What do being a cheerleaders’ head and being a police officer have in common?
Reaching out first and putting others first over yourself

“Since I was commissioned as a police officer, I have experienced various situations and events, and the things that I experienced as a member of the cheering squad during my days at school have greatly helped me to deal with the challenges of my work. In particular, I believe that serving as a cheerleader was a truly valuable experience of building strong group loyalty within a strict hierarchical system.”

In 2004, Kim became the first KU female cheerleader head, a first which was considered sensational at the time. Her path to reach that point was not without its challenges. After elected, she strived to make every effort to lead the cheering squad with an enthusiasm as strong as her predecessors, and as a result was able to ignite a greater passion than ever in the hearts of KU students and community members. Now, having become a police officer after graduation, she is currently serving citizens as a police officer in Gimpo Airport, shedding a beacon of light ensuring the safety of citizens.

“During my days in the KU Cheer Leaders, I was able to identify personal tastes and preferences that even I had not realized I had before, so I thought that after graduation it would be more fitting for me to become a civil servant, thereby working in a hierarchical culture and building close relationships with co-workers.” Before attending KU, her father advised that becoming a police officer would be a good path for her to take. His recommendation always lingered in the back of her head while she prepared for the civil service examination after graduation. When she was young, she wanted to help people in need, and, as she was shy, she dreamed of becoming a nurse. However, serving as the head of the cheering squad, she discovered new possibilities within herself. She concluded that the two roles, police officer and nurse, share much in common as they both require serving people and extending a helping hand to those in need. She became a successful candidate for police recruitment after a two and half years of preparation, and, since then, she has assumed a variety of duties, starting from working at a police box. Now, as a seasoned police officer with 10 years of law enforcement experience under her belt, she is currently assuming an important role in Gimpo Airport Police Force.

Visiting the Cheer Leaders Office even before its recruitment of freshmen
A fateful encountering, a turning point in her life

In fall every year, the members of the KU Cheer Leaders shed much sweat in preparation for the Korea-Yonsei Annual Sports Competition (Ko-Yon Games). This year, they are doubling their work since the event will be held for the first time in three years. Cheering inspires players to garner strength again and instills a sense of pride and passionate zeal among those on board. Ko-Yon Games lacking cheering roars is hard to imagine as it is known by KU students and community members as the event featuring the highest festive spirit, regardless of victory or defeat in the sports competition itself.

“In the freshmen orientation program held in early March, I was literally overwhelmed by the spirit of the cheering squad, so I went to its office right after the event was over. This was even before the squad started recruiting freshmen members for the year. I still remember people there looking at me strangely. If I could go back to that day, I would do it all over again. Being a member of the squad became a major turning point in my life.”
This was the first step towards her becoming KU’s head cheerleader, a path which unfolded like fate. Afterward, Kim, who was known to be a person with a good and broad-minded personality, always said, “Life can be changed by one event”, and rewrote the history of the squad.

“We usually give up, thinking that there is no way in sight. However, when someone treads a way, that will become a path for the people who follow.” Back then, the term “alpha girls” was coined, capturing a burgeoning trend of women emerging as leading figures around the world. Korea was not an exception to this, and saw many women outcompete men in their fields, including the first female astronaut. However, many believed that having a female head of the cheering squad would never happen. The major concern was that tremendous stamina was required to be a head cheerleader. In 2003, however, some circumstances already foretold the birth of a female head as if it were either her destiny or coincidence.

“I think many things, such as the social atmosphere and my age and role, were organically interlocked. A junior student usually assumes the position of deputy head, who must serve as a pillar of the cheering squad, being responsible for operating the group and its events. In fact, as the position is so important, there are usually multiple deputy heads. Indeed, it was rare for a woman to become the sole deputy head since female members usually left the squad before becoming juniors due to the squad’s tough training programs and strong organizational culture.”

One of the roles the deputy head assumes is training the Young Tigers, KU’s color guard, and this task is also never easy since it involves leading about 100 members of the guard. However, Kim did not succumb to the challenge but trained the members of Young Tigers intensively during the summer of that year to help them perform successfully in the Ko-Yon Games. Observing her growth along the way, senior members of the squad saw her potential to become the head.

