KAIST to the world and the world to KAIST
Mentorship program for exchange students

The exchanges among Universities are dramatically increasing in line with globalization. Total 316 exchange students from KCB have visited other universities in oversea since 2001. There were many outbound students this spring semester as well from Finance MBA and Techno MBA to U.S, Japan, China, France and etc. To replace these outbound students, 21 inbound students from many different countries such as Germany, France, China, Thailand and etc. visited Korea for their exchange programs, and they are already so into Korea and KAIST Business School (KCB).

On January 27th 2011, KCB held a special orientation for 21 special exchange students
Most of these students landed on Korea only one or two day before the orientation. The orientation was designed for these exchange students to let them know the Korea right. The exchange students, who change their clothes to Korean traditional costume ‘Hanbok’ as soon as they entered the location for the orientation, could not take their eyes off the video clip that introduced Korea. They seem to be surprised that Korea has strengths in Shipbuilding, auto manufacturing, and sports as well as IT industry. The foreigners who have blue eyes were getting more interested as they learned about Korean history and traditions. The exchange students also tried Korean traditional bow ceremony called “saebae”. Since most of students were not used to bowing in Korean way, it gave everyone big laugh. They could experience the taste and beauty of Korea through enjoying traditional Korean tea and cookie. Peter Blomeke from University of Mannheim mentioned that he thought Korea is advanced in only semiconductor industry. It was a great opportunity for him to learn Korean culture through trying on Korean traditional costume. On the orientation day, the exchange students accepted Korea with their 5 different senses.

Welcome folks! The mentorship program for exchange students
Through mentorship program, the exchange students were able to build up newhuman network. The mentorship program was designed to connect KAIST students as mentors with the exchange students as mentees and to help exchange students adapt to the new environment well and share a variety of cultures through socializing among mentors and mentees. On February 16th, there was a matching event among 41 mentors and 21 mentees. It was very casual setting that students can get out of the formal environment in class. Especially this year, the role of mentors are highly expected because this time the matching ratio among mentors and entees
are more than 1:1 (with more mentors assigned to less mentees) unlike last year when the ratio was 1:1. It is expected that mentees adapt to the new environment faster than before thanks to this advanced mentorship program. Ling Yang, who had a dinner on the mentor-mentee matching day, mentioned “Korean foods are sodelicious that I don’t want to go back to my own country.” Besides, she expressed her gratitude to her mentor, saying that “my mentor helped me to get used to the life in Korea so fast by helping me to find the bookstore, laundry place, and otherconvenience facilities.” Once the exchange students finish their final exams at the end of May, they will go back to their own countries. They are so excited about making good memories at KCB in Korea for short 4months duration.