MinKyung Kang (left) with a fellow ‘dreamer.’

The popular saying “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” is one that embodies the positive, tenacious attitude of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) student MinKyung Kang.
Although depression and family tragedy plagued her young adulthood in South Korea, she took a leap of faith and applied to the Biological Sciences programme at CMU-Q in Qatar Foundation’s Education City.
This life-changing decision to travel the world has presented many opportunities for MinKyung, and she decided to share her positive outlook with her classmates by creating Dreamers Club.
Open to Education City students and faculty, the Dreamers Club provides a platform for those who share the passion of helping others achieve their aspirations.
At first, a handful of students signed up and attended bi-weekly club meetings where they participated in leadership and creativity seminars and discussed inspirational videos. But when MinKyung auditioned for the well-established TEDxEducationCity, the club took a sweet turn.
“I auditioned for TEDx but I didn’t make it through to the final round. So I decided to create a better and bigger event along with an exhibition for all of Education City,” she said, turning her disappointment into an opportunity to create something new.
Inspire Me, the Dreamers Club inaugural event, drew hundreds of students, staff and faculty from the Education City community. Six unique speakers were selected to share their inspirational stories, including information systems graduate, Abdulla al-Khenji, who shared the story of how he launched a start-up company while he was still a student.
MinKyung remarked: “I never expected Inspire Me to interest students outside of Carnegie Mellon Qatar but in fact many students approached me wanting to be a part of it. Next year I hope to extend Inspire Me beyond Education City to the rest of Doha.”
The Dreamers Club is one of a host of clubs available to students at Carnegie Mellon Qatar. The university adopts a holistic approach, believing that clubs and activities outside of the classroom play an important role in personal development and promoting an overall sense of fulfilment.
“Research at the highest levels shows that students who actively participate in their community also tend to succeed academically and do better than students who do not participate in other activities,” said Gloria Khoury, assistant dean for student affairs.
A diverse slate of clubs caters to a vast range of interests and aspirations. Students learn essential professional and life skills when they are active in clubs, skills such as public speaking, debating, conflict resolution and time management that contribute to success in school and once they graduate.
The Tartan Activities Fair is an annual event for students to explore the many extracurricular offerings and learn more about the extensive opportunities for learning, skill development, fun and friendship.
The Dreamers Club is open to everyone in Education City, with ambitions to open its doors in 2016 to the wider Doha community.