On March 31, Doosan Infracore held a ceremony to launch its “Dream School,” a corporate social responsibility project designed to help children and teenagers to nurture their dreams, at the LDI Yonkang Center, Doosan Group’s training center in Seoul’s Gangdong district.

In attendance at the inaugural ceremony were 127 teenagers from the Seoul, Incheon, Gunsan, and Changwon regions, 87 executives and staffers from Doosan Infracore, and officials from World Vision, the charity organization involved. At the event, the teenagers took the first step in their yearlong journey to discover “their dreams” through recreational activities, lectures given by special invited guests and meetings between mentors and mentees.

Yoon-taek Im from the popular band “Ulala Session,” invited as special guest, said, “Our performances are the outcome of our painstaking efforts. During the period of our boarding camp, we slept the least and practiced more than anyone,” stressing that utmost effort was required to realize one’s dream. Im said, “I have been cultivating my dream to be a dancer since my elementary years. Thanks to the mentors that were around me, I was able to consolidate my dream, and I myself also became a mentor of my younger colleagues who wanted to be dancers.”

“Dream School” is a corporate social responsibility program based on the philosophy of Doosan, which emphasizes the “growth and self-reliance of human resources.” The program is designed to enable teenagers, who have had no chance to discover their aptitudes and dreams, due to the economic disadvantage of their families, find their dreams through meetings with professional mentors, gain vocational experience, and attend summer vacation camps. After signing an agreement with World Vision, the international relief and development organization, in January, Doosan Infracore has been pushing to launch its “Dream School” for teenagers.

Mentees at “Dream School” were selected last February through document screening and interviews. They were chosen from among first and second graders attending the middle schools in the four regions where Doosan Infracore operates worksites. The mentors are comprised of professionals from various fields, including Doosan Infracore executives and staffers who were recruited through an in-house open recruitment drive. Mentors will serve as partners in the one-year process, during which teenagers will discover their dreams, and will guide their charges in their quest to materialize their dreams, which would otherwise be hard to envision.