▲ In Daegakjeon at Dongguk University, students, participating in the third C.M.L. program, went through the unconcious experience (meditation).
/Photography from C.M.L Institute

   The 4th Creative Mindful Leadership Program (C.M.L.P.) will be held during the second semester, from October to December 2015. The C.M.L.P. offers 20s students, suffering from anxiety over an uncertain future, an opportunity to find the “REAL I” and their self-identities.

   The C.M.L.P., created by C.M.L. Institute at Dongguk University, “2015 Character Education 3.0,” was selected as the major project of the for two years in a row. “2015 Character Education 3.0” is a supporting program operated by Korea National Institute for General Education, an organization affiliated with Korean Council for University Education. Its priority is to develop curriculum subjects or extracurricular programs related to cultivation of character for university students. The Director of the C.M.L. Institute Kim Ae-ju said, “Even though a huge number of university students have various unsolved problems such as questions on their self-identity, uncertain future and self-confidence, no one is being responsible for these youth. Therefore, in order for the university to help students to solve their own problems, C.M.L. Institute decided to create the program that mainly deals with observing ‘REAL I’.”

   Operating twice a week for two hours, the program will be divided into two main parts: lectures and unconscious experiences through meditation. Participants are able to take lectures not only from professors at Dongguk University, but also from many other celebrities. During those lectures, participants do several activities such as team projects and discussions on learning meditation. After acquiring the way of meditation, they will go through intensive subconscious experience for two days with separated from secular affairs to find “REAL I.” Based on this procedure, on October 1st, 2015, at Dongguk University, the 4th Creative Mindful Leadership Program will be offered again for any students in their 20s, no matter what university they attend.

   The program has a huge positive influence on students when they are in process of the program. In particular, the lectures and the meditation allow almost all students, participating the program, to change their thoughts and their lifestyles instatntly. Kim Ji-eun (Senior, English department) said, “The 3rd C.M.L.P. let me change a lot. For example, thanks to meditation, I could learn not only the way to have positive thoughts and attitudes towards everything but also the way to start my day more energetically. In addition, several team projects with various topics helped me improve my social and problem-solving skills by spending time with many other people.”

   While there are a variety of positive aspects of C.M.L.P., students may confront difficulties in gaining long-term benefits since they require persistence to maintain the effects. Director Kim said that in the process of the program or immediately after the program, almost all students showed positive outcomes. However, she said, “It is hard to sustain the outcomes by students on their own. This is because students have some difficulties in meditating regularly without any supports.” She then explained, “This means that they need continuous follow-up through some other means, such as the Internet. Therefore, the official website for C.M.L. Institute is now being reconstructed to be more practical for communication with participants.”  

   Before the redesign, the website was only used for submitting projects and writing a diary. Although this has not been finished yet, the website will be more functional. To be more specific, it will be transformed into something similar to Social Network Service such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Within the change, participants will be able to create their accounts to communicate with other participants, even if they do not join in future programs. In addition, by communicating with others, they can receive a huge amount of information about similar programs. Finally, the new homepage will enable participants to be a part of a peer mentoring program. In short, to encourage interactions within participants for a longer term, the website will keep update diverse services.

   The Director of the C.M.L. Institute Kim said, “The C.M.L. program gives an opportunity to discover ‘REAL I,’ and it makes a person increase their level of creativity and build an upright mind which eventually suggests a direction for the future plan.” It is too abstract to explain the way to find “REAL I” and to understand the existence of it. However, it can be sure that meditation, the main process of finding “REAL I,” allows students in 20s  to spend their time looking back upon the past, which helps them to plan their future more easily yet deeply.

Kim Ji-seun  jiseunk@dongguk.edu

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