Chungbuk National University(CBNU) ran a new freshmen-oriented program, called yebidaehak that educates all freshmen before semester begins. CBNU's Faculty of Liberal Education introduced the program in order to help freshmen to orient themselves toward college life and to plan their class registration and careers. It is a mandatory program for 2011 freshmen for graduation, except for the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, and the freshmen receive 1 credit out of the program. CBNU waived the entry fees and boarding expenses for them.

 The program, which was held on the 17th and 24th of January and the 14th of February, provided a wide array of programs for 4 days. They covered education programs and recreation programs. The former one was related to the guidance of school life, motivation building, career counselling, and learning methods. The latter one included performances by the professors' choir and by seniors.

 Kim Hee-sung, who is in charge of the program, explained, "In January, it was run for those who were preaccepted by the university and in February for those who excelled in the College Scholastic Ability Test during the regular application period. CBNU offered education programs during the daytime and recreation programs at night."

 Park Ji-su, who is a freshman in the Department of Fashion Design Information, said, "I could experience varied and helpful programs, such as a personality test, lectures about career exploration, special lectures by celebrities, and a prep TOEIC test. However, I felt fatigue due to a lack of time to rest between the diverse programs. I think that the tight schedules need to be loosened. Anyway, thanks to the program, I became more aware of CBNU than before. I received a certificate from CBNU when I completed all the courses of the program, so I felt really great about that."

 Jeong Ho-yun, who is a freshman majoring in Animal Science, said, "Recreation time after dinner will live in my memory the most. Seniors showed breathtaking group performances, so I felt the heat and passion of the university students. I was impressed with the performance by the professors' choir because they seemed to have prepared much for us. Through this recreation time, we could make friends."

 CBNU's faculty of liberal education carried out a survey on satisfaction of the program. The result of the survey, targeting the students in the January program,  came out with 97% rate of high satisfaction. However, lots of freshmen posted complaints about insufficient break time on the bulletin board in the official web site for the CBNU 2011 freshmen. (http://club.cyworld.com/ClubV1/Home.cy/54518873)

By Kong Hae-gyoung

hg31@cbnu.ac.kr