The Diversity Council accepted applications for the 3rd cohort of its “Diversity Pioneers” student internship program during the end of August and beginning of September, and, as the spring 2020 program had been canceled due to COVID-19, the council chose 37 students to participate in the fall program instead of the usual 20. The theme of this semester’s program was “Breaking Down Walls Between SNU Students: Cultivating Empathy in the Online Era”, and starting from the orientation, most of its activities were conducted remotely, including diversity training, webinars, and self-directed group activities. The September 10 orientation took place over Zoom, as did three subsequent check-in meetings.

The students were grouped into nine teams based on the activity plans they had submitted as part of their applications, and each team carried out a project through the phases of planning, execution, and evaluation over the three-month internship. The nine teams were called “온돌”, “허물없이 말을 건네는 너나들이”, “혐오를 멈춰 조”, “아보카도”, “다정”, “Diversity Rangers”, “My Little Potcast”, “소다”, and “온전”. Making an effort to use online platforms as much as possible, they engaged in diverse activities based on fresh ideas, including: promoting diversity information using the interactive “card news” format; interviewing diverse members of the SNU community and publishing the results online or in print collections; sharing the daily lives of students living in the COVID-19 era through online exhibitions, journal exchanges, and a podcast; and investigating the campus’s infrastructure with regard to vegetarianism and creating a brochure providing information on vegetarianism. 아보카도 also recommended introducing new vegetarian options in SNU’s cafeterias, restaurants, and cafés. 

For the sake of the interns who had never met face-to-face, the council hoped to at least hold the completion ceremony in person, but as the country returned to a higher social distancing level in late fall, the December 3 ceremony also ultimately took place over Zoom. After greetings by Diversity Council chair Wha Sook Jeon and Diversity Council student councilmember Jisoen Jang, who had helped run the program over the past three months, all of the interns briefly presented on their impressions from their activities, and 아보카도 and 온전 were recognized as Outstanding Activities Teams as the result of prior peer evaluations in which each team was asked to recommend two other teams for the honor. Completion certificates, commemorative hooded sweatshirts, and other souvenir gifts will be sent to each participant by mail. The ceremony ended with a promise to meet in person next year if the COVID-19 situation permits it. 

SNU NOW, 2020.12.