U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Stephens visits Korea’s first female ROTC
- Views 1869
- Writer 총관리자
- 보도일자 2011-06-20
Kathleen Stephens, the United States Ambassador to Korea, visited Sookmyung on May 25. After taking part in a town hall event meeting with our students, Ambassador Stephens met with candidates of 217 ROTC of Sookmyung Women’s University where she was greeted with an honor guard salute and gave them encouragements.
Upon arrival at Sookmyung Centennial Hall in the morning, Ambassador Stephens began her schedule by meeting with the candidates chosen as Korea’s first female ROTC. After receiving their salute, Ambassador Stephens moved to ROTC facilities at the 4th floor of the Centennial Hall and received the briefing on ROTC in English by candidate Hae In Yoon (22). Ambassador Stephens took a tour of the fitness room and lecture hall, and showed great interest in female ROTC by asking the weight of the military gear. Then, Ambassador Stephens took part in a discussion with ROTC candidates where she said “The role of women is expanding in 3D areas of Development, Defense and Diplomacy. As female ROTCs are capable of playing a significant role in the field of Defense, we expect to see lots of students make their own way through” Ambassador Stephens also took part in a town hall event meeting in front of 300 students in attendance at the Samsung Convention Center. Here, Ambassador Stephens carefully answered to questions on topics ranging from national defense, foreign affairs, security to trade from 7 panels comprised of student representatives.
While answering questions on women’s leadership, multicultural society as well as Korea-US FTA and 6 party talks, Ambassador Stephens highly regarded the rise in Korean women’s status for the past 30 years. She also added that it was impressive to observe Korea advance towards an open society by acknowledging diverse cultures. Sookmyung Women’s University commented “We much appreciated the opportunity to have Ambassador Stephens a person of keen affection towards Korea as she was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Korea during the 1970’s talk with students on diverse issues including Korea-US alliance. We hope the meeting with Ambassador Stephens, a leading woman leader and the first female U.S. ambassador to Korea, becomes a meaningful opportunity of self development to the students.”