Students from Millersville University of Pennsylvania visited Chonnam National University (CNU) as part of their end-of-year, two-week excursion to South Korea on May 25. They attended a special lecture on the May 18 Democratization Movement by Kim Hyung-ju (Assistant Professor, May 18 Institute CNU) and joined CNU International Student Supporters (CIS for a short recreation, lunch, and a tour of CNU's campus. Lee Kyu-min (Senior, Dept. of Public Administration), president of the CIS, said, "This is our second exchange activity with visitors from American universities. We thank Millersville students for being great guests. We aim to promote our school through various international events."

    Christina Kinney (Acting Director of International Programs) said, "Korean culture is really popular right now in the United States. So I thought it would be good to teach the students how Koreans export their culture around the world. We came to Gwangju specifically to learn about modern history and the May 18 Democratization Movement because I think there are a lot of parallels with U.S. society. I wanted the students to see that even though we traveled halfway across the world that there are a lot of similarities between people of different cultures." Speaking about the lecture she attended that morning, Sheilannie Batista (Graduate, International Studies) said, "Even if it's been a long time since the May 18 Democratization Movement happened, people still talk about and stand for it as if it happened yesterday. It's nice to see how much Koreans put an emphasis on remembering historic events." After their stay in Gwangju, which consists of a visit to the May 18 National Cemetery and the Jeonil Building, Millersville students plan to revisit Seoul, to conclude their trip to Korea.

By Lee Younny, Editor