Every year new students are admitted to the Dream Together Master Program, hoping to leave with a refined view and purpose of what they must do with sport. However, what they do not know is that they also have been welcomed into the DTM family.
6th batch Valedictorian Daulina Osmani exclaimed that she was worried when she was first welcomed to the DTM family because it was “weird and non-sense at the time” to consider academic cohorts as family. However, “it didn’t take longer than one month to realize” that she was indeed a part of a new family.
In the fall of 2019, 19 new students from 18 different countries formed the DTM 7th batch. Even though they all came from different cultures and experiences, 7th batch president Amjed Mustafa stated, “Studying and working together for a specific purpose really initiated the close-knitted atmosphere that is present among the 7th batch.”
While new family members were welcomed, the time soon came for 6th batch students to leave the nest.
On December 17, 2019, the commencement ceremony for DTM 6th batch students was held at Seoul National University, making a total of 138 family members from 52 countries. DTM Director Joon-ho Kang remarked, “An invisible bond of family formed among us and thickened as time passed by.” He further commented that though this family briefly comes together to disperse again in the near future, physical distance is no barrier to the DTM family as the familial bond will remain forever, encouraging each other as each family member grows to become sport administrators.
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The Spirit of Sports Awake in DTM
Athletes might retire and become administrators, but the DTM Sports day showed, one can never take the competition nor the desire to win away from them.
The Dream Together Master Program prides itself with its strong network in bringing people together for the future benefits of their societies. Yet friendships and alliances were suspended as members of the 6th and 7th batch were placed in two teams to compete against each other in the first DTM Sports Day held on November 2, 2019.
Athletes might retire and become administrators, but the DTM Sports day showed, one can never take the competition nor the desire to win away from them.
The Dream Together Master Program prides itself with its strong network in bringing people together for the future benefits of their societies. Yet friendships and alliances were suspended as members of the 6th and 7th batch were placed in two teams to compete against each other in the first DTM Sports Day held on November 2, 2019.
Teams white and black took to one of the indoor gymnasiums at the Sports Education and Research Building in Seoul National University to compete in six sport events including; mini-games, futsal, tug-of-war, dodge ball, charades, and a Korean game called “moyeora chingudeul” or “let’s get together friends.”
The games were evenly and most times loudly contested by the teams to the chagrin of the referees and spectators. The games showed mental alertness and also the level of physicality of the participants. Most remarkably for members of the 7th batch, the games came as a pleasurable release of healthy competition from the ongoing academic classes.
A memorable participant of this event was 9-month-old Sein, daughter of 7th batch student Raimee Je. She became the calming factor for some of the aggressive competition going on.
In addition to the competition and great sportsmanship on display, this event also created an opportunity for a relaxed social meeting between the batches and the development of trust and friendship among team members. (DTM always wins).
President of the 7th batch class Amjed Mustafa mentioned that this event remains one of the highlights of the DTM program for the 7th batch students and it is an event that should be held quarterly even if it is just within the class.
“It was very interesting,” Amjed said, “to see how competitive my classmates were. Coming from different experiences and backgrounds, practicing their common passion which is sport, it showed me that the competitiveness inside us didn’t fade away with all the intensive academic education we’re having in SNU.”
While 6th batch president Kenaz Mensah said, “It was a really good gesture from the DTM to have the classes get together and have fun doing what we do best which is sports. I believe we can make an even bigger event out of this and make it more colorful. This event was everything that the DTM program promotes: it was both competitive and fun.”
The non-stop laughter and enjoyment was echoed by all the participants, though sometimes mistaken as hostility by those passing by. The students enjoyed their time competing with their mates as they sat in the end to some delicious Korean kimbap, pizza, drinks, and conversation as the competition faded away to friendships and plans for the next day.
Though the white team won at the end of the day, the Dream Together Master ensured every student went home with a gift for effort.
