Ewha-Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Global Student Partnership (GSP) has successfully wrapped up its programs on Aug. 14 under the theme of “Connecting Culture and Minds in Asia”.
Ewha-GSP is a student-run academic and cultural conference co-hosted by Ewha and a partner university. The main goal is to train students to become global leaders with a deep understanding of the two partner countries. Students who are interested in cultural exchange can participate and come up with their own diverse academic activities to run the program.
Alongside Ewha-Harvard College in Asia Program (HCAP), which was held during the first quarter, the second Ewha-GSP, which is Ewha-CUHK, launched its new programs this summer.
Students ran and managed the programs themselves by planning the whole conference including schedules for seminars, off-campus activities and events, finance and recruiting sponsors, accommodation, and more. They also received additional help through emails from the counterpart university students who contributed to the preparation process.
“We had two meetings per week: one as a team and another as a whole,” explained Lee Yun-joo, from the Department of Psychology. “From the team meetings we were able to organize the project more systematically and reduce mistakes and reflect on various ideas by receiving feedback from the meeting we had as a whole.”
Ewha-CUHK GSP was divided into two parts as the Seoul conference was held at Ewha for a week in July and the Hong Kong conference was held at CUHK in Aug. for one week as well.
To be more specific, the Seoul conference was held from July 25 to 31 with 16 members, comprised of eight representatives each from Ewha-GSP and CUHK. The students organized various programs under three big categories: history, culture, and food to create a bond between the two different countries by exchanging core cultures.
For the academic programs, there were lectures on “History of Modern East Asia”, “South Korea’s Entertainment Industry”, and “How to Make Korean Traditional Liquor”. The cultural exchange programs included Seoul History Tour, visiting traditional markets and Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS), Korean food cooking class and more.
The Hong Kong conference was held from Aug. 8 to 14, which was carried out by students from CUHK. The students organized lectures related to East Asian history and culture in terms of academics. Also, the members of Ewha-GSP were able to directly experience Hong Kong’s culture by visiting its famous tourist attractions, such as, Tai Kwun and The Peak.
“All the activities were great, but the most memorable one was the lecture on “Multiculture and South Asian Minorities in HK” where we learned Kabaddi, India’s traditional sport,” said In Eun-ji, a sophomore from the Department of German Language and Literature. “The professor wore an actual turban for the lecture, which made it more remarkable. We all played Kabaddi and had a chance to learn a part of Hong Kong’s minority culture.”
As the project came to an end, the members of Ewha-CUHK explained how they found meaning through their achievements by working as a team.
“The most challenging but meaningful part was that the project was run entirely by students,” said Kim Hye-yeon from the Department of Korean Education. “We were proud at how we hosted such a big project within eight members with the help of professors and representatives of CUHK.”
Marking Ewha-CUHK GSP’s success as a starting point, Ewha’s Office of International Affairs mentioned plans to expand the exchange programs to other continents and continue to hold new programs in the future.