Ph.D. Candidate Deukjo Kong is awarded the Soonsum Scholarship
Duekjo Kong, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Information and Communications at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) under Professor Dong-Seon Lee, has been selected as the 2016 recipient of the Soonsum Scholarship.
The Soonsum Scholarship was established in 2014 with a 100 million won donation to GIST from Sukwon Ko, a former director of the Korean Trade Commission in New York City. Mr. Ko established the scholarship in honor of his mother, Soonsum Lee, who made sacrifices and worked tirelessly to provide her son with a good education despite the difficult economic hardships that their family endured. Her son Mr. Ko, forever grateful, established the Soonsum Scholarship to honor his mother"s memory for whom the scholarship is named.
After receiving the Soonsum Scholarship, Mr. Kong wrote a thank you letter to Mr. Ko and said, "I think markets are based on engineering technology, and I will use the scholarship with the same intention as it was given to continue developing science and technology that can help society through entrepreneurship."
GIST President Seung Hyeon Moon during the award ceremony also stated, "In accordance with the spirit in which the Soonsum Scholarship was so graciously established by Mr. Sukwon Ko to honor his beloved mother, recipients of the scholarship are based on outstanding academic performance as well as creativity and an unquenchable desire to pursue new challenges. We sincerely hope that those who receive the scholarship will contribute in a meaningful way to help solve problems the problems of the world."
From now on, the Soonsum Scholarship recipients will be announced every year on January 9th in honor of Soonsum Lee as that is also her birthday.