Growing Together: the Taejae Student Community

By Kim Sejun
Taejae University Student Ambassador

Last year, I enrolled as a member of the first-ever cohort of students at Taejae University. Our cohort consisted of a little less than 30 students. I'm not going to lie—it was a weird experience at first. Most people, when they think of going to college, probably imagine a big campus with buildings full of people. We knew that wasn't what we were signing up for when we decided to come to Taejae, but it was still surprising to see the reality of it: just the 30 or so of us in our dorm. We realized we were part of something really brand new. Over the last year, our first cohort has become an extremely tight-knit community. Within this group, we've found like-minded individuals, formed clubs, had fun together, struggled together, and developed a real sense of community and leadership. Our compact cohort size means each of us has been able to explore and try new things, and build our own projects from start to finish. We've learned to embrace the newness and the occasional insecurity of being the first cohort of our university. We get a lot of strength from each other, and we already know this bond is something we wouldn't be able to get anywhere else. It comes from being just the 30 or so of us in our dorm.



A lot has changed with the arrival of our second cohort of students. We're still small, but with our student population more than doubling, there's a palpable energy that comes from having so many more people join the community we're building. The common areas in our dormitory, Local Stitch, are now twice as full of students laughing, working, eating, and hanging out together. Events like the RCP (Residential Campus Programs) are even more enjoyable with more people participating. During the Chuseok holiday, we visited a traditional Korean village where Korean students taught non-Korean classmates how to play games like yut-nori. We formed teams, got competitive, and had a lot of fun. It was a really meaningful experience for us. Seeing the happiness and excitement on our friends' faces as they learned about unique Korean culture made me happy too.



The influx of students from diverse backgrounds has brought significant changes as well. The second-year cohort includes students from France, the US, Mongolia, Japan, and other countries. Within our community, we're experiencing and learning a lot about the differences and diversity of each other's cultures. Talking to and living with students from other countries, I often think, "Their culture has such a different way of communicating than ours!" or "Wow, lifestyles and values really do vary across countries.” I realize that trying to understand the world solely from my Korean perspective has inevitable limitations. My experiences here are breaking down those limitations and broadening my perspectives. I hope my friends from other countries are learning new things from me as well. I'm really looking forward to how our diverse experiences will help us learn from and with each other. For example, Taejae University recently announced the Global University Innovation Fellowship (GUIF), a program where teams visit and research universities around the world that are practicing educational innovation. Students who want to participate must form teams to choose topics, and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone thinks and what ideas my peers come up with.

Of course, diversity isn't just about nationality. I've found that many of the students who chose to come to Taejae University in its earliest years are very proactive and independent, guided by a strong sense of their own values. We recently had a team-building workshop for first and second-year students. During this time, students shared stories about their lives and expressed their thoughts. As I listened to my classmates' backgrounds and life stories, I was deeply impressed. I couldn't stop thinking, "People can live such dynamic and different lives." Fortunately, both first and second-year students will overlap while in the US and China as part of our Global Rotation. I'm really excited to see how much more we can grow by exploring the world together and moving forward as a community.



The students at Taejae University are like a family—not everyone needs to be best friends, but everyone knows each other and we're there for each other. This is possible because we're a small student body sharing a living space, and it's a major part of what sets us apart from other universities. We Taejae students will continue getting to know each other, learning from each other, and growing together in the future. I hope you all will keep track of our journey!