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A Splash of Firsthand Mega Sport Event in the Summer Heat: 2019 FINA Team Project
The 2019 FINA World Aquatics Championships provided a cool relief to DTM 6th batch students from the humid month of July in Gwangju, Korea.
Every year Dream Together Master students grab the opportunity to experience a mega sport event as a team project in lieu of the intensive studies back in Seoul National University.
The 6th batch students spent 17 days volunteering at the event while conducting research on spectator and athlete satisfaction, volunteer management, experience of officials, and the efficacy of team attaches.
This experience gave students a glimpse into the future of what they should expect as future sports administrators and what it takes to organize a phenomenal championship that they witnessed unfold before their eyes.
The sixteen-day event brought together 191 countries each competing for supremacy at the global showpiece. The biennial championships brought together Olympic and World champions in seven disciplines across five venues.
It was a hands-on experience from what they had been learning in the classroom over the past months and a moment to savor. I mean who wouldn’t wish to come up close with an Olympic champions let alone feel the atmosphere of a fully packed Nambu Municipal University Aquatics Center as USA’s swimming champion Caeleb Dressel shattered Michael Phelps’s record in the 100m butterfly that had stood for a decade!
Students later had a chance to present their research findings and provide recommendations to improve mega sport events in front of DTM professors and members of the FINA World Championships Gwangju 2019 Organizing Committee.
Contribution by 6th Batch Derrick Kilian Ntege
Diffusing Sport Values—Dream Together Seoul Forum 2019
To reaffirm the value of sport in an international community where barriers of religion and culture exist, the Dream Together Seoul Forum 2019 was held at the Grand Ballroom, JW Marriot Hotel Seoul, Korea, on November 26.
The Dream Together Seoul Forum is a one-day annual event, and this year it focused on the theme of Sport Value and Diffusion which included intriguing presentations and discussions from global sport leaders to discuss key issues in an effort to unite people under the common agenda of sport.
Director of the Dream Together Master Program Joon-ho Kang stated in his welcoming remarks, “The value of sport has been misunderstood and under-evaluated.” He continued to stress that this misunderstanding should actually motivate sport administrators to educate themselves and those around them at the grassroots level whereas nations are obligated to bolster attempts in using sport for development by supporting projects like the Dream Together Master.
In a gesture of continued support to DTM alumni, nine alumni had the honor of receiving Dream Together Master Alumni Contest Awards. The awards had two categories of Project Proposal Award and Best Practice Award in which 3rd batch Ihsan Abdallah from the Palestine Football Association and 4th batch Umair Asif from the Pakistani Kafka Welfare Organization grabbed first place from each category respectively.
A case for an academic demonstration of sport value was presented by Keynote Speaker Ian Paul Henry, Emeritus Professor from Loughborough University in his speech entitled “Evaluating the Case for the Promotion of Social Values through Sport,” where he stated that “sport can play a part in the realization of social values.”
Other figures including Jae-kee Cho, Chairman of Korea Sports Promotion Foundation; Junghwa Pyo, Director of Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dongju Choi, Professor from Sookmyung Women’s University; Thet Khaing Win, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Sports Myanmar; Niki Koutrou, Program Director of University of Kent; Jungnam Kim, Director of PyeongChang 2018 Legacy Foundation; Jiae Sohn, Professor from Ewha Women’s University, and DTM alumni Mauricio Hernandez, Director of Transparency in Sport; Ihsan Abdallah from Palestine Football Association; Umair Asif, Executive Director from Kafka Welfare Organization; and Tara Talitha Former Sr. Member of INASGOC contributed to the discussion of Sport Value and Diffusion.
Delve into KSPO: 8th Batch Team Project
Due to ongoing restrictions due to the worldwide pandemic, the 8th batch turned to DTM’s sponsor Korea Sports Promotion Foundation (KSPO) to research in depth the organizational structure and practices of one of the largest sport organizations in Korea.
Under usual circumstances, the 8th Batch would have participated in one of the many mega sport events in Korea to conduct research for the curriculum-required team project. However, with KSPO’s cooperation, students were able to research various ongoing projects and departments within KSPO.
