Have you ever heard of the “Global Peers Program? Every semester, Kookmin University’s (KMU) Office of International Affairs recruits students who want to join the program, but there is little information about their search, so interested students might want to know more. We sat down with office manager, Lee Jeonwon to find out what the Global Peers Program in detail. The following are edited excerpts from the interview.

To know about the GPS in realistic and to know about what students exactly did and feel, I interviewed with one student who actually did this program, Kim Habin. The following are edited excerpts from the interview. 

Q. What is the purpose of the Global Peers Program [GPS]? 
A. The main purpose of the GPS is to help students who are studying at our university on exchange settle down well. Additionally, through this program, I like to provide opportunities for foreign exchange students to make Korean friends and for our students to learn about one another's culture and language. 

Q. What is the main job of students?
A. Although we recruit through separate planning departments, most of the students who apply for planning work are also active as peers. Among GPS participants, students in the planning section provide opinions on various events, such as orientation for invited students and, cultural experience programs, and manage SNS [social networking services] pages to help the program run smoothly. 

Q. How do students support the event organized by the International InterchangeTeam [IAT]?
A. Students in planning aren't the only ones who support the event organized by the IAT. Students in the planning section can present their opinions, but all GPS students participate in the exchange student event.

Q. What kind of activities do you focus on? 
A. First, we will attend exchange students’ orientation, which takes place at the beginning of the semester, and take charge of the campus tour. During the first week of the semester, we will use the exchange students’ comprehensiveinformation system at the Help Desk and provide information on facilities in the school. The group meeting [allocated to two to three Korean students and six to seven foreign students] will also be held in the assigned group (allocated to six to seven Korean students) and will participate in the exchange student cultural experience twice during the semester.

Q. How many times a month are you active? 
A. There is no fixed number of times and it is recommended that meet naturally or between the timed peers.

Q. What should Korean students teach and support foreign students?
A. The most important thing is to help exchange students adjust to our school. Therefore, we need to actively participate in exchange student orientation and Help Desk.

Q. Why should Korean students engage in activities?
A. You don't have to participate in the GPS for any particular purpose. But we welcome students who like to make friends and want to help new students at our university, whenever they want to. [In fact, students who have been on exchange at foreign universities often return to KMU and do GPS.]

Q. What are some things students should be careful about when they are active?
A. First of all, the most important thing is an understanding of cultural differences. Students engaging in multiculturalism should be able to understand the situation of students from other countries.

Q. What are the other criteria for planning and peers in addition to the ones on the notice? 
A. There are no other selection criteria. However, for the planning section, it is recommended that students who have been engaged in other student activities or who are leading students support them.

Q. What are some of the requirements for the program in planning and peers?
A. Many exchange students are very poor at Korean, so if they have good foreign language skills [Russian, Spanish, etc. as well as English, Chinese, and Japanese, etc.], they can be helpful 
to each other.

Q. Do foreign students also have a selection criteria?
A. The above program is designed to help exchange students settle down, and there are currently no separate selection criteria. [- all students can apply]

Q. Is there a representative event for the Global Peers program? 
A. It's not an event, but I think the GPS’s biggest role is the Help Desk during the first week of school. As exchange students have no information about KMU, they often visit the Help Desk to get various information, and Korean students and foreign students become good friends.

Q. Is there a mandatory part of this program? 
A. First of all, you should attend exchange student orientation.

Q. What do you think is good about the program?
A. We can easily make foreign friends. Also additional points can be obtained from the international exchange team when applying for exchange students. And lastly it was good to introduce Korean culture and learn foreign cultures together.

Q. What kind of activities did you usually do?
A. I usually met with foreign friends, chatted at school, played outside of school, and helped friends adjust to Korea.

Q. What did you feel and learn?
A. There are many students who do not speak Korean even when they come to Korea as exchange students Therefore, I use English a lot because I usually have to communicate in English.

Q. What did you regret during the program? What would you like to tell future participants?
A. It would be good for those who have a lot of time during the semester to participate in the program of meeting and interacting with each other autonomously

Sae-Yoon Kim

sayun09@naver.com