“It’s rare for the kids to approach us openly right away. Students who are more closed off around teachers tend to react noticeably to even small compliments. The mentor-mentee relationship in ‘H-Jump School’ is ever growing, like a tree. Deep understanding and trust become the nutrients that drive mutual growth, and together we all create a verdant forest.”

These are the reflections of Yun Seok-young, a university student volunteering in the 11th ‘H-Jump School’ program by providing mentoring to teenagers at the Seoul Gaon Regional Child Center, on their time with the program over the past year.

‘H-Jump School’ is a CSR activity by Hyundai Motor Group with the goal of providing equal educational opportunities to teenagers. Select university students volunteer to mentor teenagers, in order to aid in their growth and educational development.

This program brings together teenagers, university student volunteers called ‘SAMs,’ and ‘Professional Mentor Teams’ consisting of Hyundai Motor Group employees. SAMs provide mentoring to teenagers, while professionals from Hyundai Motor Group mentor the SAMs in turn, thereby spreading the value of educational sharing.

At the heart of this structure are the SAMs. The term combines the Korean words for ‘scholarship student’ and ‘teacher,’ and refers to university scholarship students sponsored by Hyundai Motor Group, who also serve as teachers guiding and helping younger teens.

Hyundai Motor Group selects outstanding university students with a passion for giving back to society from across South Korea to become SAMs and volunteer in the educational mentoring program. The selected SAMs are dispatched to learning centers (regional child centers, social welfare centers) that serve teens in need of educational and emotional support. Over eight months, they dedicate four hours weekly to guide and communicate with teens, helping them grow.

During their participation in ‘H-Jump School,’ SAMs receive in-depth advice from a diverse team of professional mentors, including employees from Hyundai Motor Group. These mentors provide practical assistance based on their expertise and real-world knowledge in their fields.

In addition to career advice, mentoring includes topics such as the relationship between different professions and academic majors, financial planning, and work-life balance—key elements of a successful and fulfilling life. Through this process, SAMs cultivate an understanding of society rooted in the spirit of volunteering, growing into well-rounded individuals.

Based on the success of ‘H-Jump School’ within South Korea, Hyundai Motor Group is spreading the value of mentor-mentee-professional mentor team relationships overseas. In 2020, it collaborated with prominent universities such as Vietnam National University (VNU) to run educational guidance and psychological support programs for underprivileged teenagers in Hanoi.

Following Vietnam, in 2024, the ‘H-Jump School’ program continued to spread to Indonesia. Fifty university student mentors from Indonesia National University have been selected, and are currently providing educational guidance and career mentoring to over 200 underprivileged teenagers in the region.

Hyundai Motor Group plans to establish a platform where outstanding SAMs from Vietnam, Indonesia, and South Korea can interact across borders through programs such as ‘Global Mentoring’.