The first step on a path toward a better world is bringing people from diverse perspectives together, particularly those who have the skills to spread that message.
That’s why New Mexico State University Journalism and Media Studies assistant professor Gain Park worked with academics in South Korea to bring students from both countries together.
In late November, students from Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) in Seoul, South Korea, arrived in Las Cruces for a 4-day collaboration with NMSU students. They were divided into four groups that included both NMSU and SKKU students. Each group decided on a topic and created a video to promote one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals such as reducing poverty, how to provide better access to clean water, shrinking inequality and other issues.
Park, who taught at SKKU before coming to NMSU, sees the program as a great way to expand her students' thinking by creating blended teams with students from half a world away. “Student groups selected their own topics with their own reasoning,” Park said. “They came up with unique solutions of young, creative minds and created products to yield behavior and attitude changes about these issues.”
Four groups of students from Seoul and Las Cruces had just four days to come up with a campaign to tackle four global issues to impact global citizens through a short video. The videos were shown in a public showcase on the last day of the visit. The winning project is about coping with language barriers, a 3-D animated video to promote coexistence in a multicultural society.
“I worked with my team number four about how we can cope with multicultural obstacles like language and why it is important for us to find ways to understand each other,” said Changyeong Kim, a senior political science and economics major at SKKU. “During our discussions I discovered how different we are but even though we are very different, we respected each other and made an effort to understand one another, treating each other’s culture with respect. It was hard to speak with native speakers as English is not our first language. The NMSU students were impressive, they were very eager to make us feel comfortable.”
After graduation, Kim plans to open a business that has social value to contribute to the society.
“It’s important to participate in exchanges like this,” said Jennifer Hazlett, an NMSU junior journalism and media studies major who plans to become a reporter. “Our cultures and languages may be different, but actually we have a lot in common with the SKKU students. Everyone is more similar than we think we are. It was important to have these conversations to see our differences and our similarities.”
Yewon Kim is a senior communication major at SKKU with plans to work in the sports marketing industry. “We chose our project because of the problems of not fairly funding teachers. We wanted to let people know how important teachers are worldwide. I always wanted to work abroad and wanted opportunities to exchange opinions with people from different cultures. The most important thing I discovered is how the NMSU students welcomed us. I feel grateful for them. While we were working together they put no pressure on us because English is our second language.”
“They're in the same age range, but the ideas each bring into their projects can be very different,” Park said. “So, one of the most important benefits for our students is to broaden their views and help them explore different perspectives.”
“SKKU and NMSU students have different cultural and social backgrounds, yet they share global issues as global citizens,” said said Seyoung Lee, the director of SKKU’s Knowledge Center for Innovative Higher Education. “Our goal in this project is to help the students learn from their differences and find universal values to overcome the differences to make real-life changes.”
SKKU’s Knowledge Center for Innovative Higher Education, which sponsored the program, issued participation certificates to all the students who participate in the project.
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CUTLINE: First row from left: professor Sunhwa Park, Alessandra Tablón Carrillo, Yewon Kim, Sunjin Yang, Saron Song, Juliana Trujillo, Laisa Carnero, Tatum-Miranda Betancourt, Alexandria Garcia (Lex); Second row: professor Gain Park, Julian Cano, Bryan Ochoa, Seunghyun Yoon, Joowoong Lee, Matthew Galey, Jennifer Hazlett, Alessandra T. Carrillo, Changyeong Kim, Adrian Isabelle Alonzo, Miranda Romero, Seoyoung Kwon, Jemin Ahn, Eunkyo Kim, Hanbeen Lee, professor Sooyeon Leem, and professor Jeff Hunter