Like a every college visit, our day started bright and early. We departed from the airport at 8:30 am and rode the subway which took us about half an hour to get there. Upon arrival, I began to notice a change in the scenery between downtown Seoul and Seodaemun ( where Yonsei is located), There more teenagers out on the street,, and the environment had many more trees making it look like the greener part of Seoul. Our visit round the campus began with two students, Lily and Minho who offered to be our tour guide on this trip.
Yonsei has 3 main campuses which are the; International campus, the Wongju campus, and the Sinchon campus which we visited today. The international campus was only for freshmen because it gave them the opportunity to create a social life amongst their peers, since most of their high school life was spent cooped up studying to get into such a prestigious institution. The Sinchon campus is also called the green campus because it has over 300 hundred trees planted around the campus which creates a vibrant atmosphere amongst its students.
After our first tour with the Yonsei students, we were taken to lunch at their campus cafeteria. I was very surprised to see the variety of food options they were serving and also that they served mostly traditional Korean meals. I found this very pleasing to see because it enables the students to eat home-made meals even thought they might be away from their homes. After out tour, we asked questions to our various student tour guides. Our tour guide Minho, who is currently a senior nanoengineering student at Yonsei, explained to us the various cultural differenced between what studying in Seoul and the United States looked like. He explained that students interacted with professors in a more professional manner than we would be used to, and that several of them had either already accepted in exchange programs or were in the process. Foreign exchange program is a very dominant part college education in Korea and several students are encouraged to participate.
After our student interactions, the president of the student life on campus, gave us a more professional overview of each building explaining to us the significance of each statue and how they contributed to the development of Yonsei University in general. For example; Yonsei had several statues of eagles and their mascot was also and eagle. She explained that, being a Christian private university, they chose the eagle because it is the bird that is the most referenced in the bible and it is always associated with greatness.
After our campus tour, we were led to the school of engineering, where we were given a welcome speech by the Dean of electrical engineering at Yonsei, who explained the different engineering majors and minors offered by Yonsei, and how these majors are refined by introduction to early internship possibilities alongside working with employers while enrolled at the university. The dean emphasized severally that Yonsei is one of the best schools in Korea and in Asia as whole, particularly due the specificity of its tracks, the exposure to potential employers and they active participation with international universities and students. As international student, I would firmly say, Yonsei is the place to be.
After touring the School of Engineering, we were taken to the biotechnology center at Yonsei, where we were introduced to independent startup labs that focused their research on the creation on organoids from stem cells, and the monitoring of neural activity in mouse. As we visited the lab, we had the opportunity to observe a mouse brain under a microscope, where we saw how the neutrons were converted into photons to monitor brain activity and response to stimulus. Additionally, we were also introduced with the concept of creating organoids from stem cells, where an organ would be grown to full size into a patient after the cells are introduced into the patients’ bodies. It was a very exciting experience for me in particular because my engineering conference paper at PITT was focused on the treatment of cancer through the use of animal models like mice.
Once our tour ended, Professor Yun, encouraged us to visit Hondae, which is considered the Downtown Oakland for Yonsei Students. It was truly a different experience from downtown Seoul in that, the streets were less crowded, there was music playing on every alley and there were restaurants serving diverse cuisines all around. It really made me feel like I was back on Pittsburgh campus.