[JRC 학생기자] Time to Change For the Students

Time to Change For the Students
Jae Hyun Shin

Last week was the end of one of the biggest festivals in Korea, the “Suneung.” It benefits not only students but the whole country. A few weeks after, the report card containing grades that students’ entrance exam will come out. This will decide where the students will be studying for the next four years, and the students can begin envisioning their ideal campus life. According to a research, however, many university students are regretting their choice of major and suffering from the stress that comes from a gap between ideal and reality.
According to one research made by the website “Saramin,” 78.4 percent of those who were surveyed replied that they are regretting their decision of major. The survey was taken from 484 university students to find out whether they were satisfied with their campus life. The biggest reason behind the dismal results was that the students felt that what they were learning was truly different from what they had wanted to study. Also the students answered that their majors did not fit their personalities. Many students added to their answer that their major has a low employment rate.
Experts say that this situation is happening because the students have to enter university relying on their Suneung grades. Then students are taking the name value of the university as the most important factor, even though the major doesn’t fit them, and they have no choice but to enter the school. In addition, people mostly assert that the lack of education related to aptitude may be the main cause of the problem. Teenagers in Korea have to concentrate on studying subjects such as math and English to get high scores on the Suneung test. Most of the teachers and parents do not realize the importance of the students knowing what they really want to study in the future. This has led to schools not providing enough opportunity for students to discover their ideal college major.
There has always been a claim in Korea that the way of education should change for both students and the future of the country. The statistics that are coming out like the survey above shows that we do need a reform.

Have a soft winter with Boxing Day
Yeseul Im

The Boxing Day is for sharing the hope of 2014, and it is held with the city of Seoul and Good People in Cheonggye Plaza on November 29th. ‘Good People’ that is NGO of Food for the Hungry International is going to deliver 18 thousand gift boxes to neighbors in need such as neglected class of people on last year. Also, 150 volunteers are going to deliver the gifts which are wrapped with great care. All of the gift boxes together are worth 1.8 billion won, 100 thousand won per a box. Inside, the gifts are comprised of dried seaweeds, sesame oils, glass noodles and more. 6000 of the boxes are going to be given by Good People, and others will be given by food charity NGO such as Food Bank.
The Boxing Day is a sharing campaign with private organizations and companies to help neighbors in need.
The event will be held from 3:30p.m to 5p.m. The event of this day will be scheduled introduce for event, celebrate performance, declaration of the opening and greetings, guest’s demonstrate, load up the gifts into a car and clean up.
Especially, it is focused on the president and the director of Good People, the senior deputy mayor of Seoul, the president of CTS, and the president of Community chest of Seoul, and the president of Seoul Council on Social Welfare. These special guests will be attending in a donation ceremony at 4p.m.
The Boxing Day has been known throughout from Europe, and it comes from the tradition that the lords of in old times Europe gave their local people gifts which contained grains on December 26th and 27th. Today, there are retail stores that may sell the goods to remove the inventories in U.S.A, U.K etc.
After the Boxing Day for sharing hope, it will also be held ‘The Korea Christmas festival in 2014’ with having a huge Christmas tree lighting ceremony.


IMEA District 9 Senior High Festival
Jonathan Suh

The Illinois Music Educators Association(IMEA) District 9 Music Festival for high school students occurred at Hampshire High School on November 22, 2014.
The IMEA is the governing organization of music education in Illinois. It has divided the state into nine districts, with Naperville and surrounding areas belonging in the ninth district. On October 7th, high school students in the district gathered at Addison Trail High School to audition for a spot in one of the three ensembles: orchestra, band, or chorus. The results were sent to the students afterwards.
On the morning of the 22nd, students arrived around 7:30 AM at East Aurora High School. After rehearsal throughout the morning and afternoon, the concert began in the gymnasium. The band performed under the direction of Stephen Pratt. The chorus was led by Dr. Brad Holmes, and the orchestra was conducted by Allan Dennis.
Students will be selected from each of the districts’ ensembles to perform in the All-State(and possibly All-State honors) music festival, which will be held in Peoria over a four-day period in January of next year.