The ISC is a brilliant four-to-six-week yearly summer program open to all students around the world attempting to study popular courses within the humanities and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) categories. The program also offers various cultural activities, such as taekwondo, a NANTA show, K-pop dance practice, and a tour of Hyundai Motor Company.

Embarking through a Summer Academic Journey

More than 1,600 students from all around the world attended the 2022 KU ISC program, including pre-college, undergraduate, and graduate students. The program aims to draw students into KU by not only hosting cultural activities but also introducing admissions and graduation ceremonies. It also opens internships with both national and foreign companies. During the duration of the program, students are given the opportunity to live in KU dormitories or live off-campus while being aided by the school. Furthermore, students who revisit the ISC are given the opportunity to join the KU Alumni network, which links them to more than 300,000 students globally.

What makes the KU ISC one of the best programs offered by the university is its connections with well-known professors around the world and specially appointed faculty with expertise in their respective fields. The ISC, and its winter counterpart, the International Winter Campus (IWC), provide students with unique learning opportunities that cannot be fulfilled by a normal semester. Since a semester’s worth of coursework is condensed into four to six weeks, time management is important. Students can study harder, accelerate their academic studies, catch up on their degrees, and make up for lost courses, or even prepare for early graduation. Academic credits are also very easy to transfer to the students’ home institutions and are recognized worldwide.

Prominent Academics: Learn from International Scholars and Researchers

The ISC has successfully managed to retain international faculty, enabling students to experiment with different studying methods. Distinguished faculty from Cornell University, University of Cambridge, Stanford University, and other institutions have taught at the ISC. For instance, Professors Eric Yongstrom and Jen Yongstrom (both from the Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) who are well-known in psychology for bipolar disorder and behavioral therapy, teach Introduction to Psychology and Developmental Psychology. Another professor, Dr. Norah C. Feeny (Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University) investigates the area of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while teaching Abnormal Psychology.

The STEM fields are not alone either, as famous researchers come to lecture at the ISC. For example, Professor Neil E. Schore (Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis), a researcher of organometallic chemistry, teaches General Chemistry I and Organic Chemistry I. Another scientist, Professor Hongshik Ahn (Department of Applied Mathematics & Statistics, Stony Brook University) is a biostatistics researcher and gives lectures on Calculus I and II. All these renowned scholars and researchers are examples of adjunct professors with more than 10 years of experience teaching courses at the ISC, and there are so many more professors. As a result, the ISC is a multicultural program with professionals and students coming from all different backgrounds of expertise. Every year, hundreds of students embark on an academic journey that offers new experiences relevant to their careers.

To gain more insight into the program, The Granite Tower (GT) has interviewed Professor Chu-Young Kim (Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, University of Texas at El Paso), a prominent researcher in natural product antibiotics and antibiotic resistance mechanisms, who has been teaching in the ISC since 2013.

GT: What makes the KU ISC so special and why did you join as a faculty member to teach at the program? Also, please tell us the courses you teach.

Prof. Kim: I enjoy teaching at the KU ISC because I get to interact with students from all over the world, including KU students. I also have a lot of control over the content and the format of my courses which allows me to explore new teaching methods and materials. I teach ISC103 (Introductory Life Science) and ISC105 (General Biology I), which are two important course prerequisites for many STEM majors.

GT: Throughout the years, you have met many students in the ISC. What is one memorable experience about your students and what do you wish to tell them?

Prof Kim: The most memorable students are those who participate a lot during class discussions. Every student comes with unique life experiences and views. It is important to share your knowledge, curiosity, and opinion with the rest of the class because it makes the lecture ten times more interesting. And interesting classes lead to better learning. I want to encourage all students to speak up during class, no matter which course they are taking. This does not have to be a question to the professor about the lecture material. Just blurt out whatever is going through your mind!

GT: Not many students are familiar with the ISC program. Why should more students join the ISC?

Prof Kim: There are so many reasons to participate in the KU ISC program. You can meet classmates and professors who are probably quite different from those you know at your home institution. The way that ISC courses are taught are also different from what you are used to. You have six weeks to thoroughly explore one of the most dynamic and lively cities in the world, Seoul. At the end of the ISC, you will not only have earned course credits that can be transferred to your home university, but you will also have developed new perspectives about the world and about yourself.