A visit by the first Sookmyung Challenger Global Explorer team, a group composed of disabled students, to Sydney was a very meaningful, unforgettable experience for me. Twenty-six people including me had a great time there for a week from Jan. 23-30.

I could talk, listen and understand my helpers and students with different impairments more in Sydney than during our regular student life at Sookmyung Women’s University.

As part of our week-long schedule, we visited the University of Sydney and University of New South Wales ― from my personal perspective, I prefer the latter. 

I could feel with all my heart that UNSW staff prepared the presentation and tour schedule thoroughly for us. The school tour was exciting, but I was especially impressed with one presentation by a student who has a hearing impairment. He said he wanted to say “thank you” to all the people who are supporting him to study comfortably. He knew what gratitude is and how to express that to others.

Listening to his short but touching presentation, I reflected myself. His impairment looked quite serious, but he was fully satisfied with his present studying and life situation. He looked happy. Most of all, he had a clear dream.

One more thing I realized from both universities was people’s equal recognition toward impaired students. The staff of the two schools were doing their best to support students who have various different impairments, whether visual, hearing or physical.

However, they do not consider impaired students as special people. A chance to get education completely equal to normal students is offered, and the special students are expected to get an ability assessment in an equal way once they get enough technical support.

They get outcome as they did after same ability assessment. I envied such equality cognition. There was no discrimination, no “special treatment.” Instead, there was totally equal cognition and enough support.

During our trip, we also had a chance to experience cultural activities, visiting an art gallery and indoor zoo and stopping by Mrs. Macquarie Point and the Opera House. And I could also notice a deep truth beyond the simple merrymaking and fun in the process of doing culture entertaining for three days. People whom we met always smiled and I think they did not have too much desire in their lives.

They also accept each other as they are and they try to help each other to make their potential talent grow more. They knew how to live a happy life with people. It was unlike with Koreans. Many Koreans desire to have more and accomplish their goals faster than others and always compare themselves with others. That is why I think Korea can’t have a high rank on any graph that represents the happiness index of OECD nations. This is the deep truth I learned from our special trip of the first Sookmyung Challenger Global Explorer Team to Sydney.

I want to say thank you truly to all the people who were always with me on a tight schedule. And I hope this program will be continued for many years and many students apply for this. I am sure they can get many things which I can’t express all in this writing ― such a precious experience can’t be written in concrete sentences.

By Yoon Seo-hyang

The writer is a first-year English literature and education student at Sookmyung Women’s University. She has a visual disability. ― Ed.