Graduation at Ewha Womans University, From the Gate to the ECC

Every university neighborhood looks a little different at the end of February, but certain things recur. Florists have more bouquets than usual. Inside the gates, students in gowns stand while their families take photographs. Graduation feels almost like a season.

It was like that in Sinchon. I had walked through Yonsei University first, then crossed over to Ewha Womans University. With both campuses in graduation season, the whole neighborhood seemed to be taking part.

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A Campus I Remembered as a Tourist Stop

Before the pandemic, parts of Ewha’s campus could feel as busy as a tourist attraction. People used to line up near the pear blossom relief by the main gate. A story spread that having a picture taken there would help you meet the right person, and tour groups often stopped for photos.

When I came back, I noticed signs limiting access for outside visitors, and the crowds I remembered were gone. The campus felt like the students’ own space again.

Most of the people I saw that afternoon were graduates and their families. It gave the campus a different kind of energy.

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The Photos Continued Into the Afternoon

It was already fairly late by the time I arrived from Yonsei. All around the campus, people were still taking pictures.

The biggest gathering was around the Ewha Campus Complex, or ECC. The stepped passage below the main gate and the lawn on the other side had both become backdrops. Graduates posed with friends and family. A few set up tripods to take their own pictures.

A graduation lasts longer than the official ceremony. It goes on as long as people stay to take pictures and talk. At Ewha, there was still plenty of that day left.

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A Walk Through the ECC

The ECC is one of the first things you notice walking into Ewha. It cuts into the ground, so the route across campus takes you through the building itself.

Older stone buildings line the upper part of the campus. Down below, the ECC has cafes, amenities and spaces for students. Walking between the two can feel like stepping between periods.

Graduates in gowns stood against old stone for one photograph, then joined friends in the newer space for another. The day moved easily between the two settings.

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A Place I Had Visited Before

A friend used to study at Ewha, and I had visited a few times. I remember wandering around without much purpose, eating at the student cafeteria and walking across campus.

The pandemic interrupted those visits. The campus looked much as I remembered, yet felt different. Before, the volume of visitors had sometimes made it feel crowded. That day, I was watching people finish their time at a university.

Graduation made the campus look like a school again.

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Old Buildings, New Departures

Ewha traces its beginnings to the late nineteenth century. Its older buildings give parts of the campus a quiet character that you notice as you walk.

The ECC makes that age easier to see, because it sits right beside it. On graduation day the same contrast was there in the people, too. They stood against buildings with long histories to take photographs marking the start of something new.

I saw relief on some faces, a sense of loss on others and people who were simply enjoying the chance to take pictures. What they shared was the knowledge that their time here had ended.

I never went to this school, but I found myself wishing them well. A graduation can get to you even when you are only passing through.