As the pandemic continues, RC programs are held online once again. Before the semester started, the RM and RAs of Allen House came together to help providing students the best of online RC programs and decided to operate ‘Allen Special Lecture’ again, which was the most popular program from the last semester. The lecture aims to invite speakers from various fields and deliver freshmen useful information through the Zoom. The lectures on this semester will be given by a diverse range of speakers from two fields: ‘seniors’, who are attending or graduating from our school and ‘experts’, who have a specialty in a certain field. As Allen Special Lecture consists of a total of 9 sessions, almost all of the RAs are each in charge of inviting lecturers and organizing the session.

    The lectures from ‘seniors’ were provided first. There are six sessions: extracurricular activities, RA, employment, exchange student, internship, and club activities. On September, the first four lectures were given to freshmen in order. First of all, the instructor Jiseob Kim (Korean Language & Literature, '16) gave many tips on how to obtain information on extracurricular activities. He introduced criteria for selecting extracurriculars, and also recommended the capabilities needed for each type of activity. He also emphasized the importance of finding personal meaning in the activities. As it was the first Allen Special Lecture this semester, more than 130 students participated, and the speaker answered the students’ questions enthusiastically beyond the lecture time.

    The RA lecture was given by instructor Yoojeong Kim (AS, '17), who has worked for 4 semesters as an RA. She gave a colorful account of her experiences, including why she wanted to be an RA, what activities RA does, tips on applying for RA, and how to get close to RAs. In particular, several current RAs were also present at this session, taking turns to answer freshmen’s questions. Especially when asked how to get close to RAs, one of them remarked: "We want to get close to you. We are always open.", easing the tension among freshmen.

[Image 1]: the role of RA

    The employment session was held with SICA, a student organization pursuing social innovation. SICA career talk invited Choeun Chon (ECON, '07), who has worked in overseas companies. She gave a lot of practical advice, such as interview style, necessary preparations as an applicant, and how to make the most out of college life to prepare for careers. RC students also commented that it was good to learn how to set goals in detail.

[Image 2]: SICA Career Talk

    Lastly, the exchange student session was provided by Hyojin Park (PSIR, '17), who has studied in Universidad Publica de Navarra, Spain. She talked about how to prepare for the exam and visa when preparing for an exchange student, and also described the overall procedure. In particular, as she told students her personal stories like the reason for choosing the school or travel experiences she had while abroad, the students were very engrossed in her talk.

    Overall, the students' responses to Allen Special Lecture were, “The advice was very helpful, and I want to try my best to participate more actively in college life!” This was a great result in line with Allen House's intention to provide RC students with the information that they could not obtain easily and to help them make the most out of their college life. Please stay tuned for the remaining internship and club sessions, and the upcoming Allen Special Lecture: from Experts! 

[Image 3]: Allen Special Lecture schedule 

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