Blackburn College is now offering students the opportunity to study abroad in South Korea. In previous years, Blackburn’s study abroad program only included Wales, Ireland and some Latin American countries. But, during the 2018 summer semester, Blackburn is offering a study abroad program to South Korea where students will attend Hannam University in Daejeon, a city in central South Korea with a population of 1.5 million. The university itself has about 13,000 students. Blackburn students traveling there will take a three-week long English course that will include diving into Korean culture by studying its lifestyle, food, music and more.
According to the brochure that was sent out by Hannam University, “This program aims to guide each participant in a total experience with the richness and dynamism of Korean culture in its historical and contemporary social contexts.”
Study abroad coordinator and Spanish adjunct instructor Siri Engstrom said that this program started last year, but Blackburn did not have the funding to put students through it. Therefore, if a student wanted to attend, they would have to fund it all themselves. This year, Engstrom has the funding to help students with everything but the tuition, which is about $600. Engstrom said that the airfare, the program fee, housing and “possibly a small stipend for meals” would hopefully be covered by left-over funds in the department.
Currently, there are no requirements for Blackburn students to study abroad in South Korea other than submitting an application to both Blackburn and Hannam University for acceptance into the program. Most other study abroad opportunities at Blackburn have requirements toward a student’s GPA and their year in college.
Engstrom encourages any student who is interested in this opportunity to ask her questions by emailing her at siri.engstrom@blackburn.edu. She also hopes to accompany students going to Hannam University in the summer to help them adjust to life there. There are currently three places open for students from Blackburn, and the deadline for applications is Jan. 12, 2018.