COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — A little more than two weeks after Columbus State University students and faculty left on a two-week study abroad trip to South Korea, they returned to the classroom for a final day of class.
It was a day for reflection after a school year’s worth of instruction surrounding the Korean history, culture and its military- and business relationship with the United States. The programming and study abroad trip coincided with the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice.
“The Korean War has a reputation as the forgotten war. It’s the war that doesn’t get much attention, sandwiched in between World War II and Vietnam,” said Dr. David Kieran, one of the CSU faculty and staff leaders on the trip.
Kieran CSU’s Col. Richard Hallock Military History chair and has moderated panel discussions about U.S.-Korea relations across the past school year. He worked with CSU’s Daewoo Lee and retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Pat Donahoe to lead the discussions and curriculum which students on the trip, as well as community members, had access to over the course of the school year.
“Having spent a year thinking about it, reading about it, holding the panel discussions that we had here at CSU and now going to Korea with the students, you really see what a critical of event it was in the 20th century, not just for South Korea,” Kieran continued.
Students agreed that the curriculum and trip had given them new perspectives and passion for Korean history, business and culture.
“It was emotionally impactful to see the different monuments and memorials for the war,” said Daphne Bryant, a sophomore at CSU. “It was really beautiful to see the respect and commemoration.”
Another student, senior Danielle Blake, talked about the visible impact the Korean War has had, even 70 years later.
Blake said, “It was interesting to see how different aspects of that just impact their whole life and how there’s just museums everywhere specifically focused on that war and the impact that it had on the nations [involved].”
For other students, including senior Zachary Brundidge, the trip highlighted the still changing and developing relationship between the U.S. and Korea following the war.
“We have fostered this relationship that has created such an economic superpower that South Korea is today,” Brundidge said.
He continued, “It started off as one of the poorest countries in the world following the Korean War and now is in the top 20 of global GDPs and it’s just beautiful to see this relationship blossom from this horrible war.”
Senior Sonya Mahon focused on the integration of Korean business in the U.S., with brands like Kia having major manufacturing plant in Georgia.
“I grew up with Kia and Hyundai cars on the streets but there’s a chance that you know, that myself of someone in my family might be working in their factory here in the near future,” said Mahon.
In the next years, CSU officials hope to make the Korea course and a speaker series at least a bi-annual offering.
Hear Daphne Bryant and Danielle Blake:
Hear from Zachary Brundidge and Sonya Mahon: