On April 1, the KAIST International Scholar & Student Services (ISSS) Team invited all students, both Korean and international, to the first-ever Listen-Connect Open House event. Aimed at promoting an all-inclusive atmosphere at KAIST, the event hosted various student performing groups and offered attendees an opportunity to share their opinions and hear from the leaders of the Undergraduate Association (UA), KAIST International Students Association (KISA), ELKA, and The KAIST Herald. This month, we met Mohammed Haruna Hamza, KAIST Council student representative currently studying in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and the organizer of this event. 

What inspired you to organize the Listen-Connect Open House event?

I’m the kind of person who likes to see a positive change wherever I go and I like to serve the people in every way. Coming to KAIST, I found out that there was a huge division in terms of the unity between international and local students, and I thought it was a gap that needed to be bridged. The Listen-Connect Open House is a platform where international students can connect, share ideas, culture, [and] network with local students on campus. The aim is to promote transparency and make everyone feel [make everyone feel] free to [approach] leaders on campus. Another aim is [for students] to appreciate and enjoy campus talent.

What is special about the Listen-Connect Open House?

Listen-Connect is an all student-organized event; we try as much as possible to remove [the influence of any] staff or professor that [might] cause atmospheric intimidation to students so [that] students feel free to express themselves. Secondly, it is entertaining. We don’t want people to just come [to] sit and ask questions — [we want] students [to] “listen” and “connect”.

What made you decide to invite student leaders as panelists?

I sat down to evaluate and listen to opinions of people to see what organizations they are really curious about and they feel [are] actually influencing our campus in one way or the other. I've never actually seen the leaders of student related organizations [sitting like that] in one space, so it was great to see them on stage answering students’ questions.

What difficulties did you have while organizing the event?

One big challenge I had was that I practically had to do everything, from writing the proposal [to] trying to get the background work [done]. Inviting performers was also pretty challenging. Still, at the end of the day, my friends were so supportive; they all came to help out with the arranging of the hall or emcee, so I’m really grateful.

What are some areas of improvement you saw from the first event?

We could say it’s a success [based on the number of attendees] but I really expected more international students to be there. The reason is that the questions that I got from the survey were mostly asked by international students, and the performances were also what they [would] want to experience. I was a bit sad that [the] majority of them were not there to actually witness those themselves. Also, for this event, Man-Sung Yim, the Associate Vice President of the International Office, and some of my friends helped financially, but we need an official source of funding [in the future]. The third is [that] I would love us to [invite talents entirely from our campus] instead of going outside to [source] talents to come perform at our school. I contacted some clubs in school but they rejected [our request], so I hope they can support us in the future.

What plans do you have for the Listen-Connect Open House for the future?

Right now, I’m [doing] paperwork to find a home for the Listen-Connect Open House; we are [deciding] what department or organization will permanently adopt the event. After that, we [will] talk about dates. We need a platform like this where everyone’s opinion or suggestion reflects in the decision making process. It is going to be the solution [for] the unity that we have always been talking about, so I really hope everyone shows their love and support.