To begin with, I think that POSTECH students should never forget why students came here whenever they choose something to do throughout their campus life. Of course, students came here to study what they want. In this regard, in this article I want to discuss the attitude towards studying, and let me start with the importance of attitude with the example of the Korean national baseball team.

Mr. Seonghwan Kim, who was one of the coaches in Korean national baseball team, was teaching two high school baseball players how to bat well. One of them was the best player of all the high school baseball teams of the nation as a batter. The other was Mr. Hyunsoo Kim, who still had room for improvement to become the best player at that time. But the coach knew that Mr. Hyunsoo Kim would become a better player in the Korean professional baseball league. The coach reported that Mr. Hyunsoo Kim’s attitude in training camp was much better than that of the best player at the time. The coach could see that Mr. Hyunsoo Kim accepted and acted on the coach’s advice and tried to do his best to make it his own. Then the coach wanted to teach him even more than he had prepared. Now everybody knows that Mr. Hyunsoo Kim of the Doosan Bears has become one of the best batters in the Korean professional baseball league, just as the coach expected.

I also want to bring a sense of history to persuade and make you have a positive attitude towards studying. Mechanical engineering (ME), which is my major, is a field of study focusing on force and heat. It has not been built in a day. Many mechanical engineers contributed to build the whole structure of ME over many centuries. In universities, those who had studied ME in advance have designed the current curriculum for the next generation’s future. Like many other universities, POSTECH’s ME department has designed and been modifying the curriculum based on the history of ME as well as the mission of POSTECH in order to train POSTECH’s ME students to be great mechanical engineers as global leaders. Currently POSTECH’s ME department curriculum consists of 15 credits of general required courses, 30 credits of basic required courses, 44 credits of major required courses, 14 credits of general selective courses, 12 credits of major selective courses, and 18 credits of free selective courses, which comprises 133 credits in total for obtaining the bachelor degree of science in POSTECH ME department.

With such sense a of history in their mind, POSTECH students should ask themselves how and why POSTECH is providing the current curriculum in each department. Students should believe that the current curriculum has been designed to help students prepare for their future. This belief can provide students with a positive attitude towards studying. Students may not like all of the required courses, but students should believe that even some required courses they do not like have been designed for their own sake. Then students would have the attitude that they will be able to do their best even when studying the required courses they do not like. In addition, students should also consider why POSTECH provides selective courses for them, which may vary among students even in the same departments. Students should have the attitude that they will be able to take a full advantage of the selective courses for their future in terms of uniqueness and difference. One student may want to design his or her selective courses to develop his or her in-depth specialty in a specific field such as NT, BT, IT, or ET. Another student may want to design his or her selective courses to gain a broad understanding in many fields. In either case, the design of the selective courses should be an enjoyable freedom students have.

I hope that this article helps students to have a positive attitude towards studying required courses and designing their own selective courses independently for their future. I believe that the better attitude you have, the happier your campus life will be. Enjoy your campus life fully and try to have a great dream during your campus life!

Seong Jin Park
Mechanical Engineering