“There have been continuous requests for and attempts at creating a program which can help foreign students with their studies,” said Chung Hyejung, director of Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. “Many foreign students were suffering from low grades or even academic probation. We hope the CACA can help these students to fully adjust in Korea and feel they belong to the Ewha community.”
Through the program, international Ewha students are able to get one-on-one tutoring from Korean Ewha students. The selected tutors are mostly students who previously achieved exceeding grades in the same course. This way, the tutees can receive more customized tutoring.
“In the beginning of the semester, we asked international students to indicate two or three courses they are having difficulties with,” Chung said. “Then, we recruited voluntary Ewha students as tutors. For the tutors, the program will help them improve their teaching and language skills, and enable them to understand different cultures.”
One of the key features of CACA is its organized management system. Starting from Sept. 11, each tutoring group will have at least 10 sessions during the semester. After this semester, the teams will be evaluated, to select the best teams.
There are suggestions that the program needs to be expanded.
“My tutee from North Korea had difficulties taking major courses given in English,” said Yi Sun-a, a sophomore majoring in Nursing, who participated in the trial-run as a tutor. “Along with the importance of English in Nursing, I tried to explain the English terminologies in an easier way. As time went by, she gained more confidence and we became much closer as well.”
According to Chung Da-eun, she hopes to promote the program through diverse promotion channels. She wishes to be able to provide the program for more students who need help but do not even know about the existence of the program.
Kang Na-min
jina6502@ewhain.net