From Mentee to Mentor:
PIUM’s Virtuous Cycle of Giving

Two Starting Points Leading to PIUM

Choi When I first learned about PIUM through a fellow GIST student, I found the close, supportive relationship between mentors and mentees truly appealing. Having gone through an intense competitive high school environment and prepared for regular admissions, I know better than anyone the difficulties of balancing the CSAT and school grades. I applied with the hope that the uncertainty and lessons I experienced at the time might serve as guideposts for younger students.

Kang At first, it was just a passing thought, “So there is a program like this.” While I was hesitating to participate, my homeroom teacher recommended that I apply as a PIUM mentee, and that choice is what eventually brought me back here. My experience with PIUM as a high school student led me to GIST, and now that I am participating as a mentor, it feels both deeply meaningful and special.

What Giving and Receiving Leave Behind

Choi During my school days, I experienced the far-reaching impact of small acts while volunteering to paint murals and serve meals. I saw how a single mural could change the atmosphere of a neighborhood, and how a carefully served meal could become the strength that sustains someone’s day. I learned that sharing is more than just giving material support; it is a process of leaving a positive impact on another person’s life. This experience became the foundation for deeply understanding each mentee’s situation and approaching them with sincerity. Time spent helping others was never a one-sided sacrifice. It was an opportunity to learn the value of living alongside others as a member of society and to grow as a person.

Kang Helping someone can also mean receiving help yourself. While helping a friend struggling with their studies, I also came to understand the subject matter more deeply. Helping someone is ultimately a process through which I also learn and grow. The same is true of PIUM mentoring. In the course of mentoring, there are many instances in which I have to explain things to a mentee, and to do so, I must understand and reorganize the material thoroughly. Mentoring is not just time devoted to the mentee; it is also a process through which the mentor grows stronger.

A Mentor: Someone by Your Side When You Need Them

Choi The mentor I envision is a warm guide who has walked the path before you. During my time as a college applicant, what I desperately needed most was not someone to give me the right answers, but someone to tell me that the path I was walking was okay. Meeting a good mentor is like receiving the greatest gift. Now, I want to become such a gift to someone else. I would be overjoyed if I were remembered as a senior who, rather than simply offering advice, served as a guide tailored to each mentee’s aptitudes and circumstances when they struggled with their studies or career paths. There is no one-size-fits-all answer for every student. This is why I believe that empathetic listening—fully hearing the mentee’s story first and thinking through their concerns from their perspective—is the most important thing. I hope to help mentees recognize possibilities or concerns they may have overlooked and to communicate with them deeply enough that my words can serve as a sound basis for judgment at important moments of decision.

Kang I think a good mentor is someone who can provide the necessary help at the right moment. During high school, I even reached out to my PIUM mentor personally to seek advice about my concerns. The advice I received was a great help, and it naturally led me to dream of attending GIST. In a way, my conversations with my mentor gradually gave shape to the direction I wanted to take. Sometimes, advice may not seem immediately necessary. At those times, it is important to share our thoughts with one another. By talking together about why we think the way we do and what each person needs, we can find a direction that is helpful to both mentor and mentee.

The Future PIUM Helps Bring to Life

Choi As rapidly changing college admissions policies widen information gaps, local students need opportunities to hear authentic stories about university life and academic majors so that they can approach their futures with confidence. I will generously share emotional support and information so that mentees can envision a concrete and vivid future rather than an abstract ideal. I believe that PIUM helps students find a positive direction in life. Just as a flower bud endures a long season before blooming, students also move toward their goals after passing through periods of uncertainty. Helping them reduce trial and error during that process is the role of PIUM and one of the meaningful contributions it can make to society.

Kang What PIUM helps bring to life is the future of its students. A mentor’s brief advice or a new experience can become a turning point that leads a mentee to seriously contemplate their career path. Having walked that same path before entering GIST, I understand this on a deeply personal level. In the future, I would like to visit local middle schools in person to offer educational volunteer programs involving experiments and discussions. If students can experience science directly rather than just reading about it in books, and come to see it as something accessible and relevant to their lives, new possibilities will open up for them.

The Moment Kindness is Passed On

Choi During the PIUM training, the phrase “a virtuous cycle in which today’s mentee becomes tomorrow’s mentor” left a deep impression on me. If the small helping hand I extend helps a mentee grow, and that mentee in turn becomes a signpost for someone else, the continuation of that cycle will make our society a warmer place. I want to be remembered by my mentees as a senior who gave them encouragement and reassurance at a crossroads in life. There is a message I truly want to share: “A single guidepost you offer can give someone the courage to step out into the world.”

Kang Learning from sharing and then sharing again based on that learning is the most ideal virtuous cycle. As someone who received help from a PIUM mentor in high school, I am now a GIST student and a mentor myself, passing that support on in turn; in a way, I am living proof of this virtuous cycle. I want to be remembered by my mentees as “a mentor who introduced me to new experiences.” Although I still have much to learn, that is precisely why I will listen more and communicate honestly. Please feel free to reach out to me anytime. I look forward to getting to know and working with you.