Students were divided into five different groups, and each group undertook one KSPO project or department for field research. The five different groups researched the bicycle and motorboat racing business, SPOEX, National Fitness Award, Seoul Olympic Legacy, and Korea Institute of Sport Science.
The bicycle and motorboat racing business is one of many but important fundraising business to support KSPO, and SPOEX which is derivative of the words sports and exhibition is a project that supports companies that make sport-related products. The Seoul Olympic Legacy is a project that aims to keep the legacy of Seoul Olympics alive in Korea, and the National Fitness Award is a project that has the mission to raise health awareness to all citizens so that they can live up to 100 years. Finally, the Korea Institute of Sport Science aims to provide academic research regarding sport.
Topics of the student research are in the following: Supporting the Growth of Sport Companies: Understanding the Sport Industry Segmentation in SPOEX, Bicycle and Motorboat Racing Business: Fundraising business to support KSPO, Sociocultural Legacy of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games: New Vision of Legacy in South Korea, Examination of Korean Sport Institute of Sports Science Research Influence on Team Korea Performance on Olympic Games, and Bringing NFA 100 Close to University Students.
Celebrating a Journey that Began and Ended in a Pandemic
The commencement ceremony for the Dream Together Master Class of 2022 was successfully held offline on December 20, 2021, in Seoul National University. 23 DTM 8th batch students from all over the world earned master’s degrees in sport management at Seoul National University after completing the intensive curriculum provided by the Dream Together Master program.
9th batch valedictorian Claudia Cardenas from Ecuador and 9th batch president Sara Mo’men from Egypt each expressed her challenging but extraordinary journey in Korea to fellow graduates and professors.
The ceremony was conducted by an invitation only basis of graduating students and professors due to government guidelines of social distancing.
DTM Special Lecture Series: Globalization of Baseball
Famed baseball commentator and current favored nominee for the Korean Baseball Organization League Commissioner Heo Koo Youn held a talk on the topic of Globalization of Baseball on January 27, 2022, at Seoul National University.
Heo kicked off the lecture with a brief history of Korean baseball and how it was first introduced to Korea by American missionaries. He explained that although baseball’s history in Korea is rather short, with intensive care for future baseball athletes and adequate financial support, baseball soon took a stronghold in Korean everyday life, allowing the Korean national baseball team to win the Baseball World Cup in 1982 and the gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The Korean national baseball team currently stands third in the World Baseball Softball Confederation World Rankings.
Heo expressed that because not a lot of countries compete in baseball, with the right management and funding to foster up-and-coming athletes, countries new to baseball will be able to gain a competitive edge through baseball.
Because of this belief, Heo spends his time and effort to promote baseball in other Asian countries, most notably Vietnam and Cambodia where he builds baseball fields and donates baseball equipment.
In the words of Dr. Joon-ho Kang, the DTM Director, “Heo Koo Youn is a baseball activist.”
After the lecture, a Q&A session took place where students shared how baseball was perceived back in their home countries, contributing to a discussion of the development of baseball.
DTM Special Lecture Series: Korea Archery Association & World Archery Vice President on Making Competitive Advantage Sustainable in Sport
The Korean Archery Association and World Archery Vice President Kyu Hyung Han gave a special lecture about the attributes that make competitive advantage sustainable in sport on February 22, 2022.
Mr. Han provided the lecture with a team from the Korean Archery Association where they first explained the long history of Korean archery.
Korea has long dominated archery as demonstrated by Team Korea sweeping the gold medals in archery at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics last year and the Korean women’s team in archery consistently acquiring the Olympian gold since the sport was first introduced at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
The lecture continued with a case study on how the Korean Archery Association selected and trained athletes for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in addition to the meticulous evaluation of the Tokyo performance in preparation for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
This special lecture was conducted online, and a Q&A session was held after the lecture.
