Ribbon Project, and to set up objective criteria for internal evaluation and a feedback system so that all the relevant processes may be constantly and systematically managed for the advancement of Sookmyung.
Sookmyung leadership is summed up as practical education philosophy behind what is designed to become the world's best leadership university of the 21st century. Those equipped by Sookmyung leadership education with the qualifications and capabilities of creative, thinking individuals will become the gentle power to change the world.
All undergraduate freshmen are required to fulfill core courses in the school of general leadership education to build the basic Sookmyung Leadership capabilities needed in pursuit of future global leaders. Then they continue to develop problem solving and creative thinking capabilities through studies in their major and related fields. In addition, they receive various leadership training and education under the Sookmyung Global Leadership Institute.
Sookmyung Women's University defines "creative leaders with power of thinking" as global leaders equipped with noble character and broad knowledge, based on a thorough understanding of different cultures as well as a humanistic integrity contributing to social development. The mission strategy revolves around the four principles of humanistic value, creative knowledge, global leadership, and passionate volunteerism.
Sookmyung Women's University is famous for leading the way in offering various programs to produce future leaders. The School of General Education for Leadership and the Interdisciplinary Special Programs to Nurture Professional Women are a few examples. Sookmyung is also offering dual degree programs and student exchange programs to produce future leaders.
First-year students of Sookmyung Women's University automatically belong to the Division of General Education for Leadership and are guided into their academic journey toward becoming global leaders. By receiving integrated practical education that enhances problem-solving skills and creative thinking, they are able to specifically enhance their leadership capabilities within their respective fields. In addition, special leadership training and education at the Global Leadership Institute completes Sookmyung's leadership training agenda.
A reinvigorated mentoring program helps facilitate successful career launches for graduates and prepares them with core job-related abilities for various professional job categories. In addition, Sookmyung's wide-ranging and practical education system provides broad industry-academic cooperation that offers students diverse career choices and on-the-job training opportunities.
Sookmyung Women's University is the first Korean university to offer a dual degree program that allows students to earn degrees from two institutions. Students are exposed to more comprehensive and integrative approaches to their majors by studying four semesters at each school. Not only does this program provide an advantage for employment opportunities and graduate studies overseas, it also broadens views and experiences that all leaders can embrace. To provide students with many opportunities to study abroad, Sookmyung plans to gradually expand partner universities for the dual degree program.
In 2010, the university was ranked tied for tenth place with Inha University among Korean universities by the JoongAng Daily.[1] Sookmyung Women's University is generally considered as the second best university for women.
SNOW (Sookmyung Network to Open World) is an open knowledge platform for sharing higher intellectual contents. In February 2010, preparing for an official launch in March, SNOW provides its users a variety of intellectual movie clips, including regular lectures of MIT, Wharton School, Starford, UC Berkeley and other higher education institutes. From lectures on Humanities, Science, Design to great address given by global leaders, SNOW offers Korean scripts and introduction on those academic data and encourages its users to participate as volunteers. They can help the new intellectual sharing movement with translation, distribution and donation of credits gained by their activities. SNOW is open to common users as volunteers to share and translate; it is now planning more services and improvements. 2,310 higher education contents are accessible. SNOW contains overall 240 Korean-script-supported lectures including 145 from TED 95 by users’ voluntary translations.
The Chung Young Yang Embroidery Museum at Sookmyung Women’s University is an exhibition, educational, and research facility dedicated to advancing the knowledge and appreciation of embroidery and textile arts. Inaugurated in May 2004, the museum houses an extensive collection of embroidered and woven textiles representing various periods and regions.
The museum’s permanent collection, primarily focused on East Asian costume and decorative arts, is among the most comprehensive of its kind in Asia. Its wide scope illuminates the cross-cultural dialogues in technique and style that have enriched textile arts. Through exhibition and education efforts, the museum seeks to highlight the technical and artistic achievement of embroiderers across time and place; expand understanding of the social and cultural roles that textiles have fulfilled globally; and establish the art of embroidery as a significant contribution to world culture. Housed in a new building that includes exhibition galleries, an information center, a library, conservation studios, classrooms, and a 300-seat auditorium equipped with earphones for simultaneous translation, the museum aims to become a leading center for scholarship in embroidery and other textile arts.
The permanent collection of the Chung Young Yang Embroidery Museum includes votive textiles, ecclesiastical robes, military uniforms, folding screens, wedding garments, chair and table coverings, rank insignia, and various types of clothing, costume accessories, and household furnishings used by all social classes. The collection encompasses a broad range of examples from around the world as well as replicas of extant ancient artifacts. The museum seeks to encourage the examination of embroidered textiles as primary documents of the technological, social, and cultural environments that produced them as well as to emphasize embroidery’s position as an important cultural inheritance and an expressive, dynamic, and continually evolving art form.