100th Anniversary Celebration . . .

This is the 100th anniversary of the Yonsei College of Nursing. Nurses here in Korea highly respect their traditions and history. And because Yonsei is the leading nursing college in Korea, it has many distinquished alums, for which it is extremely proud. To commenorate this significant event, the college held a three day celebration at the beginning of the semester - which happened to be the first weekend after we arrived in Seoul. What a special joy for us to be able to participate. The College of Nursing motto is "Vision and Leadership," seen in the celebration posters with the university emblem - "the eagle" from Isaiah 40:31 (photo 1).

Part of the celebration included a dedication of the new history museum (photos 2, 3 and 4).
They have done a marelovus job of telling their story and preserving their heritage. The museum is state of the art. When you walk in music plays. You touch computer screens and pictures from all previous classes appear; the acccomplishments and many awards of significant graduates are on display. It is simply fabulous.

There were over three hundred alumni who attended from all over the world. About 40 came from the US. Alums were honored at a large reception (photo 5), a special lunch of "Bibimbop" a fried rice with lots of vegetables - with the students (photo 6) and were invited Friday evening to the President's home for dinner. Everyone attended the formal dinner celebration at the Hilton Hotel on Saturday evening as well.

In addition to meeting Dr. Mo Im Kim, a world renown leader in Korean nursing and politics, I spent some time with Dr. Mi Ja Kim, retired Dean Emeritus from University of Illinois Chicago - my alma mater (photo 7). She still lives in Chicago. What a delightful woman of God. She is strongly committed to scholarship and mentoring in nursing. She shared much wisdom and insight regarding nursing education with me as we enjoyed breakfast together.

And finally, I was honored to meet and talk with Dr. Martha Hill, Dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (middle, photo 8). Martha was here in Seoul the week before the celebration to present a conference and to discuss a collaborative partnership with Yonsei College of Nursing. So she stayed for the celebration. She is a dynamic nursing leader.

What a joyful celebratuon. Happy Birthday Yonsei College of Nursing !!