On August 23, three students from Korea University (KU) won first place in the Collegian Research Paper Competition and Global Development Conference, which was held by United Nations Academy Impact (UNAI) of Korea. All three students, Kim Min Woo (’10, International Studies), Kim Jeong Kyung (’10, International Studies), and Jeon Da Eun (’10, International Studies), were rewarded with the Grand Prize and an amount of 3,000,000 won for their work. They were also visited by Ban Ki Moon, who is the eighth and current Secretary-General of United Nations (UN).

The general goal of this competition was to review the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and to propose an outlook of 2015 based on these aims. With over 12 research papers from students of Mexico, Khuzestan, Vietnam, and Japan, this competition was met with much participation.

The competition was divided into three sessions. The first session was dedicated to the economic participation of the lower class; the second session was about the environment and economy; the third covered health and education. The KU students actively participated in the second session and begot fruitful results.

The title of their paper was, “The Quality and Hygiene of Water in Farming and Rural Areas.” Through this paper, the students proposed that if there was more focus and effort to improve the quality of water, then UN would be much quicker to meet their MDGs. They voiced that water has everything to do with the goals that UN is trying to meet. Not only does low quality of water have a negative effect on health by instigating diseases and illness, but they also violate human rights of people who do not have the access to water, which is one of the necessities to live.

Through this competition, students were given the opportunity to really think about world-wide problems and come up with appropriate solutions for them. This is a good chance to make students of not only KU, but also others, into world leaders as they step into the society.