Cecy ’27 and Jesse ’26, reflect on their first days activities and the meaning of leadership.
We could hear the Cheonggyecheon stream before we saw it, and soon we stood on the banks. We could see our reflections in the crystal clear water. Two students led a lesson on the banks of the stream that talked about the restoration of the stream that runs through the middle of Seoul and how leadership affected the process. With the stream being fully restored it became very eco-friendly and supports fish of all sizes. It also brought up the value of the surrounding property. The leadership that brought the project to life also restored other places like this in Korea. The question that arose was: is the long term impact of restoring worth the initial harms on the environment from the tools used? This can be brought back to our leadership question of the day: What does leadership mean to you? To me it means being able to completely understand the effects of your actions as a leader.
After lunch we walked to Insadong which is a street that has many shops and stalls to shop. We explored on our own with a partner or more. There was a huge variety of shops from souvenirs to traditional Korean dresses called hanboks. Even though Insadong is considered a tourist attraction many locals of all ages come and shop so this experience immersed us into Korean culture and how people interact with each other and foreigners. Having the opportunity to explore on our own tested our time management skills, developed trust between the trip leaders, and our cooperation in our small group to make sure that everyone got what they needed or wanted to see. These are all important aspects of being a leader which this trip is all about.
-Cecy ’27
Before our trip to South Korea began, I was nervous about the structure and planning of how we’d go throughout the trip, but this first day was nice and calm. We started our day with breakfast at our hotel. I had a good amount of sleep and woke up early to eat with our group of friends. The breakfast included some familiar and unfamiliar foods, and Tteokbokki was one of my favorite dishes that I tried today.
Our group was faced with an abundance of events which were also led by group leaders. The day was packed with people participating in leadership roles, whether it was leading a group discussion or leading the way for our next destination. Students gave lessons about each area that we traveled to, and during each student lesson I not only learned important cultural history and Korean culture, but also learned the different tactics that students use to organize a lesson.
Our main question today was “What does leadership mean to you?” I was thinking about it throughout all of our activities and noticed leadership qualities represented by our peers with every activity that we did today. One quality that I believe shows strong leadership skills is the ability to effectively communicate with confidence to others.
-Jesse ’26
