My startup isn't "tech" enough so I hesitated before making this post, but I saw that people talked about their PhD or master thesis and all sorts of cool things, and after all, the prompt is "what are you working on", so here we go!
I am hard at work preparing the 2nd edition of Seoul SPARKS (seoulsparks.com), a 6 weeks pre-college summer program in Korea (currently aimed at US students but open to students all over the world). It is designed to be a high quality, rigorous but also as immersive as possible program, for high school students who want to deepen their understanding of Korean language, culture, and history while earning academic credit at Seoul National University. My aim is to educate the future generation of Korean Studies scholars and I hope my program can be a stepping stone for that! My program director designed a chronological history curriculum, that explores Korea’s past and present through site visits and expert-led discussions. Each week focuses on a specific era of Korean history, beginning with the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897), where students visit palaces, wear hanbok, and learn about Confucian traditions. The following weeks cover the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945), the Korean War and its aftermath (1950s), Korea’s rapid economic rise through the Miracle on the Han River (1960s–1980s), and finally, modern Korea, including democratization, globalization, and the Hallyu wave. These themes are reinforced through guided tours of historical sites, museums, and cultural landmarks. We try to make it fun too and I think our students last year had a blast!
We try to offer a lot of other really cool things, such as a 100% Customized Cultural Activity (these have included K-pop dance training at a professional studio, Korean Sign Language classes, traditional calligraphy, culinary workshops, and even mini-internships with local businesses ), the opportunity to work on a research project under the supervision of a Korean PhD student if they'd like, and we also link them with university mentors (basically, Korean college students) who hang out with them, answer their questions about life in Korea, help them adjust to life here, and just have fun with them really.
Last year's pilot program was very successful, we were blessed to have a fantastic cohort of very bright and motivated students. The program was also highly rated by parents and students alike (the only serious negative comment we received was: why is Korea so hot and humid during summer?), and I hope we can continue to grow and keep attracting the best students from all over the globe!
Anyway applications are open until April 30th so if any of you have kids or know someone who could be interested, I would be very grateful if you could spread the word :)
Thank you for reading!