[POSTECH’s student online mentoring program runs until December]

In line with the current COVID-19 situation, college students are spreading their kindness by volunteering online. A mentoring project that helps local students with their studies, the POSTECH online mentoring program is warming the hearts of our community.

As part of this program, the POSTECH students become mentors for younger students residing in rural communities in the Gyeongbuk Province by tutoring math and science and offering career and academic counseling. Currently, 20 POSTECH student mentors and 50 mentees from four middle schools are participating in the program.

The POSTECH mentors produce and upload middle school-level math and science teaching videos on the mentoring platform and the mentees watch them and study on their own. If they have questions, they can leave them on the website and the mentors respond with answers on the site directly.

As a research-oriented university that specializes in science and technology, POSTECH also operates science experiment mentoring. The mentors produce videos containing experiments designed by them that include the explanation and interpretation on the principles behind the experiment. The mentee students receive experiment kits to conduct the experiments on their own. With these kits, they develop interest and curiosity in science by doing the experiments not seen in textbooks.

Moreover, mentors have weekly one-on-one academic and career counseling sessions with their mentees using Vmeeting, a video conference system developed by POSTECH. Mentors hold frank and honest conversations with their mentees and share experiences and expertise to help them reach their full potential.

“Through this online mentoring program, local students who have limited learning opportunities due to the COVID-19 situation can get a chance to learn, and POSTECH students in turn feel rewarded for their contribution,” remarked Professor Won-Ki Hong, the director of Innovation Center for Education at POSTECH. He added, “We will continue to develop and operate this virtual mentoring program to prepare for the post-COVID-19 era.”