The NEXON Foundation announced on the 10th that it will launch the second cohort of 'Hello Mate', a university student game creation mentoring volunteer program. The core of this program is mentoring aimed at narrowing the digital education gap in the second half of this year. Set to run for a total of five months from September to January of next year, it will involve approximately 90 university student mentors from Seoul National University, Sungkyunkwan University, Hanyang University, and KAIST, along with about 300 youth mentees. After receiving preliminary training on the program and creation platform usage on the 12th, the mentors will provide game creation mentoring volunteer activities to youth mentees for about 20 hours until December.

For the second cohort of Hello Mate, the utilized platforms and participating age groups have expanded significantly. Unlike the first cohort, which targeted elementary school students and used only the block coding platform 'HelloMaple', the second cohort introduces the sandbox-type creation platform 'MapleStory World'. In line with this, the operational scope of the volunteer activities has expanded to include middle school students. University student mentors will directly plan and produce game creation educational contents to conduct education for youth mentees at local community centers and schools.

Starting with this cohort, a program linked with the 'Modoo's Coding Class' project operated by the Daejeon Social Service Agency is newly operated. KAIST university students participate as mentors to conduct volunteer activities for slow-learning youth and young adults in the region. University student mentors participating in the program are provided with an opportunity to visit the Nexon office building in Pangyo and receive career mentoring from Nexon executives and employees. After the activities end, volunteer hours are certified, and a completion certificate under the name of the chairperson of the NEXON Foundation is issued.

Kim Jung-wook, chairperson of the NEXON Foundation, stated, "We prepared the second cohort by incorporating the educational results confirmed through the first cohort of Hello Mate and various feedback from the field," adding, "We will continue to support narrowing the digital education gap and strengthening the capabilities of youth, who are the future of our society."

Meanwhile, the first cohort of 'Hello Mate', which ran from last September to this January, involved 74 university student mentors. They conducted coding education volunteer activities for about 3,000 hours at two elementary schools and four local children's centers in Seoul, receiving high praise with a satisfaction score of 4.8 out of 5 in the satisfaction survey.