Stony Brook University SUNY Korea

SUNY Korea convened an academic symposium from June 15 to 16. The academic symposium, which was held to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of SUNY Korea, consisted of 3 sessions. The attending speakers from various research areas shared their own insights about global education, sustainability, academics, etc.

    Incheon Fashion Festa was held successfully at Songdo Moonlight Festival Park on 17th, June. ‘The Runway’, which gathered an audience of around 2,000 people, combined a fashion show with artistic performances: orchestra, dancing, and musical. Unlike most fashion shows, ‘The Runway’ invited the audience at no charge by dint of collaboration from IFEZ, SUNY Korea, and FIT. ‘The Runway’, presenting the clothes inspired by Las Vegas, Maldives, Paris, etc., plenarily showed the FIT graduates’ creativity and uniqueness in regards to fashion with the theme of ‘a journey around the world’.

  Academic Leadership Unlike the corporate world, which relies on formally trained managers and leaders, academic leaders typically come to their positions without such formal education or training. Historically, academic leaders go through a transformation from teachers/scholars to department chairs, to deans, to provosts, and presidents. It is during this transformation that they develop their leadership and management philosophies and styles. While at first glance this may seem unsettling, some studies of managers cite work experience, not the classroom, as the best training for developing management styles and leadership skills. In the majority of cases, educational managerial and leadership philosophies of academic unit leaders are the results of their experiences and career transitions, and sometimes in combination with some “self-training” and socialization in academic environments. In general, the definitions of an academic leader pertain to both leadership and management. Academic leadership issues have been widely researched and studied. Numerous articles, texts, and scientific journals such as the Journal of Academic Leadership have been produced to investigate and discuss the nature of the concept. However, despite this extensive literature, the term leadership, while frequently used, is neither consistently used nor uniquely defined. In general, some use the term to describe a collection of tasks or functions performed by individuals appointed to formal positions of responsibility within universities. Others use it to describe the qualities or characteristics of particular individuals who are recognized by others as being academic leaders. There is also the question of the difference between management and leadership. Leadership is distinctly different from management. While management focuses on budgets, tasks, and roles, leadership is about direction and vision. Academic leadership is an influence relationship. Leaders direct efforts toward future results. This influence relationship should be a two-way and non-coercive relationship that is based on interpersonal skills rather than organizational authority. However, this relationship is not an equal partnership since the parties do not provide the same level of expertise and outcome towards the goal. Leaders must articulate the vision, encourage, direct and inspire faculty and staff towards the desired future state, while faculty and staff must contribute with quality teaching, recognized research, and excellent service to all of the stakeholders. Managing an academic unit is no less challenging than leading it. There are generally different and sometimes conflicting ideas and interests about almost any decision and issue facing the academic unit. The main role of the manager is to build a participatory framework where major decisions are openly discussed and decided. Elements of this framework include fairness, transparency, and accountability. A potential drawback of a participatory approach is inefficiency. However, an effective manager must make certain that the process is not unnecessarily prolonged and once a decision is made, the organization moves forward. All of the above strategies require a commitment to excellence. Excellence has to be deeply embedded in the culture of the unit. However, excellence needs to be carefully defined in the context of the mission and capabilities of the institution. It is important to avoid the tendency of mimicking excellence in the sense of other, albeit elite, universities which have different missions and capabilities or serve different constituents. Finally building an academic organization, consisting of highly skilled professionals, which is dynamic and purposeful requires shared governance. The administration alone cannot bring all of the necessary elements to the table. Successful leadership builds a “participatory framework and continual commitments to the shared values, responsibilities and rewards of group leadership” (Polglase, Leadership is everyone’s business, Leadership 2003), which ensures that contributions of all parties, while maybe unequal in specifics, are channeled towards accomplishing the mutual intent. Click here to read the article

Detailed Event Info:  SUNY Korea Academic Symposium 2022 IGC Auditorium & Academic Building C Wednesday, June 15- Thursday, June 16, 2022   SUNY Korea 10 Year Anniversary Dinner IGC Multicomplex Building 1st Floor  Thursday, June 16, 2022, 18:20 - 20:20    Inauguration of SUNY Korea President Arthur H. Lee IGC Auditorium  Friday, June 17, 2022, 09:30 - 10:30    2022 Incheon Fashion Festa 'The Runway' Moonlight Festival Park  Friday, June 17, 2022, 20:00 - 21:30   

  In May, three Fashion Design students were recognized at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for a dress commemorating the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. As part of a celebration for the Costume Institute’s current exhibition at The Met, In America: An Anthology of Fashion, Met curators selected 10 outfits to be fabricated from preliminary designs submitted by college and graduate students around the U.S. Among their selections was a gown designed collaboratively by Sally Li, Glen Roh, and Asalya Samieva, all fourth-semester students. Click here to read the original article.

  FIT and Elmira College (EC) are partnering to broaden educational opportunities for students in the Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Business School program while helping to build a pipeline of future leaders in the fashion industry. The new partnership provides graduates of Elmira College’s Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Business School with an opportunity to apply to FIT’s Global Fashion Management (GFM) Master’s in Professional Studies (MPS) program. Click here to read the original article.

