If you work at a university, every new semester is exciting. But Mason Korea’s Spring 2023 semester is especially exciting for me.
The first reason is the number of new faces we will have in the building. New student enrollment exceeded our expectations, up 27% from last spring’s number. Every new student brings new perspectives, new energy, and new opportunities to further Mason Korea’s mission to provide access to a US-style, Mason education and to prepare students to act on a global scale.
Joining those new students will be nine new full-time faculty, the most we have ever hired for a single semester. Given the number of new students, along with record numbers of returning students, it’s a good thing we did! These new faculty will bring their own new perspectives and energy, and help Mason Korea advance its mission. I cannot wait to see how they will contribute to our campus.
But there is a second reason this new semester is special to me. I will be returning to Mason Korea not just as its campus dean, but also as a student. After taking a few relatively informal Korean classes offered to foreigners in Songdo, Mason Korea’s home city, I decided it was finally time to take my Korean to the next level by enrolling in one of Mason Korea’s own Korean classes.
This decision is in the Mason spirit. At George Mason, one of our goals is to create in our students a passion for lifelong learning. That goal is so important. We often focus on external, measurable impacts of education, but these impacts begin with and are driven by curiosity and practice in the habits of learning. Nor should we ever stop learning new things because we will always face new challenges.
Besides, learning is a pleasure. As a student and scholar of English, learning a new language is particularly wonderful to me. Every language is interesting not only in its sounds, grammar, and vocabulary, but also in the ways these elements encode whole cultural perspectives. Learning Korean is another way I can enjoy living in and learning more about Korea. Many of our students attend Mason Korea for much the same reason: to speak, live and learn in a foreign language and enjoy this gateway to another culture.
As it happens, this is also the first semester at Mason Korea that I will be back in the classroom as an instructor, teaching a section of UNIV 100, our one-credit introduction designed to help new students adjust to college life and get the most out of their Mason experience.
Administrator, student, and teacher—It’s going to be a great semester.