Ewha awards ‘distinguished honorary Ewha fellow’ to President Faust, first female president of Harvard
- 작성처
- Date2013.04.02
- 4715
Ewha granted the ‘distinguished honorary Ewha fellow’ award to Drew Gilpin Faust as the first female president of Harvard, and held a special commemorative lecture titled ‘Educate Women; Change the World’ during her visit to the school on March 22nd (Fri).
Ewha President Kim Sun-Uk welcomed President Faust’s visit to the school, noting the similarity between the ultimate aims of Harvard and Ewha: ‘veritas’ (truth) and ‘change’, respectively. She emphasized that both should be responsible to ‘change’ society in unique and humanistic ways through educating women and exploring ‘veritas’, the most valuable pursuits of universities.
“I am very honored to visit Ewha, the world’s largest women’s university, and be named a distinguished honorary Ewha fellow.” said President Faust. She highlighted the fact that Ewha has produced top Korean women in almost every field, beginning her lecture by saying “Women’s education is the most successful in Korea compared to other countries in the world.”
President Faust discussed the importance of women’s education as she pointed out that among 500 companies selected by Fortune Magazine, only 4% are run by female CEOs, in only 1.9% in Korea, despite a recent a report from the company Swiss Research supporting the financial advantage of having women as board members. She explained that women’s education, which brings about equal rights and catalyzes change, is a wise investment since women compose half the labor force.
“I was surprised to find out that Harvard is also quite interested in women and their education,” said Shin Myung Hoo (History ‘11) who attended the lecture. She also added that she discovered many things that the Ewha community can do to practice true gender equality.
The lecture marked President Faust’s first trip to Korea, and Ewha was the only university visited during her stay. Ewha is Harvard’s only summer school partner in Korea, and the ‘Ewha-Harvard Summer Shool’ has been held for 8 consecutive years since 2006. Since 2007, the universities have worked together in the Harvard College in Asia Program (HCAP), in which Ewha is the only Korean partner.