Dear Reader,

Last week of March, it came as a pleasant surprise that my parents got a new home in a city I used to live in approximately ten years ago. Taking a stroll around the city, I could see that so much remained the same: the pathway I used to walk to elementary school, the stream I would go with my friends in the summer, or the church I went to with my family every weekend. However, walking down the familiar streets and chatting with my mom about old memories of what we used to do, I realized that the city that the 22-year-old me and the 10-year-old me perceive will never become the same.

“Sense of place” is a term that describes the multidimensional relationship that people build with a particular location, and it encapsulates the feeling or perception held by people that creates a unique identity of the area which other places do not have. While the built environment contributes to shaping the characteristics of a place, it is through the lenses of the people that the significance of the area is defined. A sense of place is established through the accumulated experiences of the people, which allow them to develop an emotional bond with it. 

What does KAIST as a place mean to you? What kind of emotions does this much-familiar campus bring to you? This spring, squeezing through the crowd in front of the cherry blossoms to get an “instagrammable” picture or having lively strawberry parties with groups of friends (to a point I got sick of eating strawberries every day) added many joyful moments to this campus, increasing my affection for this area. The deserted campus I saw for the past two years seems to not exist anymore — and I cannot be more thankful to have the vibrant campus back again.

The buildings and the cherry blossoms of KAIST would not mean much without the KAIST members who, for several years, will call here their home. Through the eyes of each individual, this 1,541,975 m2 campus area is defined — which is precisely why our voices are important in shaping this place into a better one for the students. In this month’s Editorial Opinion section, we raise questions about the age-long cherry blossom visitor problems and the divide between international and Korean student clubs. In Feature, we explore the efforts toward creating a harmonious lab environment among its diverse members. Additionally, if there are any issues you would like to bring up, the Herald is always open to contributor columns on opinions about KAIST.

At the end of the day, what we will remember about KAIST a few years later will be much more about the people and experiences rather than the environment itself. I hope that this spring, you, Dear Reader, will be able to build many cheerful memories with the people around you on campus. With midterms around the corner, it’s too easy to spiral into frustration, but I hope that there would be enough room to enjoy the warm sunlight and the last moments of the cherry blossoms. 

Good luck on midterms,

Jisun Lee

Editor-in-Chief