We are only 10 days away from this year’s largest sports event, the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. As this is the first Winter Olympics held in Korea, it is probably one of the hottest topics of conversation for many Koreans, but there are those who are especially looking forward to this event. They are our university’s student volunteer team who will be participating in the event.

Our university is to provide a total of 130 volunteers to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Other than universities located in Gangwon Province, our school has the third highest number of volunteers following Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and Korea National Sport University. Our services are also offered in a variety of different areas. We plan to contribute in areas such as ceremonies, interpretation, support for athletes, and doping. Especially, we are to provide the most number of volunteers in the area of doping, which include interpretation of doping test notification, monitoring, doping test procedure, etc. Thanks to our school’s College of Pharmacy, it became a field specialized for our university. 

After the 2016 MOU on group volunteer service with the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, our university has made step by step preparations such as volunteer recruitment/selection, basic quality education, and job assignment. The Student Services plan to grant participants with community service credits for the 2018 summer semester by personally visiting and inspecting the welfare of volunteers during the games from February 9 to March 18.

Our university had also participated as a 2013 Pyeongchang Winter Special Olympics Host Town University and provided homestay support to help foreign athletes on local adaptation and conducted Korean cultural experience programs. In addition, besides leadership groups such as Sookmyung Interpretation Volunteers and Sookmyung Ambassador, there are many students who have rich experience in volunteer work such as from the Division of Pharmacy, Division of Biological Sciences, and Department of Physical Education. The participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics owes to the outstanding evaluations we have received through Sookmyungians’ participation in the interpretations and ceremonies for past international events.

Student Yu Eun-ji (Entrepreneurship Major 2016), who is in charge of interpretation for athletes and medical staff at the Polyclinic Center, the examination center in the PyeongChang Olympics Training Center, expressed her excitement and said, “I think this is a great opportunity for me to broaden my horizons by participating in a historical moment as a member of a global sports event.”

Meanwhile, there is another Sookmyungian besides volunteers who is taking the spotlight. She is Shin So-jeong, the goalkeeper of the joint Korean women’s ice hockey team who has been evaluated as a key strategic member.  After the admission in our school’s Department of Physical Education and studying abroad in Canada during her 4th year, she became the first Korean woman to play in the U.S. professional hockey league. She expressed her determination through an interview with the press. “It’s going to be a big challenge, but I am determined to hear the Korean anthem after a great Olympic game in my homeland.”