LEGACY
LEGACY AND HISTORY OF SEOWON ACADEMY
The reign of King Sejong the Great began six hundred years ago. His reign was one of many great cultural, moral, and scholastic achievements. Most famous of these achievements was his invention of the Korean alphabet “han’gul,” a perfectly phonetic method of writing, in the hopes of spreading education and literacy in order to uplift the moral and intellectual standing of his kingdom and society.
In the first year of his reign, 1418, he distinguished two scholars for establishing “seowons” throughout the kingdom of Joseon. These seowons were elite educational institutions that prepared the sons of aristocratic families for leadership of society. This path to societal leadership and prominence began with high official ranking on the scholar-official examinations. The graduates of these seowons were able to accomplish the highest scores on these scholar-official examinations because the seowons rigorously educated their students by cultivating their wisdom, virtue, and scholastic skills.
Six hundred years later in 2018, Headmaster Shon established SEOWON ACADEMY. Named after the institutions that cultivated renowned scholars and great leaders, Seowon Academy continues the tradition and legacy of its namesake by providing a powerfully authentic education that accomplishes genuine scholarship. This scholarship produces a new generation of leaders and scholars at the top of their chosen fields, and is stylized after Master Shon’s eight years of experience teaching students to become scholars.
Just as a high score on the scholar-official examinations marked the beginning of illustrious careers leading society, the scholarly approach of Seowon Academy cultivates authentic scholarship for students, enabling them to achieve the highest scores on the SAT – the modern-day version of an examination testing scholarly potential. At Seowon Academy, modern-day students continue to cultivate themselves into consummate scholars, beginning their own illustrious careers with a higher SAT score, and subsequently leading themselves into future prominence.
King Sejong and the worthy scholars under his reign continues to inspire Seowon Academy, which has adopted the canto
The tree with deep roots
shakes not in the wind
and so blossoms abundantly
bearing great fruit
as its guiding metaphor for the cultivation of students into scholars.