Koreans take opportunity to study in United States

Nadia Galindo

Issue date: 9/10/07 Section: News

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Media Credit: Nadia Galindo

Mamiko Abe, Japanese student, and Philip Jung, Korean exchange student, talk before class.

Twenty students from Changwon National University of Korea arrived in Dallas on Aug. 9 with Ji Won Choi, coordinator of international affairs at the university.

These students are attending Brookhaven College this fall. Brookhaven is one of three colleges in this exchange student program. The University of Utah and the University of Texas at Arlington are also participating in the program.

"It's still strange to me," Philip Jung said about his experience in Texas. "Texas is very huge and it's my first time to America and it's very hot."

Jung is one of 20 students from Changwon National University of Korea now attending Brookhaven. In the short time Jung has been in the United States, he has already applied for his driver's license and bought a car. He plans on staying at Brookhaven for one year.

Dr. Aaron Ostrom, executive dean of special programs at Brookhaven, coordinated this international outreach. Ostrom said he hopes these new students will meet and form lasting friendships with Brookhaven students.

"From our standpoint, Korea is a big trading partner for North Texas so it is important for our own students here at Brookhaven to have contact with international students as much as possible," Ostrom said. "We look at it that way that in the end, a relatively small number of our own students here are going to go abroad and have international study experiences in other countries."

This is not the first time an outreach program has existed at Brookhaven. A few years ago there was an international outreach program with the World University in Spain.

"Those students had special classes with each other and were not mixed in with the broader campus community," Ostrom said.

In Ostrom's opinion they did not have the chance to get to know Brookhaven students because they had classes only with each other. The Korean students are in classes with each other and the broader campus community.

Jung said coming to Texas and having the opportunity to have conversations in English will help him in his career. He said his family is very proud of him and his accomplishments. Ostrom said he hopes that eventually American students can go abroad to Changwon National University.

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