In this blog post, I’ll outline my academic efforts, school activities, and collaborative experiences during high school, as well as my college preparation process, in order.
Academic Experience and Reflections
While in high school, I set the goal of becoming a CEO operating in the global market. People around me said that since it’s difficult to succeed even within Korea, my dream of founding a company that operates overseas and becoming its CEO was unrealistic. However, I believed that while the domestic market was already highly competitive with many startup ideas having been tried, there was potential if I refined the same idea to suit local conditions and expanded overseas. Therefore, I decided that, above all else, I needed to build a solid foundation in English.
English classes at school were primarily focused on preparing for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), and I observed many of my friends studying mainly by memorizing vocabulary and practicing reading comprehension. In contrast, I chose to engage in “in-depth study” so that I could naturally use spoken English in real-world situations. My goal was to develop conversational skills that would allow me to express myself immediately and effectively in meetings, during interpretation, and in global business settings.
While conversational skills stem from confidence, I realized that this confidence needed a solid foundation, so I focused on grammar, situational vocabulary, and idioms. I worked to understand everything from basic sentence structure to complex modifying structures by writing out every possible combination, and to this end, I created my own “Sentence Structure Notebook” containing 1,000 sentences. I also compiled a separate glossary of situation-specific terminology to train myself to quickly recall appropriate expressions.
These focused efforts on studying English for real-world communication yielded tangible results in my academic performance and laid the foundation for my long-term goal of working on the international stage.
Major School Activities and Reflections
With the goal of becoming a CEO, I joined the entrepreneurship club to learn the actual process of starting a business. The entrepreneurship club was a space where we examined business ideas from various perspectives, shared ideas with fellow members, and developed them further. The school also highly values students’ management capabilities and entrepreneurial potential, providing various forms of support, so my club activities were very helpful.
Through my club activities, I earned the opportunity to participate in the Office of Education’s Global Leader Development Program. This program selects students with high growth potential and provides them with financial support and educational opportunities; however, selection required submitting a tangible project—not merely participation. I decided to apply with a business idea I had been considering, which I had refined within the club, and I polished the concept by exchanging ideas with my clubmates.
The business I envisioned was opening a café. While cafés are often considered a basic business model—given the large number of entrepreneurs and stores—I believed this vast market offered the advantage of allowing for diverse experimentation. In particular, I saw that developing a menu that reflects local culture and tastes could be a competitive edge when aiming to expand overseas.
What I considered most important in starting a café was the “menu.” While interior design and concept are important, I believed that the menu is ultimately the key to attracting customers. So, I created a menu featuring beverages and baked goods I developed myself, and designed a system that utilizes kiosks and smart devices to balance ordering convenience with customer satisfaction. Throughout the menu development process, I worked with club members to repeatedly evaluate and refine our ideas, and as a result, we completed a satisfactory business plan that qualified us for support from the program.
Examples of Consideration, Sharing, and Collaboration, and My Reflections
My experience in the entrepreneurship club helped me realize the value of collaboration, which goes beyond the ideas of a single person. While an idea conceived alone had limitations in terms of feasibility and diversity, when several people gathered for meetings, it was refined into a form that could actually be implemented. This kind of collaboration was also a great strength during the café menu development process.
The club included members with diverse talents: friends who loved cooking, frequent café-goers, those with baking certifications, and those interested in barista work. Considering the diversity of our customer base, I proposed various concepts—such as easily digestible beverages for the elderly, drinks for people recovering from illness, and unique beverages targeting younger customers—and my teammates added their own detailed ideas to flesh them out.
In particular, the “flashcard combination” idea proposed by one of my friends played a major role. This method involved randomly drawing cards with ingredient names and combining them; through this process, we created menus we hadn’t previously considered, such as a healthy juice using carrots and burdock, a porridge-style drink made with grains, and a unique beverage featuring soft tofu and kiwi. Through this collaboration and experimentation, I learned how to generate diverse ideas and foster a culture of productive meetings, which I believe will be a valuable asset in my future entrepreneurial journey.
Efforts and Preparation Related to Motivation for Application and Career Plans
My long-term goal is to become a leader in global café management. Although many analyses suggest that the domestic café market is already close to saturation, I believe there is a strong chance of success if we differentiate ourselves with unique concepts and innovative menus. Whenever I visit cafes, I study the menus and analyze the success factors of various brands as part of my preparation.
Since my goal is to expand overseas, I believe it is essential to cultivate a global business mindset, which is why I decided to apply to a university that offers a multicultural English-language environment and an international business curriculum. In particular, I believe that an educational environment where classes are conducted entirely in English and living alongside students of diverse nationalities will be of great help in developing practical skills.
At university, I plan to further hone my English and multilingual skills while gaining hands-on business experience and building a network with startup entrepreneurs to deepen my expertise in my field. Building on this foundation, I aim to grow into a next-generation CEO with an international mindset—one who develops unique menus and brand concepts, validates them in the domestic market, and then localizes them for entry into overseas markets.
