On the 26th, YU held the launching ceremony for Social Contribution Group’s Overseas Volunteer Team.

In January next year, YU will make public diplomacy activities through volunteer work and cultural exchange in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Active support by YU to strengthen core competencies of “Global citizen”

[December 29, 2023]

<The launching ceremony for 40th Overseas Volunteer Team was held at YU Chunma Art Center.>

YU (President CHOI Oe-chool) Social Contribution Group has begun preparations for dispatching the overseas volunteer team for global contribution.

On the 26th, the launching ceremony for 40th Overseas Volunteer Team was held at LEE Si-won Global Convention Hall of Chunma Art Center. The YU Overseas Volunteer Team is a student volunteer group representing the school and, since 2001, it has been dispatched around the world every semester to carry out volunteer work. To date, about 2,840 people have volunteered around the world.

A total of 44 volunteers from the 40th Overseas Volunteer Team will be dispatched to Vietnam and Cambodia on two occasions in January 2024. This volunteer team plans to be dispatched to Ho Chi Minh and Dalat in Vietnam and Phnom Penh and Kampong Cham in Cambodia for two weeks to carry out volunteer work and conduct cultural exchanges with local residents.Students will visit local orphanages and educational institutions to carry out educational volunteer work and have the time to experience and understand the cultures of each country by playing traditional games in Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia with students from Da Lat National University in Vietnam and Western University in Cambodia.

KIM Gyu-min (3rd year, Dep’t of English Education), who was selected as the team leader of the volunteer team dispatched to Cambodia on January 14th, said, “I look forward to gaining new experiences and opportunities for growth through educational volunteer work. I will raise the status of YU and Korea by carrying out fruitful volunteer work in Cambodia with his team members.”

YU’s overseas volunteer activities are supported by YU medical staff, too.The volunteer medical team consisting of doctors, nurses, and nutritionists plans to carry out medical volunteer work in cooperation with medical staff at local hospitals in Cambodia and also provide education to local residents on disease management and prevention.

President CHOI Oe-chool of YU said, “Global social contribution activities demonstrate YU’s example of public diplomacy and overseas volunteer work provides students with a valuable experience in fulfilling their roles and responsibilities as citizens of the Republic of Korea, which has become an advanced country, and sincerely conveying their warm hearts to all corners of the world. I hope that students will grow into talented people with a global perspective and the basic knowledge of global citizens through overseas volunteer work and YU will not spare any effort in developing and supporting various domestic and international social contribution programs in the future.”

Meanwhile, YU Social Contribution Group was started with a launching ceremony in November 2022 to achieve “a creative and innovative university that contributes to the prosperity of human society.” It runs various programs ranging from small contribution activities to be made in the surroundings to global contribution activities including in/out-campus various social contribution activities and contribution & cultural exchange activities with dispatch of overseas volunteer team such as campus clean-up activities, sharing activities for the socially disadvantaged, and volunteer activities linked to local volunteer centers.