Summer Courses at International Universities is a program where GIST
undergraduate students attend summer courses at prestigious institutions around
the world. I applied to Cambridge University because I could learn more fields in
science as well as have ample opportunities for cultural experiences. I took classes in “Renewable Electrical Power,” “Machine Learning and Algorithms,”
“Nanotechnology,” and Shakespearean literature. Through team projects, the courses I have taken led me to discover what each discipline entails and develop an interest
in them. Among them, “Renewable Electrical Power” was the most impressive for
me. It was interesting to learn through a team project about which condition is the
worst condition to build a wind farm. Though I was worried that the contents of lectures would be confusing, even more so because they are delivered in English, I had fun during the three weeks thanks to friends who shared this fantastic adventure, a local assistant who led us and help us get through, and wonderful professors who said to us that we could interrupt them if they started to talk too fast.

World Friends ICT Volunteers sends teams organized by universities
specializing in science and engineering as well as software education to
developing countries. The groups teach ICT technology, Korean language,
and Korean culture to address the issue of information gap. I taught local
students in Calea Ferisiri, in Stauceni, near Chisinau, the Moldovan capital.
We gave lectures for six hours a day, mainly focusing on IT, Korean, and
cultural contents delivered by different teams. IT component involved
Microsoft Office, Photoshop and Java. Korean education included short
phrases in Korean for children and even some Korean songs for adult
students. Culture classes featured Korean food like gimbap and japchae,
as well as making Korean traditional handheld fans and traditional Korean games. We went for picnics in the suburbs during weekends when we had no classes. The students we taught could barely speak English. As we could not communicate, we had to use body
language and Google translate. However, they approached us without hesitation. We were so touched when some students thanked us on the last day. We did not feel any hardships during this one-month volunteer experience.

The Industrial-Academic Cooperative Internship Program provides hands-on
industrial experience in a research field related to students’ specializations and finds them different opportunities. I did an internship in a company called Proapptech,
that develops new medicine. This company develops treatment solutions for gout;
more specifically, a solution that prolongs in-body half-life by conjugating HSA,
a protein, and UOX, a type of enzyme that dissolves uric acid. What I did was
seperating and refining proteins. Because I am very interested in the process of
developing new medicines, the opportunity to gain hands-on experiences in the field, even for a brief time, has been invaluable for me. I could get a sense of the big
picture and learned how to address issues by chaning variables. Also, even though I did not take any lab-related course in biological
science, I could learn basic procedures for separating and refining proteins.

This program sent students to attend the Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Program at Technion University in Israel. Similar to Korea, Israel is a new
country that was born only 70 years ago. However, unlike Korea, Israel does
not have many large conglomerates, and most companies are just startups.
Hence, there are many support programs for a startup business.
The lectures consisted of lean startup, entrepreneurship, and Israeli culture and history. Lean startup involves the education of startup models.
We learned to structure ideas and survey the market, analyze ideas from the standpoints of consumers, firms, and individuals, and run mock startup
projects in teams with students from all around the world.
The most impressive part of the program was the ‘entrepreneurship’ lectures. A professor said, "You’ve got ten minutes to go outside and earn KRW 3,000.” I also gave a presentation about ventures in Korea and had opportunities to have extensive conversations outside of
classes. Lectures on Israeli culture and history made me feel closer to Israel, overcoming psychological barriers.