Although our society has never stopped emphasizing the importance of leadership, the concept of being a leader and showing the corresponding ability is still vague and difficult for most students. For those who wish to learn more about leadership and practice related abilities, the KAIST Leadership Executing Team (K-Let) might be a good choice. Established in 2009, K-Let is not a well-known club on campus, but it is expanding its influence through a wide variety of activities inside and outside campus. The KAIST Herald met with the President of K-Let to hear more about their major activities and future ambitions.

Can you introduce yourself briefly?
Hello, my name is Kyoung-Rim Kim, the newly elected President of K-Let starting from this fall semester. I joined K-Let in the spring. I was a member for one semester and became the President this fall. I am a junior majoring in the Department of Biological Sciences.

Could you explain more about K-Let?
K-Let is an an affiliated organization of the KAIST Leadership Center Program, located on the fifth floor of the Creative Learning Building (E11) on campus. As its name implies, K-Let is a club that allows you to carry your leadership into practice. To be more specific, we provide leadership education to middle and high school students in Daejeon. In order to provide a quality leadership education, K-Let members make related instructional contents and improve such teaching materials by giving each other feedback and constructive criticisms. Since most activities of K-Let are aimed for students outside the campus, our club has not been relatively well-known among KAIST students.

What made you join K-Let?
In my case, I took the Humanity/Leadership II class since it was one of the mandatory courses. The instructor for this course gave lectures to many other universities besides KAIST, and he once offered me to apply for the position of a teaching assistant for other leadership lectures. And so, I was able to participate in various leadership courses about three to four times. During these lectures, I was introduced to one instructor who happened to be in charge of K-Let. By chance, I learned about K-Let and decided to join to improve and practice my leadership skills.

What are the major activities or tasks of K-Let?
During the semester, K-Let focuses on providing leadership education to young students. One of our major tasks is to develop teaching materials and improve its quality through intensive feedbacks. In my case, although I joined the club last spring, I was able to develop my own leadership materials and had a chance to give a lecture to students.
On vacations, more activities are available. We usually participate in various leadership camps or academies as mentors and teaching assistants. Also, during this summer, we hosted a quiz show called “Golden Bell Challenge,” which many students from five different welfare centers participated and learned more about leadership.
Since K-Let has mainly focused on the work outside campus in the past, we are trying to expand our activities inside the campus as well, and get many KAIST students to join our leadership programs. Moreover, we are working to increase the number of leadership lectures for middle and high school students, and make the Golden Bell Challenge project an annual event. In fact, this project was very meaningful and significant for us, since it gave underprivileged students a chance to meet others striving in similar environments. Also, it gave them hope and inspiration by inviting them to the KAIST campus.

What qualifications are required to become a member of K-Let?
Since one of the major tasks of K-Let is to educate many young students about leadership, having a good personality is a crucial quality to become a member. We prefer people with easygoing personalities who can interact with others fairly well and most importantly, get along with young students.
Another necessary quality is having interest and passion in leadership. Voluntary passion for leadership is essential to join K-Let. For this reason, only those who have previously taken leadership courses can apply.

Do you have any last comments for students?
For anyone who is interested in leadership, K-Let offers many opportunities to join various leadership related programs, and provides leadership mileages and AU credits. In the long run, since there are many chances to meet different classes of people and communicate with them, one’s perspective and viewpoint can be broadened. Moreover, members of K-Let are very passionate and dedicated. Most of all, K-Let helps to develop leadership abilities and carry them fully into practice.