Mr. Go Seok Won, former director of KOTRA New York, donates KRW 100 million as “Soonseom Scholarship” to GIST

- “for the cultivation of creative scientists who have wile imaginations and ingenious ideas”

 

 

□ Mr. Go Suk Won (84) is the former head of KOTRA New York who dedicated his life to the promotion of export and trade of Korea and servedas the heads of overseas trade centers in the 1960s and 1970s. He contributed 100 million to GIST (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, President ž Young Joon Kim) and hoped the donation will be used as a scholarship fund to cultivate creative scientists and engineers.

 

o Mr. Go, who currently lives in the US, attended the GIST Development Fund Delivery Ceremony held at GIST on April 28 and said “I hope young GIST students will build upon the accomplishments of the old generation who rose from the colonial rule and the ashes of war and developed the national economy, and pursue their further advancement through R&D of science and technology. That’s why I decided to make a donation to GIST.”

 

□ Born in Gaesung, North Korea back in 1930, Mr. Go was studying English language and literature at Seoul National University when the Korean War broke out. During the war, he served as an interpreter officer for the Army and later as an English instructor at the Korea Military Academy. In 1962, he joined KOTRA as one of the founding members of the state-run trade promotion company.

 

o He served as the first director of KOTRA Milano in Italy (1966~1967) and also the first director of KOTRA Hamburg in Germany (1967~1969). In 1973, he retired from KOTRA as the head of KOTRA New York and has since lived in the US working as a private investor.

 

□ His decision to make the donation came from his relationship with Dr. Kim Hyo-keun who was the second president of GIST (1998~2002).

 

o Mr. Go and Dr. Kim are neighbors in the same city, Laguna Woods, in California. When Mr. Go said he wanted to do something for Korean society, Dr. Kim introduced GIST and that was where the idea of scholarship donation came about.

 

o Mr. Go spent much of his life outside Korea and it was his first visit to Gwangju that he attended the ceremony. He said “This donation may be likened to a man who cannot go back to his hometown in Gaesung sowing a seed of hope in Gwangju, the city of light. I hope one day the two Koreas will be reunited and Gwangju citizens will visit Gaesung and sow the seed of development there, too.”

 

 

 

 

□ In respect of Mr. Go’s wish, GIST will establish a scholarship program based on his donation and it will be named as the “Sonseom Scholarship” after his late mother’s name, Mrs. Lee Soon-seom. Mr. Go said “My late mother did her best for our education despite financial difficulties. I hope to honor her spirit and mind on that.”

  

o In particular, he said “I hope the scholarship will be granted to students who have creative ideas and always work hard to develop new inventions, rather than those who simply get high scores in school. Creative talents can bloom in a campus culture where wile imaginations and ingenious ideas are allowed. I hope Korea will produce creative and adventurous people such as Steve Jobs of Apple and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook so that they can contribute to making a difference in the world.”