[Going to the Scene of IT Education Innovation] Kookmin University's First 'Global Project'

"There are many people who want to talk about their feelings but have no place to talk. Many people don't know how to deal with negative emotions, and they can't afford psychological counseling or therapy. The 'Moody Talkie' app we developed targets these people."

On the 19th floor of a shared office in Irvine, Calif. University students explained the 'app' they developed in front of people. The app allows people to simply record their moods every day, and AI analyzes their emotions and provides comfort through chat. The students spent the past four months conducting market research in the U.S., designing the app, and developing the logo.

Kookmin University junior Hwang Yoon jae explains the app he developed with his teammates at a shared office in Irvine, California, U.S., last month. /Kookmin University

The students are part of the Global Project Program, which Kookmin University introduced for the first time this year. The goal is to spend six months in Irvine, California, learning IT and English, working on projects, and then intern at a Silicon Valley IT company for six months. Students receive $5,000 for tuition and housing, and can earn up to 12 academic credits. Starting with 17 students this year, the program will send 30 to 40 students each year.

The program is similar to the "co-op" program at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Co-ops, which involve a semester of study followed by a semester of internship, are considered a successful educational model because of their high job placement rates. Microsoft founder Bill Gates once said that his top choice for new hires was a graduate of the University of Waterloo. It shows that university education is not just about knowledge, but also about real-world experience.

Students are taught by mentors who have worked or are working at Google, Amazon, Twitter, etc. in the US. The mentors give them projects that are actually needed in the industry, and they have to work in teams to deliver in three to four months. "Create a web-based service targeting the U.S. market," "develop a cloud service," etc.

The idea for the program came from Lim Sung soo, a professor at Kookmin University's School of Software. Since 2015, Lim has been working on a project to place his students as interns in Silicon Valley, a program he expanded to the university's headquarters when President Jung Seung Ryul took office last year. "I felt sorry for the students who were majoring in software and only preparing for big companies or civil service exams," said Lim, who came to the university after working at a startup, "so I decided to send them to Silicon Valley and show them the big world."

At first, he called representatives of Silicon Valley companies he knew and asked them to "take our students as interns." Later, he said, they started to ask him to send students again this year because of the quality of the students from Kookmin University. As a result, over the past 10 years, more than 90 students have interned at Silicon Valley companies, and 12 have settled in the region.

"There are 250,000 Chinese and Indians in Silicon Valley's IT workforce, but only about 6,000 Koreans," says Lim. "We need more Korean students to enter Silicon Valley, which is the 'major league' in baseball, to gain experience," said Prof. Lim. Lim is also the CEO of Grep, a developer training and evaluation platform for programmers.

Among the local residents, Ahn Young-mi, who works as a web designer at Walmart, also serves as a mentor for this year's juniors. "I'm teaching them about the culture of Korean and other American companies and how to write a resume," Ahn said.

One of the students in this year's program was hired as an intern at a mobile phone accessories company last month. Other students have been offered internships at companies. "There are more job opportunities for developers in the U.S. than in Korea," said Son Dong-seok, a fourth-year software convergence major. "I think working on U.S. projects will help me get a job in the future."

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