Dear freshmen and members of our Keimyung family,

   It is indeed a great pleasure to hold an entrance ceremony for the freshman class. I welcome the new members of our academic family with a deep sense of admiration for their past efforts and of great expectations of their future achievements. At the same time, I would like to express my congratulations, gratitude and respect to their parents and teachers who have nurtured the young men and women to the present, healthy state of mind and body that is capable of undertaking the difficult tasks that they will encounter in the future.

   Members of the freshman class, the next four years of your life here at Keimyung University will perhaps be the most important period in the development of your entire being. Your capacity for intellectual inquiry, as well as your understanding of the personal and the natural surroundings will grow immensely. The growth will be commensurate with the dreams you have for your own future. Learn to dream big dreams that far transcend your present human condition. Little dreams remain in little jars and cannot accommodate great visions.

   Keimyung family members, this year marks our 124th Anniversary, a time to re-evaluate our present academic departments, research areas, and our administrative structures in terms of their historical meaning and current relevance. We must chart out an elevated course for our future development after the 125th Anniversary. The basic tenor of this assessment will be based on the raison d’etre of the present academic and research disciplines and on the means of effective training of the man-power for the changing times.

   Since its establishment in 1899, Dongsan Medical Center has developed a renewed spirit of research into many vital areas of the medical terra incognita with the help of advanced studies and infrastructure for patient treatment. The value and practice of pro_bono medical services both at home and abroad have been a consistent task of the Center. This falls in line with the principles set out by the founding medical missionaries of the Center. The Center will continue to strive to elevate the level of patient services to a higher degree and continue to devise a more cost-effective system of management.

   Our university has a freshmen enrollment rate of 99.98% for the 2023 academic year. The figure exceeds the national and regional average. It will also enable us to conduct the planned academic programs effectively and explore new possibilities. In order to build competitive talents in the rapidly changing environment of technological society, we will reform our curricula, expand creative hybrid classrooms for convergent education, up-grade our computer network systems, establish a smart educational environment, and require all students to take smart business and start-up business related subjects.

   At the same time, we will continue with the second cycle of the government-sponsored university innovation support project (2022-2024), further facilitate our convergence educational ecosystem, K-Cloud College, and renovate our certification systems. Accommodating the current social and industrial conditions, we will become an institution that creates jobs for young people. We will spare no financial support to transfer the technologies we develop to businesses for commercialization and to help our faculty and students become entrepreneurs. I hope this support will help every single student realize his/her unique capabilities and, thus, open the light to the world as proud members of Keimyung.

   Keimyung’s education and service to society are based on our research and administrative competence. In this regard, the performance of individual members and structures of our organization should always be subject to strict evaluation. In our daily lives, we should abide by the guidelines of ‘cleanliness, integrity, frugality, and fusion.’ These modes of campus life have already taken deep roots as a great tradition of our academic community. In the deteriorating environment of higher education in our times, let us remind ourselves of the great spirit of our predecessors who founded and successfully led our school in far more difficult times than ours. We must join our strength, patience and wisdom together as we make our own future history here and now.

   Once again, I would like to express my deep admiration and gratitude to you all for all your endeavors and hard work, and I pray that the guiding grace of our Lord will always be with us.

   Thank you very much.

President
Keimyung University