In this blog post, I’ll outline my academic plans and career preparation for college, drawing on my academic efforts, school activities, and collaborative experiences during high school.
Academic Experiences and Reflections
Starting in my freshman year of high school, the school’s educational system emphasized the importance of the TOEIC. At the time, my school was a pilot school for smart education, actively utilizing various educational devices and online content, and English learning was conducted as an extension of that approach. I enrolled in an after-school TOEIC class and began preparing for the exam by attending lessons three times a week. While such environments can often become one-way lectures, the class I attended was different.
The classes primarily utilized game-based learning content. In the multimedia lab, we each used a desktop computer to study via the educational broadcaster’s online learning platform, which featured content such as solutions to past TOEIC exam questions, games designed to help us easily memorize vocabulary by matching words with their meanings, and grammar theory lectures with related example problems that we solved on the spot. Classes were conducted by combining the instructor’s explanations with the online content, and since we attended classes several times a week, we were able to cover the material quickly.
At first, I had planned to spend a year preparing for the TOEIC, but thanks to the consistent classes and game-based learning, I gained the confidence that I could achieve my target score within six months. After that, I focused more on solving past exam questions to prepare for the test, and instead of taking the exam every month, I adopted a strategy of preparing steadily with the goal of taking it once at the end of the semester. As a result of studying consistently throughout the semester, I scored in the 600s on my first attempt, in the 700s during my sophomore year, and surpassed the 800s during my junior year.
Description of Major School Activities and Reflections
In my freshman year of high school, I became interested in web content after encountering online educational materials, so I joined a club and began creating web content with my friends. At first, I thought production would be easy as long as I had an idea, but I realized that content creation is difficult without a prior understanding of the medium. Therefore, I prioritized building a foundational understanding of web and mobile media within the club.
During club meetings, we would watch introductory lectures provided by educational broadcasters or private institutions and study together. We combined this theoretical learning with hands-on practice in the lab, where we worked directly with programming tools; through these practical exercises, we were able to see how theory translates into real-world implementation.
The tools we used for these exercises included Namo Web Editor and source code editing for web page creation, as well as jQuery and FLEX 3.0 for professional implementation. We explored various aspects of JavaScript’s DOM and Ajax, as well as jQuery’s DOM and Ajax functions; jQuery, in particular, proved especially useful for creating interactive web content, so we used it most frequently.
Through these activities, I came to understand that the DOM encapsulates the rules of document structure, and its relationship with HTML became clear. While setting up the development environment and learning how to handle nodes, styles, attributes, and events, I carried out tasks similar to real-world scenarios, such as changing images, moving images within specific areas, scrolling images, and moving images within rectangular areas. This process allowed me to gradually gain the skills needed to create complex content.
For hands-on practice, we created a prize drawing generator and rolling banners, and shared our individual projects with club members to exchange feedback. The feedback process was instrumental in improving the quality of our work, and we gained valuable experience in enhancing our skills through collaborative learning.
To increase the difficulty, we practiced configuring a jQuery Ajax environment and experimented with multiple versions to resolve compatibility issues between data transmission methods and response formats. For example, we repeatedly practiced scenarios such as sending data via the GET method and receiving a synchronous CSV response from the server, as well as sending data via the POST method and receiving asynchronous responses in CSV, XML, or JSON formats. Later, we established the content structure by integrating external pages and creating a single-level menu, and we gained experience in publishing by releasing final deliverables—such as banner sliders, accordion menus, and image galleries—on the web. As the years went by, the club’s overall skills improved, and we gained confidence in producing digital content.
Writing about examples of consideration, sharing, and cooperation, along with my reflections
During the first semester of my senior year of high school, I submitted a project prepared through club activities to a web content competition. Until my sophomore year, our efforts were mainly limited to internal planning and practice, but once I entered my senior year, we decided to challenge ourselves in an external competition based on the results of two years of practice. My friends who were interested in participating and I formed a team of three, and we met almost every other day starting three months before the competition.
Our most important activity was brainstorming sessions. While the tools and techniques we could use in the competition were predetermined, the theme and ideas were left to our discretion, so the creativity and polish of our work were the key factors in determining whether we would win an award. We devoted three weeks solely to brainstorming sessions, gathering and analyzing our previously developed projects to identify our team’s strengths. During these meetings, we fostered an atmosphere where everyone could freely propose ideas with a considerate attitude, without reacting aggressively to each other’s opinions.
The idea we ultimately selected was an application for publishing multimedia books on mobile devices. The structure was designed so that when a user uploaded a cover image, content images, and copyright images, the multimedia book would automatically open; the basic version was provided for free, but users would switch to a paid version when they wanted to view additional content. Technically, we designed the system to handle this entire process within a single upload program, and we worked together daily to develop the project. Ultimately, thanks to our team’s close collaboration, we were able to win an award, and through this experience, I gained a deeper understanding of the importance of collaboration and greater confidence in planning my future.
Efforts and Preparation Related to Motivation for Application and Career Plans
The web and mobile environments have established themselves as core markets in the next-generation network industry, and the design, development, and publication of digital content are fields that generate high added value. I have focused on web content development since high school and have experience winning awards in competitions. In college, I aim to become a multimedia designer who combines artistic flair with practical skills, with the goal of growing into a leader in the digital entertainment field.
In my major courses, I plan to diligently take classes in digital design, content design, 3D modeling, storytelling, digital video, and motion graphics to build both foundational and applied skills. At the same time, I intend to develop programs that implement new storytelling methods in the multimedia book sector and provide book services as mobile content, thereby realizing book designs that combine video, images, and sound. At this juncture, as the realm of design expands into multimedia, my goal is to grow into an innovative and practical professional.
