Korean Program News

The 7th Annual Korean Speech Contest took place virtually on March 23, 2024. The competition included participation from 26 students representing eight universities across the Southeastern United States: Auburn University, Duke University, Emory University, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Kennesaw State University, University of North Georgia, and Vanderbilt. Georgia Tech students in the competition were Lilly Ayala (Non-heritage Level 3), Yaeji Kwak (Heritage Level 1), and Hajin Kim (Heritage Level 2).

Kim, a master's student in computer science, received the top honor in the Heritage category. Kwak, an industrial engineering major, secured a first-place win in Heritage Level 1.

Grand Prize winners received special round-trip airfare to Korea. This prize offers them the opportunity to immerse themselves in Korean culture firsthand.

For more information, click here.

Samuel received his B.S. in Applied Languages & Intercultural Studies (ALIS), B.S. ​in Neuroscience, and minor in Linguistics in Fall 2021 with highest honors. He got involved with the Korean department soon after arriving at Georgia Tech in Fall 2018, winning first place in the 2019 Southeastern United States Korean Speech Contest and participating in the 2019 Korean LBAT. He has also took on an active role as a researcher in both the Korean and Neuroscience departments. Working with Dr. Seung-Eun Chang, he conducted research on Korean phonetics that resulted in a publication in International Journal of Bilingualism and a PURA Travel Grant to present at the Linguistics Society of America Annual Meeting in January 2020. Based on his experience as a Korean student and translator for a media curation of Korean culture and society (DILAC project), he co-presented in Korean at the Annual Association of American Teachers of Korean Annual Meeting in June 2020. He was able to pursue further language study by participating in the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) in Summer 2021 and took on a leadership position as a member of the Modern Languages Student Advisory Committee. One of his greatest joys as a student in the Korean Program was being able to give back by tutoring students in English through the Georgia Tech Language Institute and North Korean refugees through Aurora NK. He was recently awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge and will be beginning a Ph.D. at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge in the fall.

Learn more about the honor here: https://iac.gatech.edu/news/item/650033/ivan-allen-college-faculty-members-named-class-cios-honor-roll-spring

​Thalia received her B.S. in Applied Languages & Intercultural Studies and minor in International Affairs in Summer 2021, graduating with highest honors. Arriving at Georgia Tech in Summer 2018 at 16, she has been active both on campus and in the local community. Thalia has been a Fulbright Semi-Finalist for the Korean Masters Program and a Spring 2020 Political Science & Diplomacy exchange student at Yonsei University. She also contributed the chapter on Foreigners in Korea to the Virtual Media Library for Korean Culture & Society as a participant in KOR 4692. Off-campus, she has been a student volunteer for the Metro Atlanta Korean-American Coalition during the planning and execution of the 2019 National Convention, served as the Korean department co-representative on the Modern Languages Student Advisory Committee, and worked as a student assistant at the Georgia Tech Language Institute since Summer 2019. She plans to attend Yonsei University for her graduate studies after two years working in the United States.

The Institute of International Education (IIE) annually administers the competition for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, sponsored by the United States Department of State in partnership with foreign governments and universities. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers recent graduates and graduate students opportunities for research, study, or teaching assistantships in over 140 countries. Additional information about the award program for the 2022 - 2023 year can be found on our website: Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

As a part of the binational selection process, IIE convenes National Screening Committees (NSC) in the subsections of academics, arts, and English Teaching Assistantships to review applications by world region or discipline. These committees nominate applications for final consideration by the supervising agency in the host country and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

The Korean Program would like to announce its first graduate, Aviva Smith, in ALIS (Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies). Aviva received her degree in Spring 2021 with highest honors. Arriving at Georgia Tech in Fall 2017, she started her studies with the department in the course KOR3001. Since then, she has maxed out the Korean courses available at the time of her graduation. As a recipient of the 2020 FLAS Scholarship and the Boren Scholarship for National Security Scholarship, Aviva attended the Middlebury College summer intensive language program. She enjoyed the experience of studying Korean language and culture so much so that she volunteered to re-charter the Georgia Tech Korean Traditional Percussion Club. It was a natural fit and a way for her to give back to the community that has shared itself with her. Serving as President allowed Aviva to recruit other students who enjoy an organization dedicated to promoting this beautiful aspect of Korean culture.

Thanks to the 2020 Korea Foundation's Support for Establishment of Professorship ($392,153) in Korean Studies (film major), Korean Program could hire Keung Yoon Bae as our new Assistant Professor of Korean Studies. After graduating from Princeton University (Comparative Literature; Undergraduate) and Harvard University (Regional Studies in East Asia (RSEA) A.M. Program and Ph.D. in East Asian Languages ​​and Civilizations, Dissertation: “A Hall of Mirrors: Film Regulation and Industry Strategy in Colonial Korea, under Empire and its Aftermath”), Bae taught courses on Korean film as a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Columbia University in 2020-2021. She will offer KOR 3415 Korean K-Pop/Film/Drama, taught in English, and KOR 4813 Korean Film & Culture, taught in Korean, in the fall semester of 2021. She will also teach KOR 3813 East Asian Cinema, taught in English, and KOR 4813 Korean Film & History, taught in Korean, in the spring semester of 2022.

The e-school project with Yonsei University in Korea will provide various courses on Korean languages and Korean Studies from the spring semester of 2022.

Information available here: https://www.kf.or.kr/kfglobaleschoolEng/main.do

Starting the fall semester of 2022, the graduate program of M.S.-GMC in Korean will also start.