Korean Minjok Leadership Academy

Korean Minjok Leadership Academy
민족사관고등학교
Korean Minjok Leadership Academy; 민족사관고등학교
	File:Kmlalogo.gif
Location
	Hoengseong, Gangwon province; Republic of Korea
Information
Type	Private
Motto	Deep Awareness of the Heritage of Our People (민족주체성교육)
Established	1996
Principal	Yun, Chung-Il
Faculty	107
Grades	10-12
Number of students	approx. 450
Website	[1]

Korean Minjok Leadership Academy (Korean: 민족사관고등학교, Hanja: 民族史觀高等學校), also known as KMLA or Minsago (민사고) for short, is a private high school located in the countryside of Gangwon-do, South Korea at an altitude of 600 meters. It is a boarding school with very selective and competitive admission primarily due to the school's high academic reputation and high-quality faculty and facility.

KMLA aims to provide "education based on deep awareness of the heritage of our people"(민족주체성교육), which includes providing classes on traditional Korean culture and selection of a modified version of Hanbok, Korean traditional clothing, for its uniform. The current president of the student executive branch is Cho Harim. He was impeached by the current vice president of the legislative, Cho Namje. Boy, is that Namje something.

Description

Some of KMLA's unique characteristics and policies are as follows: Support for the teachers' individual academic researches, realized by incorporation of the classrooms and teachers' offices and laboratories. English Only Policy, which requires every student and teacher to use English during the school hours, except in Korean language and Korean history classes. Practical application of education for the gifted students. System of individual college counseling for each field and major. Daily physical training in forms of Taekwondo and Kumdo Classes and clubs for Korean traditional music and arts, including Samul Nori, Daegeum, and Gayageum. Individual Research hours granted within the regular curricula. Unsupervised examination policy

History

KMLA celebrated its 10-year anniversary on March 1st, 2006.

Choi Myung Jae, the founder of the school, visited England’s Eton College and felt a need for an institution of high character to nurture future global leaders in Korea. The success of his dairy firm, Pasteur Milk, in the 80s and early 90s would later provide him with the finanacial resources to start a school according to his wishes.

After deciding to create a school that would produce international figures, Mr. Choi received the government permission to establish the school in 1993. The first headmaster and the faculty were signed in on March 1st, 1995, and the school received its first students a year later on the same date. At the time, the construction of the school had not been completed, and the students would study in the partly constructed buildings. The gym was completed in December, 1996, and the Dasan Hall(one of the two main school buildings) was completed nearly a year later.

The school’s famous English Only Policy was established in January, 1997, and in March, it was expanded to all areas of the school except a few non-English classes. In February, Choi Myung Jae was appointed as the director of the school. In 1998, the school’s education policy of Teaching-Discussion-Writing was institutionalized, the first elections for the Student Council were held, and the Minjok Herald was first published. In 1999, the graduation for the first wave was held, the International Program was added, and the 12-floor dormitory was built. In 2000, Choi Kyung Jong was appointed as the director.

In 2001, the school was certified as an Educational Testing Service AP test center and designated as an experimental independent private school by the South Korea government, granting KMLA more freedom in school management than normally accorded to heavily regulated S.Korean private highschools. In 2002, the founder Choi Myung Jae was appointed as the 4th headmaster. In 2003, the school held its first Mathematics Competition and the current headmaster Lee Don Hee was appointed in August. In 2004, the school established the Individual Research(IR) program and was certified as an SAT and PSAT test center.

Also, in 2006, KMLA was selected by the U.S. College Board as a World Best School in the Advanced Placement Program, particularly for the four subjects of AP Calculus BC, AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, and AP Physics B. In 2007, for seven subjects: AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, AP Physics B, AP Physics C: Mechanics, and AP Statistics.

File:KMLA032.jpg

Sun setting in KMLA.

Enrollment

All of KMLA students are either in the Minjok class (domestic field) or the Ivy class (international field)although not many students choose to go to Ivy leagues despite acceptances (considering the percentage of people admitted to Ivy leagues and colleges at ivy-league level, it is one of the best compared to other high schools), and in 2002, for the first time, the school admitted more International Program students than domestic field students. Currently, the number of Minjok students and International students are approximately equal for incoming students. Starting from 2008, KMLA plans to select students without classifying them into either Minjok class or Ivy class.

In the beginning years of KMLA, the school admitted very small number of students (about 20 to 30 each year), but starting from 2003 it began to increase the number. In 2004, the school admitted 150 students and is expected to continue admitting 150 students each year.

Though the largest number of KMLA students comes from Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, students come from all over the country, as far as Jeju. Starting from 2008, half of students will be selected proportional to the population of their respective areas. Three overseas students are admitted separately every year as well, giving more diversity to student body.

Extracurricular activities and student life

Over a hundred extracurricular activities are technically available at KMLA. Examples include the Daechita, Samul nori club, an intramural orchestra, a ballad group, rock bands, a hip hop group, the school Amnesty, the school newspaper, a literary magazine club, MUN, MUNESCO, an international volunteering club, an English debating club, a stock investment club, a peer counseling club, a peer tutoring club, an astronomy club, and a cartoon and comics club.

Moreover, the Student Council of KMLA consists of three main branches : The Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Council. The members are elected every semester by popular vote.

The school's official student-run English newspaper, the Minjok Herald, runs an online newspaper, the Minjok Herald Online (http://www.minjokherald.net).

The school's most famous rock band is PLZ which is led by Jun Bum Sun.

Athletics

The Athletic activities that exists in KMLA as clubs are as follows:

American Football
Badminton
Baseball
Basketball
Boxing
Equestrian
Football (soccer)
Golf
Kumdo
National (Korean Traditional) Archery
Rowing
Sepaktakraw
Softball
Table Tennis
Taekkyon
Taekwondo
Tennis

Finances

The cost of yearly attendance is about $15,000. Financial aid is limited, and most of financial aid is merit-based to some extent. The school in turn spends more than $30,000 per student per year.

For the first few years after KMLA was founded, students attended the school for free. However, with the bankruptcy of Pasteur Milk in the late 90s, this no longer became possible. The school had to increase the tuition gradually to the current level.

Alumni

Since the history of KMLA is relatively short, the oldest alumni are at their late twenties, and thus there have not yet been any celebrities among the alumni. However, the students at KMLA have shown relative success at getting into prestigious universities.

External links

Articles