The Peer Advisors (PA) and the Chingu Program are combined as a new organization called Patriot Activities Counsil (PAC), starting from the Fall 2020 semester. PA and the Chingu Program are two of the oldest student supporting organizations at George Mason University Korea. This combination of the two organizations is meaningful as it is the first merging since the foundation of the Mason Korea campus.
PAC has a similar role as the previous organizations. Before the programs merged, Peer Advisors focused on designing student campus activities for the whole student body, such as Mason Monday and the monthly Movie Nights. Meanwhile, the Chingu program directed events intended to support international students’ connection with continuing Mason Korea students, offering international students linguistic support and cultural guidance. The Voice conducted an interview with the director of PAC.
In an interview with The Voice, Mihee Cho, Senior Life Coordinator at the Office of Student Affairs, described PAC as a newly recreated department to support students’ educational achievement, linguistic skills, and cultural guidance. Cho mentioned that PAC’s core function would not dramatically but constantly change, starting by stating all the upcoming events’ hold under the name PAC. By combining the PA and the Chingu Program, Cho furthered, “I wanted to bring the PAC philosophy of the Fairfax campus to the Korea campus, as well as working closely with Fairfax to offer support to Mason Korea students.” Mason Korea’s PAC consists of four members, including Haley Grizzle (Global Affairs,’23), Vivien Zheng (Global Affairs,’22), Jenny Kim (Global Affairs,’21), and Ilya Kim (Global Affairs,’22). “I think merging as PAC is beneficial as we are connected and work in one team, rather than separate entities,” Zheng said.
Cho wanted students to be more engaged on campus through PAC and she is trying to hold as many virtual events for bountiful support to students. Overall, Cho indicated the Mason Korea Patriot Activities Council offers many chances to be involved at school and interact with other students in person or virtually. Although students cannot visit PAC members physically, there are many school event opportunities as the PAC is already preparing to host the Chuseok (Korea Thanksgiving) event and other events even during the pandemic period.
Written by Minwoo Park | Staff Writer
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