This coming May, 40 students at Mississippi State University will have the opportunity to study in South Korea and Hong Kong during the Global Leadership Program Korea Study Tour 2010.
J.P. Shim, professor of management and information systems said students will visit South Korea for the first 11 days and then spend the last four in Hong Kong.
“First three days, all group members will visit Samsung, and we will visit two universities for a group seminar, IT seminar and global seminar,” he said. “Then we will visit other historical and cultural sites to understand more about the Korean culture and IT education systems.”
After that, the students will split into five groups and each group will study for a week at a different Korean university. Next, the students will regroup and go to Hong Kong, Shim said.
“In Hong Kong, we will visit Fedex, and they will give a seminar [on] understanding more about the difference between western culture and Oriental culture,” Shim said. “Also, we will go to a major school in Hong Kong. We have a group seminar there, understanding ICT in Hong Kong and the United States.”
He said they will also visit other historical and cultural sites in Hong Kong.
Graduate student Aaron French helped Shim organize part of the program and has gone to South Korea as a chaperone each year for the three years the program existed. He said it was interesting to see the technology they have because South Korea is the world leaders in telecommunications.
“We don’t realize how strong of an effect South Korea has on technology and stuff in America,” French said. “Being able to see some of those advanced technologies first hand is pretty amazing.”
Junior communication major Matilda Asuzu participated in the Korean Study Tour this year. She said many of the seminars concentrated on leadership.
“Passion was one of the big things they mentioned over there, being passionate about your job,” she said.
Asuzu said students do not have to know Korean to go.
“Translating and getting things to work isn’t perfect, but we didn’t feel lost there,” she said. “We had translators, and we had students who understood English paired up with us.”
Senior English and French major Laura Allen also went on the tour this year. She said she stayed for three nights in a Korean family’s home.
“It was really neat to see the family life in Korea, not just the big technology and stuff,” Allen said. “We got to see how people actually lived there.”
Allen said in Korea, a person will stay with his or her family until marriage.
“[My host family] had a kid that was like 28 years old and he works like 45 minutes away, but you don’t move away from your family unless you’re going to college,” she said. “They always ate and they always watched TV together, and they always did every single thing together.”
Shim said the program was established as part of MSU International Initiatives in 2006.
“We thought our MSU students need to broaden their horizons because many of them are born here, raised here, so we wanted to give them a shock and open their eyes,” he said. “If we don’t know what’s going on in other parts of the world, we’ll be left behind, so we need to give an opportunity to our MSU students, undergraduate and graduate students, to broaden their horizons.”
French said the tour has opened many doors for students in the past.
“I’ve been offered a position teaching management information systems at one of the universities,” he said. “There’s a lot of internship opportunities, study abroad opportunities, that Korea has that you may not hear about in the U.S., but whenever students go over there, you can hear about more of these opportunities that they can have.”
Shim said the program is cheaper than similar programs at other universities.
“Now we charge $1,800, much lower than airfare,” he said. “This covers airfare, most meals, lodging, education programs.”
There will be an interest session Oct. 29 at 5 p.m. in the Taylor Auditorium. Applications can be found online at www2.msstate.edu/jps1/GLP_2010/program.htm.