Korea University alumna donates 200 million won to KU College of Nursing.
Madame Hui-Jeong Park is a beacon of life for KU nursing students who dream big.

▲ Madame Hui-Jeong Park (left) and KU President, Jaeho Yeom, (right) at the donation ceremony

Madame Hui-Jeong Park (’48, Dept. of Nursing) donated 200 million won to the scholarship fund for the College of Nursing at her alma mater.
Turning 85 this year, Madame Park made her first donation to the university in 2002 as part of the fund raising campaign for building the College of Nursing. Since then, she continued her donations, which now amount to 500 million won in total. From the first semester of 2014, the scholarship fund, named after her, began supporting a Nursing major every semester with 3 million won.

Madame Park, who was selected by Forbes Asia as one of their Heroes of Philanthropy in 2014, is dedicated to her charity work. Not surprisingly, her late husband, Geun-Cheol Ryu, was known for his generosity, too. He donated 5.78 million won to KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) where he served as a professor. Likewise, Park has provided financial support to her alma mater for many years.

Following a tragic car accident in November 2009, she suffered from injuries to her spine, waist, and internal organs. While lying sick in bed for a long time, she realized how short our lives are. As soon as she got back on her feet again, she decided to visit the university in order to attend the donation ceremony held every November, the month she was born in. Reminiscing about her difficult times, she said, “I hope that KU students can see the beauty of youth. Being young and having dreams were the only thing that helped me endure those difficulties.”

When Park was little, she was a bright kid who never missed first place in anything. After she graduated from Gyeonggi Women’s High School, she decided to major in nursing, which was not a popular choice of study at the time. In order to study abroad, she applied for a state scholarship sponsored by the then Ministry of Health and Society and topped the list of applicants. Among those applicants who were identified as a ‘genius’ in their hometowns, Park took first place with an average of 92 points, beating the second place applicant by ten points. Only the top finisher was granted a state scholarship.

During her years spent in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, what frustrated her the most was language. She said that she studied English with a do-or-die attitude. However, what made her suffer most were the situations unfolding back in her homeland. Due to the Korean War breaking out in 1950, Koreans went through post-war poverty and famine. Whenever she saw people enjoying their days by the Thames, she could not help thinking of her fellow Koreans and feeling a deep sorrow.


Asians in the UK were not usually allowed to enroll in the clinical teaching course for nurses, which made her push herself harder. All she could think about was finishing the course successfully and contributing to her motherland and alma mater in future.

Following her years spent in New Zealand and the UK, she flew to the United States to study further. After coming back to Korea, she worked for the National Medical Center and the Korea University Hospital. She also taught students at Seoul Women’s College of Nursing and the College of Medicine at KU. She did not only pour her passion into nurturing future nurses, but she also continuously participated in volunteer work.


The donation ceremony was held at the KU Main Hall on Mar. 28th with Jaeho Yeom, KU President; Geum-Seon Han, Dean of the College of Nursing at KU; Byung Hyun Yoo, KU Vice President for Development and External Affairs; and Ji-Yeong Shin, Director of the Office of Student Affairs at KU. Jae-Pil Lee, President of Alumni Association of the College of Nursing, also attended the event to express his appreciation to Park, the founder of the alumni association.


In her speech, Park emphasized the importance of humanity. “Nursing is about tending to a patient, in other words, a human. Getting good grades should not be put before being a decent person,” she said. In response to her, KU President said, “I assure you that the scholarship fund will be used to foster future intellectuals at the College of Nursing.”


Hye-Min Kim (’14, Dept. of Nursing), the scholarship recipient for the first semester of this year, thanked the alumna. “The scholarship is very meaningful to me because it is from my predecessor. Like her, I want to become a warm-hearted nurse equipped with expertise,” she said.