500, we anticipate that our many Community Action ini- tiatives will themselves become focal points of research, paving the way for meaningful enterprise endeavours. This movement from outreach to partnership demon- strates a tangible manifestation of our collective journey. A particularly compelling aspect of Impact 500 lies in the fact that it has been pupil driven from the start. As staff become guides rather than drivers, pupils grasp own- ership and are awakened to their own capabilities. Felix Peck, our Senior Prefect in charge of Community Action and Partnerships, writes: ‘We have embarked on a jour- ney to further connect the school’s mission of service by opening up the ability for pupils to pursue service via their own stories. Impact 500 is a testament, and a snapshot in time, to the commitment to service promised in 1619 and to the continuing work to uphold that promise as we look ahead to our 500th anniversary.’ Alongside, and building upon the 500 Club and Impact 500, the legacy of the Hollington Club for Young People will allow for an investment in youth charities in Camber- well and beyond. Part of this vision includes our growing awareness of the possibility of forging lasting links with organisations with which the College has previously had little engagement, such as Southwark’s excellent special schools. The impact of Princess Yi Pangja’s visit to London in 1927, with which we began these reflections, would in fact express itself many years later, when she returned to Korea and set up two pioneering schools for children with mental and physical difficulties. Through working with these children, she came to understand that we find ourselves as we lose ourselves in the service of others. This transformed her first-hand involvement in the colo- nial period, which has been described as an ‘anti-fairy tale’, into a worthwhile life of self-giving service. Perhaps, then, we are right to conclude with words of hope: that the compassionate philanthropic endeavours expressed through our current community and partnership work, and the legacy of the Hollington Club, will demonstrate lasting social change and so confirm Yi Pangja’s own belief that ‘Welfare is love’**. ◉ *Bright the Vision: Public School Missions from the Victorian Age, edited by Malcolm Tozer (Sunnyrest Books 2024) **Saburō Shochi, ‘Reflecting on the 7th memorial ceremony for the late Ms Yi Pangja’, cited in Nam/Pyke, ‘A Passion for A Worthwhile Life’, Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Korea (2022).
COLLEGE COMMUNITY
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