GSIS Commencement

[GSIS Graduation Ceremony]

- Diploma : February 25, 2020 ~ February 28, 2020 (9:00-17:00)

   - Please pick up your diploma & Award (only applicant) & Memorial Tablet (only applicant) from admin. office of GSIS.

- Academic Gown Service : February 24, 2020 ~ February 28, 2020 (9:00-17:00), GSIS 140 Bldg. Rm.104

- Photo Zone : GSIS 140-1 Bldg. Lobby / Sochon Convention Room

-Graduates who want to attend graduation ceremony for the next semester are allowed to attend the next graduation ceremony of SNU & GSIS on Aug. 28, 2020.

 

[Dean's Speech]

Dear Graduates,

On behalf of the Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University, I sincerely congratulate each of you on this momentous day in your lives. I also thank the families and friends who have supported you throughout the journey that has brought you to this celebration of your tremendous achievement.

You have spent two, or more, very precious years of your life at GSIS, toiling over books and combing through papers with an unbent determination to learn and step closer to what you envision for your future self. Through these years of perseverance, patience, and passion, you have earned the academic degree whose ‘formal form’ you hold in your hands. But the true form of this degree lies within you, in the form of knowledge, perspective, understanding, and compassion. I applaud all of you for the commitment you have shown to reach higher and search deeper for the education and training you sought to acquire at our school.

Dear Graduates,

We take pride in the fact that SNU-GSIS stands tall as the top graduate school in international studies, not only in Korea but also in Asia. Since its establishment in 1997, our school has pursued the singular goal to cultivate global leaders who are capable of taking on the new and complex challenges faced by our world today and tomorrow. Our unique and outstanding curriculum, and our faculty comprised of distinguished and dedicated scholars in their respective fields, have strived to achieve this goal by delivering the knowledge and tools you will need to march confidently and unwaveringly into the world that awaits you outside of our walls. We look forward to seeing you make your mark in your world, as those who have graduated before you have in the academia as well as in the public and private sectors.

Dear Graduates,

I hope to take this opportunity to urge you one last time as your professor to keep in mind two things as you walk out the doors of GSIS into the new chapter of your lives.

The first is to “Make the Strange Familiar and the Familiar Strange” based on the knowledge and experience you acquired from GSIS. This expression originally comes from German poet Novalis, urging us to seek mysterious qualities in well-known objects, while also seeking to identify recognizable, commonplace characteristics in the weird and extraordinary. In simpler terms, this expression emphasizes that we can gain greater truths and human creativity by expanding one’s point-of-view and comparing different perspectives. The world that awaits you outside of GSIS is full of differences and diversities, as well as riddled by prejudices and ethnocentrism. To accept these differences and diversities and win over prejudices and ethnocentrism, and to step closer to the truth, I urge you to see these strange differences and diversities as familiar, reasonable, comfortable, normal, and at the same time, to question the familiar prejudices and ethnocentrism as strange, irrational, and most definitely not the best way to get things done. It sounds like a difficult challenge. It’s actually even harder than it sounds. But as intellectuals who wield the weapons of knowledge and experience earned at GSIS, you will share the obligation I feel to “make the strange familiar and the familiar strange.”

The second thing I hope you will keep in mind is to have courage, serenity, and wisdom. As intellectuals, you will feel the inclination to realize what you have learned. This inclination should be acted upon, not only to pursue personal achievement, but also contribute to the society. To do so, you will need the courage to change what must to create a better society. And there are so many things that must be changed. The growing disparity in wealth, irresponsible politicians and their populism, the exclusive nationalism in East Asia… so many, such difficult things that require a lot of courage to take on. At the same time, there are things we, as intellectuals, must accept, even if they seem strange and uncomfortable, and sometimes require a lot of costs. For example, things like multiculturalism and transnational migration, becoming environment-friendly, and sometimes not quite delightful neighboring countries. As willing intellectuals, you will need serenity to accept the new and unfamiliar, the not-so-delightful and uneasily swallowed. But more than anything, what you must have is the wisdom to distinguish what should be changed and what should become a part of us and our society. Courage, Serenity, Wisdom. These three will shape you into a true intellectual and a leader of our society. I wish that courage, serenity, and wisdom will be within your reach in the moments that you most need them.

I once again congratulate all of you. I pray that your future will be filled with blessings. Thank you.

February 26, 2020

Dean, Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University

Jeong, Jong-Ho

 

[Graduates]

 

[Awards Lists]