'Collegiate Connection' and Dreamspoon CEO Ahn Seong-gyu Win KT Hope Sharing Award for Lowering Barriers to Admissions and Scholarship Information
IT DAILY ·
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The KT Group Hope Sharing Foundation said on the 20th that it had selected Kim Seong-il, CEO of 'Collegiate Connection,' and Ahn Seong-gyu, CEO of Dreamspoon, as the recipients of the first-half 2026 'KT Hope Sharing Award.'
'Collegiate Connection' has provided free admissions briefings and customized counseling since 2022, delivering information to more than 3,000 disabled teenagers and their families through a total of 53 briefings.
Dreamspoon has provided domestic scholarship information online for free since 2014, while CEO Ahn Seong-gyu has also continued a one-stop solution for scholarship programs and mentoring for teenagers in underserved educational regions.
The KT Group Hope Sharing Foundation said on the 20th that it had selected Kim Seong-il, CEO of 'Collegiate Connection,' and Ahn Seong-gyu, CEO of Dreamspoon, as the recipients of the first-half 2026 'KT Hope Sharing Award' for their contributions to narrowing gaps in access to educational information. In a press photo, Kim Seong-il, CEO of 'Collegiate Connection' (left), and Ahn Seong-gyu, CEO of Dreamspoon, are shown. The photo was provided by KT.
The foundation said it recognized their contributions to reducing information gaps in education through social contribution activities and helping build a foundation of equal opportunity for future generations. The rationale for this award also centered on their efforts to ease the education information divide.
In particular, 'Collegiate Connection' began its activities in 2022 after identifying the lack of college admissions information available to disabled teenagers and families with disabilities as a problem. The group has provided free admissions briefings and customized counseling for each student’s path to college.
'Collegiate Connection' has held a total of 53 admissions briefings and delivered information to more than 3,000 disabled teenagers and their families. In addition to sharing information, it has also provided college guidance tailored to each student’s situation, and over the past 4 years the average college enrollment rate of disabled students who participated in its consulting programs stood at 97.7%.
Because information on special admissions tracks for people with disabilities had low accessibility, it is shared for free through online communities, and online video briefings are also offered for families of people with disabilities living in regional areas or overseas. This was a measure to expand the way information is delivered in order to accommodate cases in which it is difficult to attend briefings and to prevent gaps in admissions information depending on region of residence or disability status.
Dreamspoon has provided domestic scholarship information online for free since 2014 in response to the problem that scholarship programs run by the government, universities, companies, and foundations are scattered across institutions, making it difficult for students to find suitable programs. The scale of the information it provides amounts to KRW 7 trillion a year, and the operator is CEO Ahn Seong-gyu. Ahn has spent 12 years connecting students with scholarship programs, and Dreamspoon supports confirmation of the integration of dispersed information while focusing on reducing the loss of scholarship application opportunities caused by a lack of information.
Ahn has supported students seeking scholarships while also working to lower barriers for individuals and small groups that want to start scholarship programs. To that end, he moved to build a one-stop solution for scholarship projects, and the system has functions that handle planning, application intake, recipient selection, and scholarship disbursement in one process. As a result, even small donors have been able to participate in scholarship programs.
Ahn also continued mentoring teenagers in underserved educational regions. The Hope Sharing Award is a prize established by the KT Group Hope Sharing Foundation to identify individuals and groups creating social value through sharing. The foundation’s website accepts nominations and stories about candidates year-round.
Lee Jong-taek, chairman of the KT Group Hope Sharing Foundation, said this year's Hope Sharing Award is meaningful because it goes beyond simple volunteer records to select examples of resolving welfare blind spots and creating sustainable social value. He also said the foundation plans to expand the award categories in the second half of the year to include social contribution activities that combine digital education and technology to respond to the era of AI transformation (AX).
Source: IT DAILY · Lee Jae-young
Original: https://www.itdaily.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=241104
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Source: IT DAILY
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