“Donating my assets to society was my mother’s lifelong wish. I hope the university will use them meaningfully to educate outstanding talent and to improve the quality of life for local residents.”

In 2020, Professor Emeritus Kim Jeong-ok surprised many by donating a 2 billion won fund for Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) students. She has recently attracted attention again by donating an additional 6 billion won to the university as a development fund. The 8 billion won that Professor Kim has donated to date is, in fact, the largest amount ever contributed by an individual in the history of JBNU's development funds.

Starting with 2 billion won this year, Professor Kim plans to donate 1 billion won each year from 2023 through 2026, totaling 4 billion won over four years. She said she wants to contribute to improving the quality of life for local residents and the entire university community by upgrading facilities related to JBNU's Samsung Arts Center, an arts and cultural venue representing the region.

Professor Emeritus Kim Jeong-ok served in the Department of German Education, College of Education at JBNU from 1979 to 1983, and later retired from the Department of German Language and Literature at Konkuk University. She has continued her mother’s wishes by carrying out various scholarship programs to support the training of future scholars.

Professor Kim said that, after her 2020 gift, she decided to contribute another large donation to JBNU because Jeonju has always remained in her heart as a second hometown—quiet and warm, like Göttingen in Germany where she studied. In particular, her long-standing relationship with Professor Kim Kwan-woo of JBNU's Department of German Studies, who served as president of the Korean Association of German Language and Literature in 2014, was a major factor in her decision to make the donation.

Professor Kim said she learned from Professor Emeritus Kim Kwan-woo—who recently served as Executive Vice‑President of Research at the university and now serves as Chairman of the Jeonbuk National University Development Foundation—that JBNU's Samsung Arts Center, a major cultural facility in the region, was facing difficulties in upgrading its facilities, and she found this very regrettable. She decided to place her desire to contribute to a regional arts and cultural renaissance through improvements to the Samsung Arts Center's facilities into this fund.

Accordingly, the Jeonbuk National University Development Foundation named the fund the "Professor Kim Jeong-ok Yeongsan Development Fund" and decided to use it broadly for upgrades to the JBNU Samsung Arts Center facilities and related purposes.

In particular, to honor the donor’s noble intention, the fund’s detailed guidelines state that, following a resolution by a six-member steering committee (Chair: Professor Emeritus Kim Kwan-woo), the main performance hall of the JBNU Samsung Arts Center will be named "Professor Kim Jeong-ok Yeongsan Hall" upon completion of the facility upgrades.

Professor Emeritus Kim Jeong-ok said, "I decided to donate to Jeonju—my second hometown—and to JBNU to carry on my mother’s precious wish that what I have be returned to society. I hope the infrastructure of JBNU's Samsung Arts Center, which leads regional cultural development, will be improved so that local residents and the university community alike can freely enjoy and present cultural and artistic activities."