Son of Army for National Independence Fighter Spreads 'Donation Bug'

[Graduates who received scholarships from company president Byeongdu Cho who himself donated 2.7 billion won to SKKU donate one hundred million won]

- Mr. Cho made his small and medium-sized firms grow persistently.
His father, a fighter for independence, died during the Korean War, so he became the head of household at 14 years of age and studied hard while delivering newspapers.

- His scholarship students follow in his steps by donating.
“Let’s give scholarships to our school’s students as we would have liked to receive them,” said the President.  There have been 200 scholarship students gathering money for six years.

When Mr. Cho was in his first year of middle school in 1953, he suddenly became a head of household because his father, a fighter for independence, died fighting in the Korean War.  He was the first of his siblings and delivered newspapers with them from dawn.  After that, they bought and ate cheap noodles that had already become cold at a noodle restaurant at the corner of Kahoe-dong, Chongno-gu, Seoul.  He said, “A friend of mine who did this work with me had no more money than me, so he could not eat the noodles.  That’s why I shared with him.  One day, the owner saw us sharing noodles and doubled the amount,” he added, “Other people around me started being kind after I helped people first.  At the time, I decided to be successful to help out the poor.”

After 63 years, Mr. Cho became a president of a company which had 50 employees and earned around 15 billion won per year.  The company is a packing material manufacturer ‘Dongju’ he set up in 1980.  In 1999, he visited his university, SKKU, bringing 3 hundred million won he had earned persistently in order to keep his determination when he was a middle school student.  He said, “Please take this money to give scholarships to students who cannot afford to study.”  From that time, he has been donated a total of 2.7 billion won for SKKU’s scholarships.  Thanks to his help, 250 SKKU students can finish their studies.

On May 20th he got a call from SKKU and was teary-eyed.  The call was about how the graduates who were able to study by receiving his scholarship gathered one hundred million won for SKKU’s students.  He said, “I think they are very praiseworthy to not only graduate from the university and get Chobs but also donate money little by little for SKKU’s students.  As expected, the ‘donation bug’ is contagious.”

Donations from the scholarship students started being made in 2010 which was the 10th year of Mr. Cho giving students his scholarships.  To celebrate the 10th anniversary, the representative of a group of 200 scholarship students, Mr. Sunheung Kim suggested, “How about giving scholarships to SKKU’s students little by little as we received?”  All of the scholarship students promised to donate a percentage of their monthly wages.  Each person has been donating between a minimum 10,000 won to a maximum 100,000 won for six years.  They used one hundred million won they gathered to make a scholarship fund.

Mr. Youngil Won, who graduated from Sungkyungwan University’s Law School, and is working for a law firm as a lawyer, said, “When I was in my fourth year at SKKU I received 4.5 million won as a scholarship in 2001 and it gave me the support I needed to pass the bar exam.”  He is the donator who has contributed the largest amount of money, and has donated 10 million won up until now.

Scholarship students who just got Chobs have been donating as well.  Ms. Suhyun Lee, a new employee at a big company, said, “I can’t forget donating 30,000 won from my first monthly paycheck.  When I was in the university, I always received people’s help because of my poor situation, but now I am very proud of myself due to the fact that I can help someone else by myself.”

Mr. Cho tells students who visit him to say thank you for his scholarship.  He said, “When I was in the university, if nobody gave me a scholarship I would not have been able to graduate.  I am donating now because I have not forgotten the help.  Please continue this donation.”