Korea University: Providing Students with Disabilities Elevator Access to the Job Counselling Service
On September 28, 5:30 pm, Korea University held a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the Kim Jeong-ho Floor at the 4·18 Memorial Hall. Kim Jeong-ho, a co-founder of Naver and CEO of Bear.Better, a social enterprise aimed at job creation for people with developmental disabilities, donated 1.5 billion won to enable the third-floor addition to the Hall. In honor of his wishes, the third floor was named after him.
The Memorial Hall has been the location of student service departments such as the Korea University Center for Students with Disabilities, the Career Development Center, and the Student Affairs Department; however, the lack of elevators in the building created access obstacles for students with disabilities. Mr. Kim, who often visits his alma mater and runs a social enterprise for people with disabilities, expressed his wishes to improve the circumstances and made a donation to add one more floor to the building, with an elevator installed. The newly installed elevator has a capacity of 13 persons, with space for at least two wheelchairs at one time. The third-floor addition also houses the newly renovated Career Development Center, a facility of approximately 661m². Other additions to the Hall are the LINC3.0 Project Center, a place to enable the smooth operations of the LINC3.0 Project recently won by the university, and the Center for Cooperative Education.
Through the extension project of the 4·18 Memorial Hall, the Career Development Center was upgraded with four additional places: the Open-space Meeting Lounge, located at the center of the Career Development Center to provide a space for visitors to get information, access services, and relax, four Career Network Lounges offering career services that promote student-corporate-university exchanges, and the Professional Counseling Office, designed to provide intensive career counseling services. In addition, by installing an elevator for students with disabilities, the university has enhanced travel convenience of visitors and transformed the building into one with accessibility.
The KU Career Development Center provides various career development services to assist KU students. As of the 2021 academic year, approximately 18,000 students had been supported annually through about 30 job training programs run by the center. Those programs were designed to help students shape their experiences and capabilities into their unique competitiveness in finding a job. The center has provided security in helping students land a job in the industry of their choice.
At the completion ceremony, President Chung said, “The Kim Jeong-ho Floor, where professional counseling services and job training will be offered by the Career Development Center, will be utilized to provide a customized career counseling service to students and help them successfully advance in society. I’d like to take this opportunity to deeply thank Mr. Kim again for his invaluable donation.”
He added, “I sincerely hope that the 4·18 Memorial Hall will be utilized as a new platform where all of our students can feel welcome, can rest comfortable, can exchange opinions without any barriers, and of course, can access various services.”
Kim Yun-kyung, Vice President for Student Affairs, also expressed her hopes by saying, “I hope that by taking advantages of the newly created Kim Jeong-ho Floor at the 4.18 Memorial Hall, the Career Development Center will provide beneficial programs and serve its role of taking care of KU students more faithfully and warmheartedly.”
Kim Jeong-ho, CEO of Bear.Better, delivered the intention of his donation. “I felt so sorry when I saw no elevator access was available at a building meant to support disabled students. I heard about the building from one of the university faculty two years ago and decided I would one day make a donation. As I see these students with disabilities moving around the building without barriers, I feel grateful.”
He added, “When I was in university, my father was a taxi driver and I was not from a wealthy family, but I became what I am right now thanks to support from others. I’d be overjoyed to see students with disabilities remember what they have received and decide to donate one day to others.”
Mr. Kim, a Business ’85 graduate of Korea University, has donated a total of 2.7 billion won since he made his first donation in 1995 after he got his first job. Aside from this donation, he has actively participated in a host of donation activities for sound social development, including Food for the Hungry, Autism Society of Korea, Babo Nanum, and the Beautiful Foundation. Moreover, by running a social enterprise, Bear.Better, Kim supports people with developmental disabilities. Mr. Kim also works as a non-paid chairman of Brian Impact, a private charity foundation established to become a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Korea, to create an ecosystem of social impacts through charity and donation.