In this blog post, I’ll summarize the efforts I put into my studies during high school, my participation in school activities, and the insights I gained—as well as how I prepared for my future career—through acts of consideration and collaboration.
Academic Experiences and Reflections
During high school, I began my English studies with a focus on vocabulary and grammar. I believed that knowing many words would make interpretation easier, and that understanding grammatical structures would help me express myself more fluently. However, simply spending long hours studying vocabulary lists or repeatedly reading grammar textbooks did little to improve my practical language skills. So, I shifted my study methods to utilize more practical and engaging media.
Specifically, I utilized various English-language materials such as original English books, TV dramas, and movies. I started with easy-level English children’s stories, and as I became more comfortable, I moved on to TV dramas and movies to raise my proficiency level. I used CDs and subtitles together to learn with both my eyes and ears, and I made sure to jot down any new idioms or expressions I encountered in my personal English notebook. When memorizing, I visualized scenes from movies or dramas to learn the words in context, which helped me remember them longer.
Once I had built up a certain level of proficiency, I began reading English books in their original language. Rather than reading the book as is, I divided the chapters into smaller units to make the story easier to understand, approaching it like a screenplay. By reading and processing the text in scenes or story segments, even complex content became much easier to grasp, and having the story organized by chapter was a great help for both memorization and comprehension.
After finishing a book, I would summarize the content in a reflection essay and then rewrite it in English as a secondary learning exercise. By combining these various media and methods, I was able to maintain my interest while steadily improving my practical English skills.
Major School Activities and Reflections
I attended a school in a remote mountainous area of Jeollanam-do. Since our school was the only high school in the region, the small student population made college admissions and the learning environment challenging. However, rather than viewing this environment solely as a disadvantage, I saw it as an opportunity to set my own career path and put it into practice. The career path I chose was to pursue a field related to forestry, which was influenced by the environment of the region where I grew up and my family background.
I chose forestry as my career path because forest resources were always the most familiar element in my surroundings, and my parents also worked in forest management. Believing that forestry was the field I found most interesting and in which I had the most knowledge, I resolved to gain relevant experience and take on the role of a future forest conservationist and manager. Furthermore, as forests have recently become increasingly valuable for protecting the environment of cities and the nation, as well as serving as recreational spaces, I considered it a meaningful field to major in.
Fortunately, there was a club at my school called the “Forest Resources Club,” and I actively participated in it. In this club, we mainly engaged in field trips to explore ecosystems, surveys of forest resources, documentation, and nature walks. Club activities also provided me with an opportunity to create memories while collaborating with friends in a familiar environment.
Through three main activities in the club, I learned a great deal. First, wild edible plant foraging and ecological exploration. We explored the forests around campus in search of wild edible plants, comparing the characteristics of cornelian cherry and ginger tree while collecting, observing, and experimenting with their fruits firsthand. By examining why thistles have sharp spines and their medicinal properties—and even exploring cases where they’ve been developed into health foods—I gained a broad understanding of plant characteristics and their applications.
Second, we participated in field experience activities. We visited the Geumgang Forest in Sogwang-ri and had the opportunity to examine the ecologically managed Geumgang pine forest. Thanks to the explanations provided by a forest guide, we were able to understand the background and characteristics of the ecologically managed forest; in particular, it was very impressive to witness firsthand the significance of the protected forest and protected trees, which are over 530 years old.
Third, we had a session where we learned woodworking while listening to a lecture by the director of the Forestry Promotion Institute. By personally experiencing the process of cutting down trees, processing the wood, and crafting wood products, I gained a practical understanding of the importance of forest resources. The experience gained through fieldwork and hands-on practice was a valuable opportunity to connect the knowledge I had previously only known in theory to real-world applications.
Examples of Consideration, Sharing, and Cooperation, and My Reflections
In high school, I served as a student council officer and participated in planning the school festival. As a member of the Planning Department, I was in charge of the overall planning and operation of the festival, and I took the lead in preparing a dance for the festival’s opening ceremony. Since we were scheduled to perform a dance immediately after the opening ceremony to demonstrate the student council’s unity, I felt a great deal of pressure and responsibility.
During rehearsals, some student council members began to drop out, saying, “It’s not an important performance, so we don’t really need to participate,” and a conflict arose between the Planning Department—which had created the dance—and the members who were reluctant to participate. From the perspective of the Planning Department, which had researched and choreographed the moves for the performance, this dismissive attitude was a problem, and our dissatisfaction naturally came to the surface.
I took it upon myself to mediate the conflict. Judging that it was necessary to shift the mood to a more positive one, I decided to change the nature of the rehearsals themselves. I switched the music from the usual cheer songs to a popular trot song and revised the choreography from stiff, synchronized moves to cheerful and comical ones. I focused on creating a rehearsal atmosphere where everyone could participate with a smile and without feeling pressured.
When we presented the new choreography, even the executive members who had initially been resistant began to participate with smiles, and we were ultimately able to create an opening performance that brought everyone together. Through this process, I learned that mediation in conflict situations is not simply about persuasion; rather, setting the right tone and changing approaches are crucial. I also realized that an attitude of trying to understand others’ perspectives and making small changes can lead to significant consensus.
Efforts and Preparation Related to Motivation for Application and Career Plans
From a young age, I naturally developed an interest in forest resources—the most common sight in my surroundings—and that interest led me to my career path. Influenced by my parents’ work in forest management, I concluded that forestry was the field in which I felt most confident and interested. Therefore, I chose a forestry-related major in college and set a goal to grow into a forest conservationist and manager.
To achieve this, I developed and implemented a concrete career plan while in high school. By participating in the Forest Resources Club, I gained hands-on experience in both theory and practice through various activities, such as field surveys, plant observation, visits to protected forests, and woodworking workshops. Encounters with experts—including a visit to the Geumgang Pine Ecological Management Forest, explanations from a forest interpreter, and a woodworking lecture by the director of the Forestry Promotion Institute—strengthened my conviction about my career path.
Furthermore, through school activities, I developed my collaboration and planning skills while honing the attitudes and competencies necessary for field surveys and communication with the local community. These experiences have gone beyond mere interest and are now translating into concrete preparation for my major studies, field internships, and my future role as a forest manager.
