Yonsei Community Based Learning Program

Selected for Seodaemun-gu District Affiliated Project

—Realizing Service Leadership by Connecting with the Community

Yonsei’s Community Based Learning (CBL) program was selected as a “Seodaemun-gu District Affiliated Project” (SDAP), which is designed to facilitate meaningful engagement between the community and institutions of higher learning. Three courses will be offered by Yonsei as part of the project, and each will receive 3,000,000 won in funding. 

The CBL program was established in 2007 through the Open and Smart Education (OSE) Center. Courses offered through CBL allow students to connect theories and ideas from their major courses with concrete, practical learning experiences; a typical three-credit CBL course is composed of a two-hour lecture and a one-hour community activity each week. Since 2007, Yonsei has offered eighty-one CBL courses in a number of different majors, and nearly 2,400 students have enrolled in one of them.  

The courses that will be offered in conjunction with SDAP are Research in Sustainable Cities and Restoration, Administration of Districts and Communities, and Oral Statements and Ownership. For the first, students will consider the necessary elements for creating a sustainable city, and they will conduct their field research in the Sinchon and Yonsei-ro areas. Administration of Districts and Communities will ask students to interview civil servants and community members in the Seodaemun area to gain a better grasp of how such an administrative system functions and to learn the challenges facing district administrators. In the third course, students will meet with various groups and organizations in Seodaemun that deal with youth activities, culture, childcare, and economics; the aim is for students to investigate various socio-cultural interactions and suggest strategies for vitalizing the local community.

Through these CBL courses in Seodaemun, students will gain a finer understanding of the district, while giving back to the community as part of Yonsei’s Service Leadership mission.