From campus issues to youth concerns and government-university cooperation — candid conversations with student council presidents and campus journalists
After July's session with young entrepreneurs, themed meetups on culture, policy, housing and loneliness continue through year-end
"It's Park Wun-gi, not a tractor — and my go-to noraebang song is Ahn Chi-hwan's 'Dried Leaves Come Back to Life.'"
The awkward silence broke into laughter the moment Seodaemun-gu District Mayor Park Wun-gi delivered that self-introduction at a roundtable with student council presidents and campus newspaper reporters from nine universities in the district.
On Thursday, Park sat down with students from those nine universities over beer at Sinchon Youth Food Store (22-5 Sinchonnyeok-ro) to talk candidly about campus issues, youth concerns and ways to strengthen cooperation between the district office and local universities.
The student participants shared their thoughts on what policies young people need most and what is weighing on their minds these days.
Since the start of the ninth elected-term administration, Seodaemun-gu has been holding a series of on-site youth roundtables called "Youth Login" under the banner of "Seodaemun's Golden Age, Built Together With Youth," aimed at deepening communication with young residents.
The inaugural session, held July 23 at the Seodaemun Youth Startup Center, brought Park together with 15 young entrepreneurs to discuss the challenges of running a business.
The district is actively reviewing how to incorporate ideas from that session into local governance. It has already committed to expanding the installation of resource-recovery machines and collaborating on programs at the companion animal support center.
Seodaemun-gu said it will carefully examine the opinions gathered at this week's university student session and work to translate them into policies that young residents can tangibly feel.
"Youth Login" will continue through year-end with an expanding range of themes. Starting with "culture and arts" on Sept. 29, the series will take up "youth policy" in October, "housing" in November and "loneliness" in December.
"If we look for answers to youth policy only within the administrative machinery, we risk missing what young people actually need," Park said. "I intend to go directly to where young people are, listen to them, and build a process where the conversations that happen there translate into real changes in how this district is run."
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