One of my favorite experiences as an educator often comes nowadays through an email with a subject of something like "Good News!" The good news is from a student, or someone who has worked with the student. The news is that the student, now graduated, has obtained a first job or admission to graduate school.
It is a favorite experience because we go into education to help our students succeed. That success happens in the classroom in big and little ways. But the first job, or an acceptance to graduate school, is a new kind of success, one to which our students, their faculty, and everyone who works at Mason Korea look forward.
I have received a couple of those emails in the past week. The first was regarding a recent graduate just accepted to the London School of Economics, in that university's Media and Communications program. Soon after I learned of another student's post-graduate academic success, this one earning admission to law school at Bond University in Australia. Two other students were recently accepted with scholarships to the Thunderbird School of Business, and will attend.
The good news comes by email, but also through our institutional reporting, which finds that Mason Korea students have a one-year employment rate (includes attendance at graduate school) of 80%, about 17 percentage points higher than the Korean university average of 63.3% for the comparable measure and period.
Still, we are not resting on past success. Mason Korea continues to look for ways to support our students in their career aspirations, as well as in applying what they learn in class to activities in our communities. For example, over the 2021 winter break, five Mason Korea students participated in a short-term internship at the Korea Joongang Daily, the English edition of Korea's leading daily newspaper, the JoongAng Ilbo. Their experience is featured in this month's Messenger.
Through internships and other kinds of collaborations with external partners in industry, government, and non-profits, students learn through the practical application of ideas, make positive impacts in their communities, and gain experience for work after graduation. Mi Young, featured in this month's Messenger, is right on point when she advises our current students, "Please start considering your future and at least try to set a plan so that you won’t regret it later. Don't miss out on events that both Mason Korea and GMU Fairfax offer."
In order to increase these sorts of opportunities for our students, Mason Korea has established a new position, Director of Strategic Partnerships. Ms. Christina Cha joins us in the position beginning March 1. Part of her responsibilities include finding new external partners to create internships and other learning opportunities for our students, a task she will work on with our Associate Director of Career Services, Mr. Sang Yong Lee. They are going to make a great team that will help Mason Korea achieve an ever-expanding set of student internship and co-curricular experiences.
If you work in a business, government, or non-profit organization and would be interested in such a collaboration, please contact Ms. Cha. We have great students who can support your organization even as they learn from you. And when they are done, you as well as those of us at Mason Korea can look forward to receiving that email with the happy subject heading, "Good News!"