Dankook alumnus Green Sul (entered the Department of Law in 2007) took the glory of passing both the 2018 state exams that recruit for legislative officers and for senior civil servants with top honors. This is a first for our university with such precedent hard to find in Korea.
Sul passed the 34th state exam for legislative branch civil servants in July 2018 with top honors for the ‘legislative officer’ position. The national exam to recruit level 5 public officers to work at the National Assembly Secretariat is known for selecting only a very small number of applicants compared to other state exams. This year there were only 15 successful applicants in total across the three areas of general administration, financial administration and legislation. The ‘legislation’ field, where Sul applied, only had three successful applicants and the difficulty of the exam was likened to the saying ‘it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.’
On October 29, Sul, who is currently staying at the Legislative Training Institute, heard the news that he had also passed the level 5 senior civil service state exam for ‘legal administration.’ He was calm at first but says he was overwhelmed when he heard he was first place among the eight successful applicants, knowing that his hard work had paid off.
When he was a freshman, Sul says he was not interested in studying and his grades were not that good, either. It was only after returning from his military service that he started to think about his future seriously. “I started to gain confidence in studying law while taking courses related to my major. I want to thank the wonderful professors at the College of Law and professor Jaegeol Nam who led the Dankook prep class for senior civil service and foreign services state exams.”
Sul had to study for school courses, the legislative state exam and the senior civil service exam, all at the same time but says that the effort actually generated synergy. “It was not easy to prepare for all three together, but the support from my family and the university was a great help,” said Sul who added that he “will do (his) utmost to serve as a public servant that contributes to advancing the nation.”
Sul also left a message of encouragement to Dankook students. Sul said that “taking on challenges when you are young is amazing in itself. It is not easy to prepare for state exams, but you can compete on a level playing field so I hope many students will also take on the challenge.”
Meanwhile, DKU alumni Hyojeong Kim (Department of Law 2014, legal administration) and Danbi Choi (Department of Public Administration 2012, general administration) also successfully passed the recruiting exams for level 5 senior civil servants in 2018. Dankook University offers ‘Seonhaengheon’ (Jukjeon Campus), a preparatory class for the state exams recruiting senior civil servants and for the Korean National Diplomatic Academy, and ‘Ilhyeonjae’ (Cheonan Campus), a preparatory class that offers designated seats to students and hosts professors from outside the university to speak at special lectures to help students prepare for state exams.