Jul. 4—In this weekly feature, we put five questions before someone in the community. Today, we chat with Sang-Heui Lee with the SeoulTech Summer Global Management Camp, a two-week camp for South Korean students.

1. What is the annual SeoulTech Summer Global Management Camp at Pittsburg State University and what prompted its launch four years ago?

SeoulTech (Seoul National University of Science and Technology) is a partner university located in Seoul, South Korea. Kelce College of Business of PSU has hosted an educational camp for 39 Global Technology Management major students from SeoulTech for two weeks each summer since 2018. It was initiated by a professor at SeoulTech and myself.

We had gone to the same school for our final degrees at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A decade after graduation when we met in Seoul for a conference, we started sharing ideas about exchanging students between the two universities. The main goal of developing such a collaborative program is to find unique educational opportunities for students of South Korea and the U.S. through a sustainable partnership.

PSU and SeoulTech signed on a memorandum of understanding for an academic cooperation in 2019. A 2+2 program has been developed and is available now. It allows the participating students to receive a dual degree from both universities within four years in the selected business field.

The summer camp is designed to be an avenue to the 2+2 program. With the camp, students experience the English-medium business courses and cultural differences before they come to PSU for a degree. Unfortunately, the pandemic prohibited the partnership from continuing the in-person camp in 2020. However, we resumed the camp as the online format in 2021 and are expecting the first student of the 2+2 program in spring 2023. The student participated in the in-person camp in 2019.

2. How is the SeoulTech Summer Global Management Camp unique to the area?

Although Pittsburg is a rural college town, PSU is a diverse university where surprisingly many cultural activities by the international student organizations are held throughout the academic years. Among the various international programs, SeoulTech camp is one of the largest single group of participants.

During the hollowing-out period of summer in university campus, the activities and presence of this large group of Korean students prove that PSU doesn't cease its education even during the breaks. Pittsburg is a very open and embracing community to the international students, and this is another way for the community to show its support for the international students as the ambassador of Midwest America.

3. In what ways do different departments at PSU collaborate to host the annual camp?

It's truly a team effort. Here at PSU all participating parties work and link organically together for the event. The three main departments involved include Kelce College of Business, Intensive English Program, and International Programs and Services. Faculty members of Kelce College of Business teach introductory business classes. Instructors of the intensive English Program teach various topics of business English. The Office of International Programs and Services manages the schedule and logistics of the camp. The program is strongly supported by the university administration, including the president and provost of the university and the dean of the college.

Due to the time differences between Kansas and Korea, the program starts at 6 a.m. CST every morning, which is 8 p.m. in Korea. Although it's early during the summer break, all at PSU work diligently and enthusiastically for the camp.

4. Why is this camp at PSU a draw for South Korean students and how does it benefit them?

The students in this program are globally focused and have plans to study abroad. This camp gives them a taste of PSU to see if we are a good fit for them in the future. They have other options to study abroad at other institutions, so we hope that getting to know PSU early on will benefit them in their decision making. The Korean government requires universities to run some kinds of international programs and evaluates the performance every year. PSU's excellent curriculums, comparably low costs of living, and our endeavor of accommodating such a summer camp and dual degree program have comparative advantages over the universities in large cities of the U.S.

Typically the public English education in Korea is given during middle and high school emphasizing grammar and writing. Most of the SeoulTech participants are first-year students, and they haven't had a great chance to take a class led by native English speakers. This is a unique opportunity for the South Korean students to experience the English-medium classes in their discipline. The interactive communications with instructors during class also encourage students to be involved actively in class activities, which is a quite new experience for the students who have been accustomed to the typical one-way lecture in Korea.

5. What types of lectures and education do students receive throughout the two-week camp?

Each of the three instructors from Kelce College of Business offers five one-hour business courses from which the participants get a taste of a variety of subjects of business majors. This year's camp offers Introductory Accounting Topics, Topics in Business Law, and Macroeconomics classes. The topics change every year depending on the demand from SeoulTech and the availability of PSU business faculty.

Two instructors from the Intensive English Program offer eight one-hour classes discussing the practical use of common business idioms, work and career words, etc. In addition to the lectures, for online, the camp also invites several guest speakers who speak about American culture, the history of PSU, how to write a resume in English, interview skills, and experiences of PSU as an international student. For in-person camps, the group goes to museums, exhibition centers, sports games and outdoor activities that provide cultural experiences.

Sang-Heui Lee is the program coordinator of the SeoulTech Summer Global Management Camp and associate professor of management at Pittsburg State University.