On November 2, the second Mentoring Concert was hosted in Terman Hall of the Creative Learning Building (E11). The Mentoring Concert is jointly offered by the Undergraduate Student Council and the Graduate Student Association, and is aimed to invite KAIST alumni from various fields to mentor current undergraduate and graduate students on career development. Over 60 KAIST graduates participated for the Mentoring Concert this year.

The event opened with keynote speeches from President Sung-Mo Kang and Professor Minhwa Lee of KAIST Graduate School of Innovation and Technology Management. The students then diverged to various tracks, which were headed by mentors of various occupations and specialties to pursue in-depth presentations, discussions, and question-and-answer sessions. The Mentoring Concert finished with a beer party at the lobby of the Creative Learning Building.

President Kang’s keynote speech focused on global leadership, an innate quality that every KAIST student should strive for. He emphasized working towards the common goal: to create a Korean Silicon Valley in Daedeok Innopolis, spearheaded by KAIST graduates and move on to be global leaders in science and technology. He also underscored the emerging trend of multidisciplinary studies and encouraged students to study a wide variety of topics without internal hesitation or external prejudice.

Professor Lee’s keynote speech, followed directly after that of President Kang, focused on KAIST students and entrepreneurship. Due to the rapid changes in industrial trends after the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, the number of companies founded by students per year has been on a steady decline since the late 1990s. Professor Lee noted this declining tendency and encouraged students to not only focus on academic endeavors, but also on developing entrepreneurial talent.