Visiting Professor, Peck Cho, Presents on Creative Leadership

Professor Cho has joined UBE as a visiting professor and yesterday he delighted students here with a lecture on "Creative Leadership".

Professor Cho has a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering but his passion is for teaching and mentoring students and for helping others to become better teachers through the use of innovation and creativity in the university classroom.

Before returning to South Korea four years ago, Professor Cho was professor at Michigan Tech University. He has received many distinguished awards from his profession, from the university, and from the Korean National Academy of Engineers.

This year, the Ministry of Education appointed Profesor Cho as Director of the Busan K-12 Counseling Support Center, a comprehensive counseling facility for K-12 students.

Professor Cho's wife Christina Sung Aie Choi, a psychotherapist, is founder and director of the Family Therapy Center in Seoul. She does volunteer work in orphanages in the two biggest cities in South Korea, Seoul and Busan. Together Professors Cho and Choi have co-authored four books, including "Seven Reasons for Korean Revival: Educational Reform".

Heaven, Earth, and Human in the Korean Alphabet

I've noticed that spirituality is much more an integrated part of the culture and daily rituals here in South Korea.

An example of this is in the formation of the vowels of the Korean alphabet.

The Korean Alphabet, hangul, was invented by King Sejong, in 1443. This language system was created so that common people would have a tool for communication. Prior to this, Chinese characters, or hanja, were used and taught mostly to privileged males in noble families, and therefore not accessible to all people.

The consonants of hangul are patterned on vocal organ sounds so that 'ㄱ', which is equivalent to 'g' sound in English is patterned after the way the mouth and tongue are positioned when pronouncing this letter.

The vowels of hangul are patterned on the principle of 'Chunjiin' or Heaven, Earth, and Human. All of the vowels in the Korean alphabet are formed using three different characters: a vertical line for heaven (ㅣ), a horizontal line for Earth (ㅡ), and a dot for humans (ㅇ). This is meant to show the connection between humans and nature and the role of humans as the neutral mediator between Heaven and Earth.

This tri-part philosophy is reflected in many symbols in Korean culture, including the three-legged blackbird that greets you when you arrive at the Traditional Korean Studies building next to our university.

Brain Education in Northern B.C.

Before returning to Korea, I visited HSP Ranch near Vanderhoof, B.C. (Dahn Canada's Retreat Center). From HSP Ranch, we drove west to a small town called Old Hazelton. Old Hazelton is home to the Sun Tao Center, where Brain Education programs are offered. Brenda is the Center Manager and instructor there.

At the center, we presented to about 16 educators, health professionals, and community leaders about Brain Education and the activities of the International Brain Education Association in New York and around the world.

The next day we continued driving West and visited one of the women who had attended the workshop at her home in Prince Rupert. The drive and the people we met were beautiful.



We met and heard of many people who already work in the healing professions who are looking for ways to provide people with a purpose, hope, and solutions. People were excited particularly about the way Brain Education programs focus on physical health and the body-brain connection as the basis for emotional, cognitive, and spiritual health and for re-establishing people's connection to the Earth.

Brain Education training will be provided to school, health, and community leaders so that they may provide those in their community with practical tools for health and well-being and to help people re-establish their connection to themselves, to each other, and to the Earth.