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Sunny Park, founder of U.S.-based janitorial service company General Building Maintenance, has endowed a scholarship of $220,000 (273 million won) to Berry College in Georgia, which will fund two American students to study in Korea, a move to promote better cultural understanding.
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| Sunny Park, president of the American Korean Friendship Society / Korea Times file |
"I intend to play a role in helping Korea and the United States build friendly cooperation," Park said in a media interview.
"Many students of Berry College will be able to learn about Korea and the scholarship program is a way to express gratitude to the deceased Korean War veterans and their descendants."
Under the scholarship program, two seniors of the college will participate in the Bahrom International Program at Seoul Women's University or another similar program in Korea, which is expected to promote cultural understanding of the country. Despite not attending the college, Park served as a member of its Board of Visitors and a college trustee.
Park immigrated to the U.S. in 1974 with a mere $200, but became a successful entrepreneur, making his company one of the top private commercial cleaning service providers there.
In 1996, as part of appreciation for U.S. service members who served in the Korean War and for opportunities he had in the U.S., Park founded the American Korean Friendship Society together with General Raymond Gilbert Davis, former U.S. Ambassador to Korea James Laney, former Emory University President William Chase and others.
Park, an Atlanta Business Hall of Fame laureate and USO Patriot Medal recipient, recently won the Georgia Public Policy Foundation's Freedom Award.
