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| Kim Sung-kyu, left, principal of Seoul Information Technology High School, poses with Mary Ellen Zuckerman, second from left, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Brockport, at the high school campus in Nowon-gu, northern Seoul, Dec. 15. Standing with them are Kim Sung-bae, second from right, former principal of Lila Art High School and Ralph R. Trecartin, assistant provost for international education at SUNY Brockport. The two schools signed an agreement for human resource exchanges. / Courtesy of Seoul Information Technology High School |
SUNY Brockport gets help in setting up martial art department
By Chung Hyun-chae
Seoul Information Technology (IT) High School, which is renowned for its strong taekwondo team, has been striving to transfer its techniques for martial arts abroad by forming partnerships with foreign schools.
"In recognition of our school's superiority in taekwondo, many countries send their athletes here in order to have a joint exercise," Kim Sung-kyu, principal of the high school, said.
The school received one Japanese sportsman as a freshman this year, he said. It also hosts annual joint events with athletes from Mexico and Burma.
The school has formed partnerships with a Chinese physical education high school attached to Beijing Sport University in China, and has close ties with the National Tao-yuan Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School in Taiwan.
"We were asked to have another partnership this year with the State University of New York (SUNY) at Brockport, which is planning to establish a taekwondo department on its campus," Kim said.
SUNY at Brockport asked Kim, a former principal of Lila Art High School in Korea, which is also strong in taekwondo, to introduce Seoul IT High School to them.
The two schools signed an agreement at the high school in Nowon-gu, northern Seoul, Dec. 15.
Under the accord, the two schools will establish a cooperative framework to enhance human resource exchanges.
"We will help SUNY Brockport build a strong taekwondo department by sending our students and trainers to it," the principal said. "I expect that our students will experience the wider world and learn from that."
The Seoul IT High School established a taekwondo team in 2009 when the Hallelujah Foundation took over the school.
"Taekwondo is a good form of exercise in that it helps trainees develop morally as well as physically," Kim said. "I also thought taekwondo would help prevent school violence by teaching the students self-control, leadership and friendship through mental training, which is a big part of this sport."
Another reason is that the school wanted to contribute to consolidating the nation's status as the home of taekwondo.
"We felt a sense of crisis that Korea, the birthplace of taekwondo, would lose its status as the sport's native country unless we cultivate great taekwondo athletes and trainers. And our school decided to do it by ourselves," Kim said.
With renewed passion, the school began focusing on fostering student athletes by operating a taekwondo team, not a student club. Most of the students from the team choose a career related to taekwondo.
The school currently has 60 taekwondo athletes. The team is divided into two groups: "gyeorugi," or sparring, a type of taekwondo in which two athletes compete each other; and "poomsae," or patterns, another type in which athletes are evaluated by sets of formal sequences of movements that demonstrate mastery of posture, positioning and techniques.
"The taekwondo national team consists of athletes of all ages, only two of them are teenagers. And the two students are from our school," Lee Choon-woo, head of the poomsae team, said.
His team won all three gold medals in the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championship held last October.
The gyeorugi team also fared well by winning the gold medal in the women's individual contest in the National Sports Competition this year.
The gyeorugi team is led by La Jae-chul, and the whole taekwondo team is under the command of Lim Jong-hwan.
The teachers are former taekwondo athletes or members of the Korea Taekwondo Association.
"We will keep trying to improve our taekwondo team, which I believe will contribute to the development of our nation," Kim said.
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