The Europe-Korea Foundation, the charity arm of the EU Chamber of Commerce in Korea, has given nine scholarships to talented young students here who are unable to further their academic careers due to financial instability.

The scholarship program first started in 2003 and ran until 2008, when the global financial crisis cut into companies’ social responsibility.

“For this year, the EKF has selected nine college students who are still living in social welfare centers in Seoul or on their own after leaving the centers,” said EKF senior manager Jake Chung. “Because of the high tuition fee, they cannot focus on studying, but work for most of their time to pay for the tuition.”

Choi Young-hoon, one of the recipients who is a freshman at Seoul-Jeongsu Polytechnic College studying 3-D and Web design, echoed the sentiments of his peers.

“The scholarship will be very helpful because without it, I would have to get a part-time job to help pay for school and if that was the case I would not be able to study,” he said.

Lee Seul-ki, also a freshman, but studying social welfare at Suwon Women’s University, is passionate about her studies, but was close to dropping out of school before EKF stepped in and offered her the scholarship that will help pay for a year of education.

Students at these welfare centers are either without parents or families or have families that are unable to financially or emotionally support them.

“There are many talented young students who are unable to further their academic careers due to the financial problems,” said Chung.

At the opening of the awards ceremony on March 22, EKF president Jee Dong-hoon encouraged the nine selected students by saying, “I hope that the EKF scholarship program contributes to supporting the youth as they go through one of the most important phases of their lives.”

Finance director for Roche Korea Stephan Weiss, one of the two companies who donated to the scholarship, said that the idea of donating to EKF came from the employees of the company who wanted to help out the needy in their community.

“Education is an important subject in Korea, if you look at the dynamics at the moment with the Korean economy and young people struggling to find good jobs, education becomes more important,” Weiss said. “So there are a lot of people who get squeezed by increasing tuition payments so we thought it was a good idea to fill that gap a little bit.”

Next month, Roche Korea will step up their social responsibility by assisting Habitat for Humanity refurbished homes in the southern Gyeonggi Province.

The EKF is hoping to continue funding these nine students until they graduate, while at the same time expand the program to assist more financially strapped young people making the transition from welfare centers and orphanages into responsible members of society.

By Yoav Cerralbo (yoav@heradm.com)