Yubin from South Korea
Personal information
- Name: Yubin Cho
- Age: 33
- Country of origin: South Korea
- Current residence: The Hague
Hello, my name is Yubin. I have worked at Incheon International Airport Corporation as a project engineer for 5 years after my bachelor study in mechanical engineering at Seoul National University. I never imagined myself studying abroad and yet I am already in my final semester of EPA in which I write a master thesis in Accenture.
Since I started my master study, people all around the world have been asking me what made me decide to leave a lot of things behind (e.g. my stable life and career in my home country, Korea) and why I chose to study in the Netherlands particularly. In short, I was attracted by the core value of the master program and the diversity of culture in the Netherlands. After one and a half years, I can say for sure that life here has fulfilled what I expected.
I was also a bit tired of the heavy workload without a stable work/life balance and merely living day by day without significant meaning. I wanted to take a challenge and achieve something that makes me feel like I contribute to society. Especially, I was reflecting the role of technology and its impact on our lives. For this reason, the EPA master program perfectly fitted to my desire.
EPA deals with Grand Challenges, the socio-technical issues that our global society is confronted with. This aspect was already enough to attract me at first glance. More interesting, the approach of the master is based on Modeling & Simulation studies, while a very state-of-art skillset is required to address the complex problems under a multi-stakeholders context. As I believe that the ultimate purpose of technology is to promote our lives, I expect that I will contribute to come up with better engineering solutions that offer valuable insights into real life.
Moreover, learning about the history of the invention of the corporation with shareholders in the Netherlands, I was highly captivated by the qualities of the Dutch acceptance of varying cultures and ideas. As I imagined, I experienced that the Netherlands provides a fertile environment for my study and private life. In the international academic community, I observed the value and power of diversity. It was a great experience being exposed to students from different cultures and educational backgrounds all around the world and thereby I learned the meaning of accepting differences in spirit.
Finally, although I already heard how good the Dutch social welfare system was, one huge concern I had was about how student life would be if I had to support my family at the same time. Luckily, the system was even better than I thought, and I was able to receive various kinds of welfare benefit. It has helped me to concentrate on studying and motivated me to think that I would pay back to society in the future.
Still, there are some blanks in this journey to fill out. After I successfully accomplish the master thesis and degree, I would like to make a desirable change in technological advances by working as a consultant. Given societies around the world are confronted with unavoidable changes brought on by technology, I have been so pleased and honored to advance myself with esteemed professors and gifted students.