Hyundai Mobis' CSR centers on children

Students at an elementary school participate in a science class.

By Park Jin-hai

Students at an elementary school blow hard into a model windmill.

When the spinning wheel rights up LED lamp connected to it, they let out small scream of joy. Through the experiments, they learn how electricity is generated from wind.

Hyundai Mobis, the parts manufacturing unit of Hyundai Motor, has chosen “Junior Engineering Class” as its core corporate social responsibility activities, kindling children’s interest in science across the nation.

Since the company first started out the class at an elementary school in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, where its research center is located, it has expanded to all near schools where the company’s office is.

“It was first started out to foster the science gifted. But, now it serves as a program to enforce the connection between the company and the local society. In the long run, it also has an effect of changing the current trend phenomenon where young students take science as their career,” said an official of the company.

For the class, the company selected some 160 teachers from its workforce and with its associated research centers developed science programs.

This year, Hyundai Mobis also dispatched “Moving Junior Engineering Class” bus, to visit 16 cities and hold science classes.

At the same time, as the subsidiary of biggest carmaker, Hyundai Mobis runs a couple of campaigns for children’s traffic safety. Among them is handing out transparent umbrellas.

The company has been distributing some 100,000 transparent umbrellas each year to school children from 2010. This year the accumulated number of umbrellas will reach some 500,000, with over 800 elementary schools benefited from the campaign.

The umbrella is manufactured with light weight aluminum, so that it is easy to carry. Its surface is made of material that reflects light, thus drivers can spot the umbrella in the dark.