-Kim Na-young, Head of the KU Cheer Leaders, and KU President Euh Yoon-dae, at the 2004 Ko-Yon Games

“If not now, we have to wait a year.”
A come-from-behind victory motivated by her barefoot fighting spirit

In 2003, KU was losing with a score of 2-0 at Jamsil Baseball Stadium. KU players and students were in a funk. To make matters worse, the heel of Kim’s boot broke during cheerleading choreography. She fixed it in haste and returned to the podium, but, this time, both the heels of her boots broke.

She could no longer stand on the podium and hot tears flowed down her cheeks because she thought that that year must be her last time to serve as a cheerleader for the Ko-Yon Games.

A senior member of the squad saw her crying and said, “If you don’t have boots to wear, run barefoot”. She went back up to the cheerleading podium barefoot and cheered at the top of her voice. All the live broadcast cameras in the stadium turned to her, and the atmosphere reversed in KU’s favor. The KU players also did not miss out on the momentum and tied up the game.

“See? We can make it if we try. Otherwise, we have to wait a year to see our victory.” Kim’s statement seemed to resonate in the hearts of all KU students and community members. The shouts and roars of KU students grew bigger, and KU won a dramatic come-back victory with the cheer “Für Elise”. Kim became the goddess of victory.

Thanks to such an impressive occurrence, Kim’s reputation further improved. Watching her enthusiasm and hard work, one of the senior members of the squad proposed that she ran for cheering squad head.
She first wondered how a woman could be the head of the group, but she finally decided to run for the position. “I took on the challenge because I wanted to stand on the podium one more time for the Ko-Yon Games and cheer together with other KU students and community members, an experience which would be the last time for me as a cheerleader.”

The process of being selected was not smooth either. Some might have opposed her candidacy only because of her gender. In addition, there were three candidates running for the position, and, therefore, no candidate won in the first round of voting. With a month left before the second round of voting, Kim met each and every member of the squad to convince them of why she should be elected. In the meantime, she also skillfully handled international events. Finally, she was elected the first female head of the squad, receiving much encouragement and positive feedback for her hard work.
Serving as the head was both a time of glory and a time of struggle. Whenever she looks back on those days, she flashes back to all the hardships and tough things she had to deal with.

“It was really tough. As the first female head, I should start everything from scratch since I thought my footsteps would set a precedent for the future. Therefore, I tried to be careful when making any decision.”

Even the hanbok overcoat, the symbol of the squad head, was unavailable for women. In order to make the overcoat and uniform of a female head, she went around the hanbok shops of famous Korean hanbok craftsmen and tailors. It was not easy to find a shop that could cement the traditional hanbok design with the ideas proposed by the cheerleading squad. The design featuring the big silver tiger embroidered on the current garment of the cheerleading head was developed at that time.

The venue filled with the red roars of KU members
Pouring them out on the day you have been waiting for three years

In reality, in both the cheering squad and the police, women are a minority group. If you add the word female to a position as a classification, such as by saying female member or policewoman, you can create limits for yourself without even knowing it. Therefore, I want KU students to not stick to their gender in whatever they do and to just live as single people.
I just want them to not confine themselves to the thinking, ‘I cannot do this because I am a woman. I should be treated like this since I am a woman.’”

She has strived to be a pathfinder and set a good precedent. Along the way, she has not hesitated to shoulder much responsibility. However, there is a place that she visits when she feels discouraged or that she is losing control of her life. That is the KU Cheer Leaders — an unshakable root and the epitome of red roars. There she also restores her vitality. I look forward to seeing her again at the 2022 Ko-Yon Games, which will be held soon for the first time in three years.

“There is a statement that the cheering squad head regularly makes when KU is losing a match and the cheering mood is down at the same time. ‘Everyone, when today is over, we have to wait another year.’ The whole audience is usually moved by the remark. The flashback of the memories of hard work over the year and the highest festivity motivate all to use their last strength and cheer loudly. This year, the annual event is going to be finally held again after three years, so I hope that, regardless of the outcome of the sports matches, all students can really enjoy the event, releasing the passion that has been suppressed thus far.”