American University to House Korean Garden
By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
American University, a distinguished private institution located in the heart of Washington D.C., will build a Korean Garden on its campus next year as a symbol of its deep-rooted ties with the country.
``Our school will build a garden that will surround the School of International Service, the largest school of its kind in the world, to memorialize the relationship between American University and Korea,'' Neil Kerwin, the president of the university, said in an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul, Monday.
Kerwin hopes that the new garden, where more than 100 Korean cherry trees are expected to be planted, will expand the school's growing partnership with Korea and offer both its students and visitors an opportunity to learn about their long connection.
Kerwin also believes that the 3,300-square-meter garden with a budget of $3 million will become an important source of national pride for Koreans.
The history of cherry trees in the campus can be traced back to April 1943, when Korea was still under Japanese colonial rule. Korea's first President Syngman Rhee and American University President Paul F. Douglass, Rhee's close friend and a staunch supporter of Korea's independence, planted four Korean cherry trees on its Washington campus as a living symbol of the concern American intellectuals shared for the independence of Korea and the realization of democracy.
``American University takes its relationship with Korea very seriously,'' Kerwin said. ``It is our great hope that President Lee Myung-bak will visit the university during his visit in June. We are also considering giving him an honorary doctorate.''
The school's board of trustees, which granted an honorary doctorate to President Kim Young-sam in 1993, is now reviewing whether or not to confer a degree on President Lee.
According to an annual Princeton Review survey, the university's students are the ``the most politically active'' in the United States.
``I'm proud to say that our students are politically active, meaning that they have been involved in a wide variety of public issues,'' Kerwin said. ``We have successfully attracted students highly interested in public policy issues and I'm certain that many Korean students will find our school an ideal place to learn politics.''
He believes that politics is one of the most important study areas that students can undertake as undergraduate studies and that everyone should do so in order to become a good citizen, even if it is not necessarily a major field of their study.
``Studying politics enables us to become a good member of society,'' he said. ``You don't need to devote your entire life to political studies. And I believe global experience during your studies is critically important, even if it is just for a semester or a year, which might not be enough for some, but enough for many.''
The university sends 60 percent of its students to study abroad and has been active in exchanging students and scholars with universities in other countries, including Korea University and Sookmyung Women's University, for both short- and long-term studies.