The Samsung Welfare Foundation announced Wednesday it will hold a special lecture event combining meditation, performance and exhibition for daycare center and kindergarten directors nationwide on July 20 at the Samsung Children's Education and Culture Center. The event is titled "National Daycare and Kindergarten Directors' Special Lecture C&I DAY (Culture & Insight)."
The event is designed to give directors who lead early childhood education settings a chance to rest and reflect.
The program is an encore of a well-received lecture titled "Meditation and Inner Strength That Transform Your Life," held last year at the Samsung Human Resources Development Center meditation facility in Yeongdeok, North Gyeongsang Province. Registration for in-person attendance sold out the moment it opened, and about 8,000 people tuned in via a YouTube livestream, drawing strong interest from the childcare community.
This year, the foundation expanded eligibility to include kindergarten directors in addition to daycare center directors. The Samsung Welfare Foundation said it plans to broaden its support for education settings in line with the trend toward integrating childcare and early childhood education, while strengthening self-care and recovery programs for educators.
In the first session, Kim Ju-hwan, a professor at Yonsei University, will speak on "Inner Strength and Inner Communication Meditation," explaining from a neuroscience perspective how meditation affects resilience and emotional regulation. He will also introduce inner communication meditation techniques that participants can practice in their daily lives.
Kim Eun-ju, a child and adolescent psychiatry specialist and professor at Gangnam Severance Hospital, will then present on "Children's Brain Development and the Power of Meditation," covering the neuroscientific characteristics of early childhood and the positive effects of meditation on young children's emotional stability and non-cognitive development.
The final session will feature Kim Ju-hwan alongside saxophonist Brandon Choi in a program called "Inner Communication Meditation with Music," blending classical saxophone performance with meditation for a distinctive experience.
Attendees will also receive tickets to a special exhibition at Leeum Museum of Art — "Into Another Space: Synesthetic Environments by Women Artists, 1956–1976" — an immersive show using light, sound and everyday materials, giving participants a chance to recharge away from their professional duties.
Registration opened Wednesday at 10 a.m. on the Samsung Welfare Foundation's website and is free of charge. The event will also be broadcast live on YouTube for anyone to watch in real time.
Since 2022, the Samsung Welfare Foundation has run director-tailored programs combining lectures, performances and exhibition visits, drawing a cumulative total of about 24,000 participants.
Beyond childcare support, the foundation said it continues to expand programs aimed at early childhood development and staff capacity building, strengthening its overall support for education settings.
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