Founding Families and Alumni Visit College to Celebrate 15th Anniversary

Jay Shim marveled at how much the College had changed over the years. As a founding alumnus who joined in 2010 and graduated in 2017, he recounted, “we were only three stories in the beginning…it was very small.”  So small that when students went to play football at Phuket against other schools and returned, “the whole school would come out in the lobby and would just clap. This is a memory I cannot forget.” 

Jay has since graduated from the University of Manchester, completed his military service, graduated from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) to study AI and is currently planning his next career move. 

Another founding alumnus, Dohun “Kevin” Lee, recalled how his class was the first batch of IGCSEs, then first IBDP cohort and finally the first group of graduates in 2017. One of his fondest memories is going to speak to his English or Math teachers after class. Dohun studied biology at Oxford, then computational biology in Cambridge, and recently returned to Korea to complete his conscription.  

A group of founding alumni and their families looked left and right as they walked into our transformed foyer, IB Centre and Senior School library on Wednesday 7 January to attend “Honouring our Beginnings, Shaping our Future: Founding Families & Alumni Reunion.” The event was part of our 15th anniversary festivities to honour them and celebrate this momentous occasion together.  

There were a few shrieks of joy as they reunited with our founding staff and current UCC Counselor, Ms Joanne Kim, and early joiner and Mandarin Teacher, Ms Ying Wen. Jay even broke into near-fluent Mandarin as he started speaking to Ms Wen.  

Head of College Ms Alison Derbyshire welcomed the group and acknowledged all founding families present, including JW Hyun, former Friends of Dulwich executive committee member and parent of Victor and Claire; former Friends of Dulwich chair and parent of Kris and Aiden, Helena Kim and her partner Sung Uk Lee; parent of Kevin Lee, Eunjin Jung; and parents of Gavin Len, Samuel Len and Young-sun Lee. 

The highlight of the event was undoubtedly the founding alumni each saying a few words about where they are in life and sharing a favourite memory from their time at Dulwich College Seoul. 

“Learning in the classroom from working with different people and different schools and traveling, I think those are the skills that I'm cherishing right now,” said former Head Student and Class of ’23 Kris Lee, who is currently studying economics at UC Berkeley and just added a data science management minor. “When you go into interviews, it's not just about showing off your skills, but about how you talk to people.” 

Another former Head Student and Class of ’22 Victor Jung said the most valuable lesson from his 12 years at Dulwich College Seoul is understanding the idea of privilege. “I remember in Primary School, a lot of teachers would remind us every now and then about how privileged we are to study at this institution. I think it has taken me an embarrassingly long time to fully understand what that means. Nonetheless, I think those teachers are at least planting that first seed of the ability to recognise your own privilege, and to not only recognise it, but also to keep spreading your message to the rest of your community,” said the junior at Columbia University studying music composition.  

The majority of the alumni most fondly remembered the adventure, maths and sports trips to Phuket or Suzhou, as well as Dulwich-wide events such as the Olympiad every four years and the MADD (Music, Arts, Drama and Dance) Festival. “Participating in international events - that was something we wouldn’t be able to have in other schools,” said Jay. 

As reunions go, the most anticipated part of these events is invariably going to be simply seeing and meeting other alumni that are part of the community.  

Class of ’19 Hyun Sung “Patrick “ Lee captured that nicely when he spoke. “One thing that I cherish from my Dulwich days is my group of friends that I’m still in contact with, even after all these years.” Patrick received his bachelor’s in History and East Asian Studies and master’s in East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. He is also exploring the next phase of his life trajectory. 

We premiered a short video featuring our founding family, JW Hyun, whose children Victor and Claire joined in 2010 from day one and graduated in ’22 and ’24, respectively, and both went on to attend Columbia University.  

Led by Ms Derbyshire, participants got a tour of our newly renovated campus including the Alleyn Theatre, DUCKS area, dining room and café at 1619 and of course, the Dulwich Drop that everyone enjoyed sliding down with absolute glee. They also created memories during the event by sharing their thoughts at the Legacy Video Corner, taking photos at the booth and writing aspirational messages for our online 15th anniversary campaign on what they hope for Dulwich College Seoul for the future.  

It was a wonderful celebration of our 15th anniversary shared with our very first families that entrusted us with their children’s education. It was heartening to see how our founding alumni have gone onto become such kind and accomplished young adults and living and breathing the values the College had instilled in them throughout the years. 

We invited the group to our Founder’s Day on 30 May that will be the culmination of our 15th anniversary celebrations. We look forward to seeing our founding alumni at the big event.