The history of Sookmyung Women’s University ROTC from the first ever towards becoming the best
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- Writer 커뮤니케이션팀
- 보도일자 2021-01-18
On December 10, 2010, the first Korean women's university ROTC was established at Sookmyung Women’s University. It was the moment when the first women's ROTC was born in the 50-year history of ROTC.
Sookmyung Women’s University's attraction of ROTC is the result of the efforts that have emphasized women's leadership education for many years. Even before the establishment of the ROTC, there was full support at the school level, such as steadily producing female officers, winning a college student national security debate contest, and opening a female military officer club.
The historical roots of Sookmyung also played a part. Myungshin Girls' School, the predecessor of Sookmyung Women’s University, was an educational institution founded by Imperial Noble Consort Sunheon, a royal concubine of Emperor Gojong of the Korean Empire in 1906, when blatant invasions by powerful nations were ongoing. As a university that started with the founding ideology of national salvation through women's education, members who had the will to protect the motherland have longed for the attraction of Sookmyung Women’s University's ROTC.
It was a grand beginning, but the development process was a difficult road. The 30 cadets of the 51st ROTC, who were awarded the first female ROTC titles, were once a subject of concern because of poor grades in the basic military training they participated in the early following year, perhaps because of the surrounding expectations and burden on their shoulders. However, after ardent repeated training, they showed signs of improvement and made up for the shortcomings, leading to dramatic changes.
In this background, there were efforts from key figures such as the Director of ROTC and instructors who showed undying support for the cadets. As it is said that “A good general will make good men,” the Director of ROTC and the discipline officers provided strong motivation to the candidates in a decisive manner and helped them to develop leadership.
For example, when the first cadets participated in their first summer training, they remained at the bottom of the entire ROTC in the grenade class. This was the result of physical differences in arm muscles, which were relatively weak compared to male candidates. The ROTC diagnosed this problem and conducted throwing training with a ball heavier than a training grenade to keep the cadets from falling behind in the competition. As a result, the 52nd cadets produced a massive achievement of taking the first place overall in the grenade class in just one year.
Since its inception, the ROTC of Sookmyung Women’s University has garnered numerous topics, including headlines in various media. In 2012, it surprised everyone with the remarkable achievement of recording the No.1 overall grade score among all 110 ROTCs, and at the joint appointment ceremony of officers of the armed forces held in 2013, Gi-eun Park cadet of Sookmyung Women’s University received the Presidential Citation for summa cum laud graduation among 4,385 graduates in total. Just two years after the ROTC opened its doors to women and from Sookmyung Women’s University that produced the first female ROTC officers, this was one of the most important events since the founding of Korea’s armed forces. A female cadet exceeded over all male cadets and had graduated top of the class.
At the commission ceremony that year, the ROTC of Sookmyung Women’s University listed two names in the top 10 rank in addition to Cadet Park with Second Lieutenant Eun-yeong Seo from the 51st ROTC who placed 7th in the overall graduation record, and Second Lieutenant Ji-Hyeon Min also became the topic of conversation by becoming the first father and daughter ROTC officers with her father, who is a 24th ROTC officer.
Sookmyung Women’s University’s ROTC aims for both the first ever and the best ever. Hero of Gulf of Aden Captain Hae-gyun Seok, US Ambassador to Korea Kathleen Stephens, the first female ambassador since diplomatic relations between the United States and Korea, and Naval Commander Lisa Franchetti, the first female commander in the history of the US Armed Forces in Korea, Sookmyung to share their leadership and vision. The ROTC was in charge of raising security awareness and developing leadership capabilities by holding a junior ROTC camp for high school girls, and is actively engaged in social contribution activities, such as participating in a marathon to help children with cancer. Every year on Memorial Day, the ROTC visits the Uiyeolsa Shrine located in Hyochang Park and continues to commemorate in honor of the patriotic martyrs for the country such as key figures of the Korean Provisional Government. Benefits include providing ROTC scholarships to all cadets, providing exclusive dormitories and mentoring programs, and conducting domestic and international military culture tours. As a result, the competition rate of Sookmyung Women’s University’s ROTC is famous for being fiercer than other universities.
The ROTC of Sookmyung Women’s University, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, has produced a total of 221 commissioned officers through 8 graduations up to date. Despite the short history since the first commissioned officer, First Lieutenant Ki-eun Park, who received the Presidential Citation for the summa cum laud graduation, Captain Hee-kyeong Cheong, who served as the company commander of the army’s first female military coastal guard, and First Lieutenant Yu-kyeong Kim, who became the military’s first female MC (motorcycle) military police are all from Sookmyung Women’s University. In addition, the ROTC shows a remarkable participation rate in overseas commissioned education conducted by the army based on outstanding foreign language skills. Se-hee Park, the Director of ROTC, said, “Foreign entrusted education such as the US officer’s advanced course (OAC) were almost exclusively for those from the military academy, but recently, the progress of officers from Sookmyung Women's University is remarkable,” and “the candidates for Sookmyung Women’s University, who boast the highest levels of admission grades and training attitudes, are contributing to raising women's awareness as prepared reserve officers.”
The steps taken by Sookmyung Women’s University have provided a driving force for attracting ROTC from other women's colleges, and it became an opportunity for a gust of change in the military. The proportion of female soldiers from 3.9% in 2011 has nearly doubled to 7.4% in 2020. It is known that Sookmyung Women’s University and other women’s university ROTCs are consistently performing well in the annual ROTC evaluation conducted by the Ministry of National Defense. Despite being a mid-sized ROTC with no more than 60 students, Sookmyung Women’s University has been selected for its excellent ROTC in 2013, 2015-2016, 2018 and 2020 based on excellent grades in all fields such as information, operations, training, personnel, and logistics.
President Yunkeum Chang said, “We will continue to play a role in fostering officers who are devoted to the nation and public, and spreading female leadership by inheriting the founding philosophy of Sookmyung, which started as the first national women's educational institution in Korea’s difficult times.”