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Universities offer students scholarships for hiking, reading, patrolling campus

Published: 30 Dec. 2025, 15:20

LEE TAE-HEE
[email protected]

Students walk across the Seoul National University campus in Gwanak District, central Seoul, on March 4. The university is one of the schools that have a hiking scholarship, created by a donation from Kwon Jun-ha, the chairman of the Shin Iksan Freight Terminal. [YONHAP]

Think scholarships are awarded solely based on academic excellence or financial need?

Well, that's not always the case. Some are awarded for far more unexpected activities, such as reading books or even patrolling campus grounds.

Hiking

KAIST announced on Dec. 12 that it created the Misan Scholarship to help students stay healthy. The scholarship provides 300,000 won ($210) to students who hike four to six mountains a year and 700,000 won to those who hike seven or more.

But KAIST isn't the only university with this kind of scholarship.

The university's hiking scholarship was created from a donation by Kwon Jun-ha, the chairman of the Shin Iksan Freight Terminal. Kwon is an alum of Seoul National University's (SNU) Department of Economics and has donated 500 million won to SNU's business school's Hyangsang Scholarship Foundation and 1 billion won to the SNU Alumni Association, both in 2022.

A poster for Seoul National University's hiking scholarship [SCREEN CAPTURE]

While the funds were used by the foundation and alumni association to provide other scholarships, SNU also used them to create a hiking scholarship for its undergraduate and graduate students this year.

Business and economic students must apply through the Hyangsang Scholarship Foundation, after which 70 are accepted. Likewise, general students apply via the university's Extracurricular Management System, through which another 70 are selected. Applications open around a month and a half before the semester starts, and the process is quite competitive: For the fall 2025 semester, 1,457 general students alone applied for the hiking scholarship.

Selected students then have to hike mountains that are part of the “Black Yak Famous Mountain 100" — the unofficial name for 100 well-known mountains of Korea, as chosen by the social activity platform Black Yak — during the semester and verify if they have climbed them via Black Yak's application. Students that climb three to five mountains receive 300,000 won, and those that hike six or more get 700,000 won.

Kwon's wife Cho Kang-soon is an alum of Sookmyung Women's University's Division of Pharmacy, and the couple donated funds worth 2 billion won to the university in 2022. A hiking scholarship was also created at Sookmyung Women's University this year, with the same requirements as Seoul National University's.

Reading

Seoul Women's University freshmen take an oath during their entrance ceremony on Feb. 26. [SEOUL WOMEN'S UNIVERSITY]

While reading can be a beneficial hobby, it's a not easy habit to keep up consistently.

To help students, some universities have created reading scholarships.

Seoul Women's University (SWU)'s SWUMAN Booklover Scholarship is one of these.

Around 70 students are selected for the scholarship at the start of each semester, with students having to form a book club with two to five others to apply. Selected students must show proof that they attended book club meetings and submitted book reports. The top two students earn 300,000 won, another seven students get 200,000 won and 10 receive 100,000 won.

While the reading club is open to both undergraduate and graduate students, only undergraduates are eligible for the scholarship.

Korea University of Technology and Education also has a reading scholarship for its undergraduate students.

Students can earn the scholarship by reading books from the university’s required reading list and writing book reports. Students can submit up to 10 book reports per semester, and the university also conducts a brief in-person interview with them to ensure that they've read the books.

Students who are confirmed to have read 15 books can receive 300,000 won. Reading an additional 10 books earns another 300,000 won, and reading 10 more to reach a total of 35 books qualifies students for an additional 400,000 won.

Campus patrol

The Ewha Womans University campus in Seodaemun District, western Seoul [EWHA WOMANS UNIVERSITY]

While universities have their security staff, students can also participate in making sure their campus is safe and earn money at the same time.

Ewha Womans University has the Ewha Campus Safety Officer Scholarship, which selects around 40 undergraduate students per semester to patrol campus and check bathrooms for hidden cameras.

Application for the safety officer scholarship opens each semester around January and July. Selected students are placed into groups of two to four and must patrol campus with the group.

Students can receive 8,000 won every time they patrol campus and 12,000 won when they check bathrooms for hidden cameras.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [[email protected]]