  On Wednesday, May 11, FIT held the Future of Fashion, Presented by Macy’s. Following two years of digital presentations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was held outdoors on the campus Breezeway for the first time. Featuring nearly 100 looks created by a select group of 2022 graduates of FIT’s Fashion Design BFA program, this year’s themes included sustainability, gender neutrality, heritage appreciation, accessibility, and mental health awareness. Click here to read the original article.

  On Wednesday, May 11, FIT held the Future of Fashion, Presented by Macy’s. Following two years of digital presentations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was held outdoors on the campus Breezeway for the first time. Featuring nearly 100 looks created by a select group of 2022 graduates of FIT’s Fashion Design BFA program, this year’s themes included sustainability, gender neutrality, heritage appreciation, accessibility, and mental health awareness. Click here to read the original article.

    This year, 13 Stony Brook University students were honored by the State University of New York as part of the 2022 Chancellor’s Awards for Student Excellence (CASE) — the highest honor awarded to SUNY students who have best demonstrated academic excellence and leadership. The awards ceremony was held on April 26 at the Hall of Springs in Saratoga Springs, NY. Click here to read the original article.

  Earthstock, a Stony Brook University tradition since 2002, concluded on Earth Day, April 22, with the annual Earthstock Festival, a day full of activities that included live music and dance performances on two stages, Stony Brook University Police Department (UPD) Spring Fest, and the traditional rubber duck races. Click here to read the original article.

  Stony Brook University will receive the Outstanding Commitment to Energy Efficiency award from the New York Power Authority (NYPA) at NYPA’s Customer Clean Energy Exchange event on Wednesday, May 11.  Click here to read the original article.

On Saturday April 23, the Japan Center of Stony Brook University (JCSB) held a virtual award ceremony for its 17th Annual Essay Competition, sponsored by Canon U.S.A. The opening remarks by JCSB President Iwao Ojima were followed by warm greetings from two distinguished guests: Mikio Mori, ambassador and consul general of Japan in New York, and Sammy Kobayashi, senior vice president and general manager, Hybrid Workplace Solutions, Canon U.S.A., Inc. Click here to read the original article.

Spring 2022 Career Talk to You #2, an event hosted by SUNY Korea CDC, was successfully held on May 25. Ms. Sophie Park, the CEO of Sophie Company, gave a talk on her career journey and tips for starting a start-up company. Sophie Company is a K-beauty marketing agency that provides access to innovative beauty and fashion products to global customers and major global retailers like COSTCO, IHERB, and Anthropologie, etc., and has been continuously recruiting SUNY Korea students as interns. Through this opportunity, SUNY Korea students were able to gain insights into the company’s global marketing and sales strategy and learn about the crucial aspects for success in a career. 

  TMR-founders is a start- up company established by SUNY Korea CS graduate student, Youngho Kim. The company was recently selected as one of the 12 start-up teams in the Jung-Ju Young Start-up Competition hosted by Asan-nanum group. Jung-Ju Young Start-up Competition started in 2012 to encourage and sponsor start-up companies within the nation. The average competition rate for this competition is about 100:1.     [Questions for Youngho, CEO of TMR-founders]   1.    Briefly introduce yourself.      Hello, I am Youngho Kim, and I am currently building and running a company called tmr-founders.   2.    Could you explain about your start-up company “TMR-founders”? (How it was started, etc.)     Tmr-founders began with various visions of our team members that led to the same destination (self-actualization). We all dream of a world where we can make “work” happy. We define “work that anyone wants” as a start-up. Through a start-up, we expect a better world to live in.   3.    We heard your company was recently selected for the final round of the Jung Ju-Young Start-up competition. Could you tell us about the competition and how your company was able to make it to the final round?      Jung Ju-Young Start-up Competition is one of the biggest start-up competitions in Korea held by Asan-nanum campaign. The average competition rate is about 100:1. To be honest, we expected that we would not even pass the document screening in this competition. When we met several venture capitalists with the ppt document that we submitted for this competition, they all said this service is not attractive. We asked for tons of feedback and questions in order to not give up. At a time when our self-esteem fell to the very bottom, we passed the first document screening at the Jung Ju-Young Startup Competition. It was lucky to pass the document stage, and after that, we passed two more presentation reviews. With the passion and help of our teammates, we were selected as one of the final 12 start-up teams.   4.    Do you have any messages for SUNY Korea students who wish to start their own business?      Do a job or work that you can always smile about before you go to bed. Never start a business from the opinions and trends of the people around you. Believe in yourself and keep going. And please act first since there will never be perfect preparation.

Spring 2022 Career Design School was successfully held on May 11 at SUNY Korea. SUNY Korea Career Development Center invited two executives from OMNIOUS, a fast growing visual AI solutions developer for fashion retailers. The notable speakers gave a talk on the topic “Can Fashion & AI Collaborate?” and SUNY Korea students, both SBU and FIT had the great opportunity to learn about the grand topic “AI integrated in the fashion industry.”After the event, a lot of the students commented that the talk helped them become aware of the importance of data and data management in the fashion industry. *Related article: Click here