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 Experiences and Reflections

While in high school, I set a goal to become 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 begin with confidence, I realized that this confidence needed a solid foundation, so I focused on studying grammar, situational vocabulary, and idioms. I worked to understand everything from basic sentence structure to complex modifying structures by writing down every possible combination; 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 for each context.
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 a startup club to learn the actual process of launching a business. The startup 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’ business management skills 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 demonstrated 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 even designed a system that utilizes kiosks and smart devices to balance order convenience with customer satisfaction. During the menu development process, I repeatedly evaluated and refined the menu with my club members, and as a result, I was able to complete a satisfactory business plan that qualified 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. Ideas conceived alone had limitations in terms of feasibility and diversity, but when several people gathered for meetings, they were refined into forms 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 drinks for the elderly, beverages for people recovering from illness, and unique drinks targeting younger audiences—and my teammates helped flesh out these concepts by adding their own detailed ideas.
In particular, the “flashcard combination” idea proposed by one of my friends played a major role. By randomly drawing cards with ingredient names and combining them, 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 effective meetings—skills I believe will be a major 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 the domestic café market is already close to saturation, I believe there is ample potential for success if we differentiate ourselves with unique concepts and innovative menus. I have prepared for this by studying menus and analyzing the success factors of various brands every time I visit a café.
Since my goal is to expand overseas, I believe it is essential to develop a global business mindset, which is why I applied to a university that offers a multicultural English-language environment and an international business curriculum. In particular, I believe that an educational environment with classes taught entirely in English and daily life among 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 experience in the business world 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 original menus and brand concepts, validates them in the domestic market, and then localizes them for entry into overseas markets.