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Host University: Yonsei University, Wonju Campus

Dates: June 25th – August 1, 2013

Program Director/Instructor: Professor Vincent Boudreau

Course Overview: Korean Perspectives: History, Culture and Leadership

This course begins by presenting students with an intensive survey of Korean history and culture, as a way of providing them with a framework for examining Korean perspectives and experiences in service and leadership at the local, regional and international level.  Instructional activity and resources are concentrated at the Yonsei University Campus in Wonju, and offer students the opportunity to discuss both national history and culture, and its local reflection in the important Wonju area.  Early sessions emphasize the evolution of Korean culture and society, but also provides students with hands on experiences in Wonju.  

As part of the program students will receive daily instruction in Korean Language.  While we hope that students will develop some facility in the language, and that this initial exposure to language will trigger in some an interest in further study, our primary goals lie elsewhere.  More that is often true, the Korean language carries deep reserves of encoded history, culture and social norms.  Etiquette, ideas about social structure and political relationships all find reflection in the structuring of the language.  Historical trends contribute to distinctive linguistic elements as well, such as the development of the Korean alphabet. Hence, in many ways, the study of language—and an examination of the culture of Korean language, will inform and reinforce the study of Korean history, culture and society.

The course concludes with an intensive examination of Korean patterns of local and global service and leadership.  Over the last several decades, Korea has grown from a regionally significant power to one of the most significant new players in the international system.  Leadership in international organizations, diplomatic conventions, sporting events, economic and technological development have marked Korea’s rise to its current position as the world’s tenth largest economy. At the same, time Korea has developed a new, significant and distinct profile in the world of service and philanthropy (and has the distinction of being the only country that has moved from being a net recipient of aid to a net donor in the world system.  

The program's final weeks will give students an opportunity to work side by sided with Korean students in service positions.  Such positions will include both direct service activities, and discussions to plan and assess ongoing service programs.  In the instructional element of this program, we will bring in service practitioners, philanthropists and NGO workers to discuss specific Korean methodologies and perspectives on service and leadership.  It is expected that earlier lessons and discussions about history, culture and society will help contextualize these conversations, and help develop a richer understanding of Korean global leadership, and through that understanding, a greater chance of strong and stable partnership.

Scholarships available, in part, by a grant from the Korea Foundation.

Program costs

CCNY Tuition for 4 credits

Program cost: $2500

Included: housing (dormitory double rooms), meals, excursions, ground transportation

Not included: airfare to/from South Korea