VOICES

The ACE Program Batch 1

College of Intercultural Communication
Ms. Davin Song

I would like to share, from my own experience, what you can experience and what kind of world awaits you if you study abroad at Seoul National University (SNU) through the ACE Program.

College Life

Spring semester at SNU as an ACE student began with a welcome meal prepared by the College of Liberal Studies. We enjoyed a casual, traditional Korean meal with members and coordinators from ACE SNU. Starting with self-introductions, we had a great time through game activities and sharing about our college lives. It was also an opportunity for us to meet and get to know our peers from other participating schools.

Just as at Rikkyo University, there was a welcome party week for freshmen and all the new students at the beginning of the semester. Performances and workshops were held by a diverse group of student clubs, providing an opportunity for freshmen, international students, and graduate students to find a community outside of academics. As mentioned in the video, the quality of the welcome party was more than I had expected, with SNU students of all grade levels able to enjoy it, and I found this to be a distinctive culture of Korean universities. In fact, in the photography club I joined this semester, some of the new members who joined with me were seniors and graduate students. It was wonderful to see a culture where everyone is welcomed, regardless of their school level or grade level.

As for academic courses I am currently enrolled in, most of them are from a liberal arts-based curriculum. This is because they provide students opportunities to experience multiple and diverse perspectives, which I aim to build up as an ACE participant. Since SNU integrates both arts and sciences, students from a very wide range of majors can be found in these courses. For instance, in one of the classes I take this semester, students from departments such as English Language and Literature, Business Administration, Geography, Chemistry and Biotechnology, and Medicine, and with various fields of interest gather in one classroom to study together. In this class, students rarely have the same perspectives or approaches to the topics we cover in daily lessons. In this respect, I strongly believe that liberal arts courses provide a challenging yet wonderful learning environment where you get to be exposed to and absorb completely new ways of thinking through working with people with specialized knowledge. I would say this is certainly the best environment for ACE students to improve our skills in the 6 core skills.

Daily Life

My favorite way of spending weekends is to explore outside of the school district and to visit different types of book cafes in Seoul. Living in Korea, I often find the ways which space is used in architecture to be amusing. In the video clip, I have introduced one of my favorite book cafes, Book Park, located in Yongsan district as an example. I love this place because the space is not limited to just having a relaxing and enjoyable reading time, but one of its biggest attractions is being able to enjoy the open atmosphere with bookshelves reaching up to the ceiling and stylishly designed interiors.

Studying abroad as an ACE student

Lastly, I can say that one of the biggest differences between other exchange programs and the ACE Program is that there is an ACE community. Members of ACE from any parts of the program including Summer/Winter Intensive Programs are provided with the opportunity to create the best memories with local students through activities, which I think one can say is different than regular study abroad. In this spring semester, we went on a field trip to Nami Island, also known as the filming location of the Korean drama ‘Winter Sonata’. In the College of Liberal Studies at SNU, field trips are often given to encourage experiential learning outside of the classroom. In this trip, the decision making process is all in our hands, which means that students plan the trip from scratch by discussing the theme, destination, and activities with each other. This opened style concept makes the event even more fascinating as we can reflect our ideas and requests into the project through talking with each other. This is truly a special study abroad experience unique to ACE participants.