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The  (SKSP) is an online course for high school students sponsored by the  (91�Թ�) and the at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Annually, around 25 exceptional high school students from throughout the United States are selected to engage in an intensive study of Korea.

Celebrating its inaugural year in 2013, SKSP provides students with a broad overview of Korean history, literature, religion, art, politics, economics, and contemporary society, with a special focus on the U.S.–Korean relationship. Ambassadors, top scholars, and experts throughout the United States provide online lectures and engage students in live discussion sessions. Students also complete readings and weekly assignments, with the coursework culminating in an independent research project. Final research projects are printed in journal format. Students who successfully complete the course will earn Stanford Continuing Studies Program (CSP) credit and a Certificate of Completion from 91�Թ�, 91�Թ�.

Selected students participated in 8–9 "virtual classes" via the Internet with the course commencing in February 2013. From 2014, two courses will be offered per year. Students should expect to allot 3–6 hours per week to complete the lectures, discussions, readings, and assignments. Since this is a distance-learning course, however, students can structure most of the work around their individual schedules. Although intensive, this program will equip participants with a rare degree of expertise about Korea that may have a significant impact on their choice of study and future career. Students do not need to know the Korean language to participate in this course, and there are no student fees.

Sejong Korean Scholars Program Award Event

This year, 3 students will be honored for their exceptional performance in the SKSP program. The finalists were chosen based on their final research papers, which were reviewed by a committee, and their overall participation and performance in the course. 

SKSP Finalists:

Madeleine Han, Dougherty Valley High School, CA

Katie Lee, Choate Rosemary Hall, CT

Andrew Pester, Lawrence Free State High School, KS

The finalists will be presenting their final research papers during the  on July 31st.

By Sangsoo Im, Correspondent, Yonhap News, San Francisco
Translated by Annie Lim, coordinator and instructor, Sejong Korean Scholars Program, 91�Թ�.

91�Թ�, one of the most prestigious American universities on the West Coast, has launched an unprecedented online lecture series on Korea for American high school students. 

This is the first time a Korean Studies program has been made available to high school students.

Created as part of the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (91�Թ�), this one-semester program offers courses on Korean history, culture, religion, art, and politics, consisting of lectures, online discussions, and assignments.

The name for this program is the Sejong Korean Scholars Program (SKSP).

The program, which launched last month, is managed under the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) under the leadership of Director Gi-Wook Shin and is funded by the Korea Foundation. 

Alongside Gi-Wook Shin, David Straub (former U.S. Department of State’s senior foreign service officer specializing in Korean affairs), Charles K. Armstrong (director of Center for Korean Research at Columbia University), and Michael Robinson (professor at Indiana University) are some of the top scholars involved in the program.

The program is free, and the instruction is in English. Approximately 60 students applied, and 27 were selected on the basis of their grade point averages, essays, and letters of recommendation.

SKSP’s coordinator and instructor Annie Lim says, “The students who applied are interested in a variety of topics ranging from Korean history to Korean pop culture.”

Upon completion of the courses, the students will receive credits through Stanford Continuing Studies.

A similar program on Japan has been in progress at 91�Թ� for 10 years.

91�Թ� is the first among American universities to create textbooks and curriculum on Korean studies for high school students and has begun to reach out to the 50,000 high schools in the United States.

APARC’s director and one of the founding members of SKSP, Gi-Wook Shin points out, “Along with Yoko’s Story and so on, American junior high and senior high schools’ distorted history textbooks containing Korean history have received a lot of criticism, but there has not been much effort to rectify it. Through SKSP, we hope that American high school students can acquire a broader perspective and expand their range of knowledge and understanding about Korea.”

91�Թ� has been transformed from a small local high school program begun by Professor Victor Hao Li (formerly of Stanford Law School), a number of Stanford students, a visionary group of nearby teachers and educators, and me in 1973 into a major national project. 91�Թ� began as a modest start-up focused on Asia and has evolved into an extraordinary asset contributing to broad global education. It is an honor to have been in on the beginning of such a noble effort.

—John Lewis, William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics (Emeritus);         faculty member

Today, the efforts of the Stanford Program on International and Cross Cultural Education (91�Թ�) to internationalize the K–12 classroom span a broad range of topics—security, the arts, the environment, global health, and international relations. With the dawn of 2013, 91�Թ� looks back to its roots and celebrates 40 years of promoting the study of China. The roots of the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (91�Թ�) date back to the Bay Area China Education Project (BAYCEP), which commenced operation in 1973. John Lewis was instrumental in the founding of BAYCEP, and several other scholars of Chinese studies, including Albert Dien, Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures (Emeritus), were actively involved in BAYCEP’s early years and still remain involved with 91�Թ� today.

The first director of BAYCEP was Dr. David Grossman, 91�Թ�’s founding director. He noted the following about the creation of BAYCEP:

“The original impetus was the Nixon visit to China in 1972, and the realization that the general public and students were not prepared for this radical shift in geopolitics. The problem was how to bridge this profound knowledge gap.” 

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A BAYCEP publication from the 1980s

The purpose of BAYCEP was to serve as a bridge between Stanford experts on China and K–12 schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. This was accomplished in two ways—China-focused curriculum development and teacher professional development. By 1976, other projects on Japan, Africa, and Latin America were established, and they along with BAYCEP came to form the nucleus of 91�Թ�.

Continuing the 40-year tradition of teacher professional development on China, 91�Թ� staff members Jonas Edman, Naomi Funahashi, Rylan Sekiguchi, and Johanna Wee recently collaborated with Dr. Clayton Dube, Executive Director, , University of Southern California, to lead a series of China-centered sessions at the annual European Council of International Schools November Conference. The sessions were held in Nice, France, from November 22 through 25, 2012, and included an intensive daylong institute called “China in the Humanities.” The institute comprised four theme-specific mini-sessions—Dynasties, Cultural Revolution, Rural and Urban China, and China in the World—each of which involved both a lecture and a pedagogically-focused curriculum demonstration. The featured 91�Թ�-developed curriculum units (with primary Stanford academic advisors listed) were (Albert Dien, Professor Emeritus);  (Andrew Walder, Professor, Sociology);  (Scott Rozelle, Director, ); (Karen Seto, former Assistant Professor, School of Earth Sciences); and (Gi-Wook Shin, Professor, Sociology, and Director, , and Daniel Sneider, Associate Director, ).

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Authored by Rylan Sekiguchi, Curriculum Specialist, and HyoJung Jang, Curriculum Writer

As 91�Թ� moves into its fifth decade, the staff will continue its China-focused curriculum development and teacher professional development seminars. 91�Թ� recently began developing a curriculum unit on sustainable development in China in consultation with Len Ortolano, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering. Also, from January 2013, 91�Թ� will begin its twelfth year of offering two 30-hour seminars on East Asia—one for middle school teachers and one for high school teachers. The seminars feature lectures by FSI and faculty and curriculum demonstrations by 91�Թ� staff that focus on China, and other northeast Asian nations.

In addition, 91�Թ� plans to create of a high school student-focused national distance-learning course on China that is parallel to 91�Թ�’s current distance-learning course offerings, which include the on Japan and the .

With Stanford President John Hennessy’s announcement of the K–12 initiative in 2006, Stanford renewed its long-time commitment to improving public education in the United States. 91�Թ� will continue to make FSI scholarship in the areas of security, the arts, the environment, global health, and international relations accessible to young students. FSI believes it has the opportunity and the obligation to utilize its resources to help address issues facing our schools.