From Friday, May 5^th to Sunday, May 7^th, ‘The 9th Korean-American Alumni Association (KAAA)’ was held at the Hotel Orleans in Las Vegas, USA. It was a meaningful day with around 120 alumni in the region participating, including Kang Jung-ae, the President of Sookmyung, Jung Soon-ok, the President of Sookmyung Alumni Association, and Kim Young-suk, the President of KAAA. The event was a showcase of Sookmyung’s global power and the participants all expressed their affection for the younger generation of Sookmyung.

The hotel lobby was filled with joyful greetings and laughter of the Sookmyung family members in the morning of the 5^th. It was delightful since people were busy catching up as if they had met their loving family members for the first time in a long time.

The alumni came from all over the U.S; Southern California, Northern California, New York, Midwest, Washington D.C, Arizona, Oregon, Ohio, Colorado, Texas and Philadelphia Branch. Alumni of Alaska and Toronto in Canada Branch which are far from here, also got on airplanes to Las Vegas merely for the sake of fellowship and pride as Sookmyung Women’s University family members.

At the regular meeting held on the first day, President Kim (CH, 85grad) opened the event with greetings along with President Kang and the President Jang (CH, 73grad)’s congratulatory messages. A video titled ‘Global Sookmyung of Hope and Challenge’ which was prepared by the school was also screened. Lee Hyung-jin, the dean of Foreign Cooperation, then got on the stage and introduced our new vision, “Global Sookmyung embracing the future value”, and our school’s developmental plans and implementation strategies, for which he received a big round of applause.

‘The 2nd Proud Global Sookmyung Student Award’ was presented on the day of the regular meeting as well. President Kang awarded people who had raised the status of global Sookmyung and Lee On-hee (KL, 59grad) from the MidWest Branch, Park Bang-ja (CS, 64grad) from Texas Branch, Lee Young-sun (MM, 64grad), Choi Hun-ja(DS, 64grad) from Southern California Branch and Seok Kyung-sook(EDU, 72grad) from Washington D.C Branch were honored.

The last event of the regular meeting was a special performance by Southern California Choir (Lee Hyun-soon, PD, 83grad). The choir had been founded for the school’s 110th anniversary last year and brought the alumni a special gift of beautiful melody and chorus.

In the morning of 6^th, the KAAA had social moments of touring Hoover Dam and Lake Mead which are tourist attractions in Las Vegas and hosted ‘Sookmyung Honorary Ceremony’ in the evening.

This particular event started out in 2013 in Chicago, USA and met its third year this year, having been the tradition of our university that shows our respect and appreciation for elder alumni who graduated around 50 years ago. Twenty-two elder alumni, including Park Ok-gi(DS, 50grad), were proud of and cherished their memories as the members of the Sookmyung, wearing caps and gowns brought from Korea, and the event ended with a testimonial.

Even in the year of 2017, the warmth of the seniors’ love towards juniors continued. Sookmyung Alumna International Foundation(SMAIF) was established so that Sookmyung juniors could grow to be global leaders. As a chairperson of the SMAIF, Jung-hee Shin shared the current situation of the fundraising and appreciation for the donation and many more alumni offered to donate.

Hwang Jem-ma (DS, 59grad) who attends the ceremony every year said, “I have come to know in my life that small coins add up to a larger amount of money. I believe that our alumni’s united efforts of donating can be a great motivation to the school’s advancement.” and donated 3 million dollars.

New York Branch (the President Lee Hyo-woo, FL, 76grad) donated 4 thousand dollars to celebrate the 111st anniversary. President Lee said, “Every year since 2001, we raised 2 thousand dollars and donated to New York Cheongpa Scholarship in the name of New York Alumni Association and have helped around 40 juniors. I hope more juniors would experience the benefits”. The KAAA raised the highest sum of 67 thousand dollars this year on the strength of alumni’s support.

The KAAA savored their friendship and happiness and promised to meet again in Texas (the chief of Texas Branch, Shim Ji-su, EL, 87grad) in 2 years in 2019 and wished for each other’s health and happiness.

Translation by Sookmyung Interpretation Volunteers