Poster of PRISM Story Sharing about Multicultural Society

On November 30, SNU students from Student Council for Social Responsibility (SCSR) will be hosting a forum on the topic of multiculturalism. This event is part of a semester-long project carried out by SCSR, a student organization in SNU promoting service to the community. Officially supported by SNU Institute for Global Social Responsibility (IGSR), SCSR strives to make a positive difference throughout the campus community and beyond. In SCSR, students take full initiative, first identifying a significant social issue in the community, and then designing projects that deal with that issue. Most of their projects are carried out within the school grounds. This in turn has the effects of fostering the interests of the other students and encouraging their participation. The organization’s ultimate goal is to help nurture an environment in SNU that values social contribution as much as academic performance.

With the increasing number of foreigners each year, multiculturalism has been a hot potato in Korean society for some time. “The problem is that the media tends to emphasize negative images such as multicultural families suffering from communication barriers or mixed-race children getting bullied at school,” Hansol Kim (College of Dentistry), the student-director of this forum, explained. “This could lead to a false belief that creating an ideal multicultural society is a one-way process in which we force the newcomers to adjust to Korean culture. Through this forum, we would like to encourage people to see others as unique individuals rather than judging them by their nationality or ethnicity. We believe that this is the true nature of a multicultural society.”

A variety of people in the SNU community each equipped with a wealth of international experience will be on stage, representing a wide diversity of backgrounds. The speakers include: Wang Simlin (cast of “Non-Summit”, PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering), Jeong Samy (former cast of “Non-Summit,” MA candidate in Korean Language and Literature), Paul M. Sneed (Associate Professor in Hispanic Language and Literature), Sylvie Lee (exchange student from Paris Institute of Political Studies, undergraduate in Korean History). True to its purpose of celebrating individual diversity, the forum will start with the speakers sharing their life stories and an extensive audience-inclusive discussion session will follow.

The forum will start at 7PM in the Munhwagwan Auditorium. SCSR invites all to participate.

Written by Chae Hyun Kim, SNU English Editor, michelle25@snu.ac.kr
Reviewed by Professor Travis Smith, Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations, tlsmith@snu.ac.kr