Yonsei School of Business

The Yonsei School of Business is committed to instilling an awareness and appreciation of the environment in its students. That concern gets expressed everyday as the school’s faculty, staff, and students go about their business in Korea’s first LEED certified university building, LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is the world’s most widely used verification system for green buildings. Certification is granted by the U.S. Green Building Committee.

Many aspects of the building that reflect eco-friendly design and environmental sustainability are incorporated into systems not readily apparent. However, others are readily apparent and easily enjoyed. Some of these elements are an atrium to foster interaction about the building’s users, an easy transition into outside natural surroundings, facilities to encourage entrepreneurial thinking, incorporation of references to Yonsei’s history and contributions to the nation, and references throughout, through the use of words of purely Korean origin, to Korea’s unique cultural history.

The Yonsei School of Business has embraced Creativity, Integrity, and Global Perspective as its three core values and adopted a Creative Leadership Curriculum (CLC) to ensure that the school’s educational practices reflect these core values.
YSB’s uniquely innovative CLC program comprises various industry-university collaborations. These are a project-based fieldwork program, uGET, in which students gain experience in global business; the Yonsei Consulting Project in which management knowledge is shared and applied with local businesses; the YSB Leadership Forum in which various industry leaders share their experiences and insights with students; an Entrepreneurship Course that supports and encourages young business ventures; and Alumni Mentoring in which students are assigned an alumnus who will act as their life mentors until graduation.

The Blue Butterfly scholarship program is a fund-raising campaign begun with the belief that 30 alumni donating 1,000 won daily for four years would be able to give a full scholarship for four years to one student. Named after the “butterfly effect” in which a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon purportedly can cause a hurricane in Florida, the scholarship program was launched with the goal of creating a hurricane of full scholarships for every student. Currently,124 students (as of 2015, including students in the College of Commerce & Economics) are receiving the scholarship.

The Freshmen Alumni Mentoring program by the Yonsei Alumni Network is the largest program of its kind in Korea. Under the program, each entering class of freshmen is divided into groups of 13 students who are then assigned three alumni mentors from various walks of life. These mentors become advisers to the students not only about college life but also about personal conduct and values that will help them develop as leaders and contributors to society.

The Yonsei School of Business is the first and only university in Korea to obtain Triple Crown accreditation in business education – The United States’ AACSB, Europe’s EQUIS, and Korea’s KABEA. Accreditation by these agencies is evidence of growing worldwide recognition of the YSB as an elite business school.