Back to Yonsei as a College Student

 

Yelena Denisenko

 

American/Brown University

 

 

 

Since she was thirteen, South Korea has been a part of Yelena Denisenko’s life. It was then that she first learned about K-Pop and Korean popular culture through her friends; as with many Korean girls of the same age, she watched Korean dramas and swooned over heartthrobs like the actor Yoo Gong who starred in Coffee Prince. Two years later, in 2011, her fascination with Korean culture led Yelena to take part in a two-week exchange program in Seoul. In a stroke of good fortune, Yelena’s host family lived near the café where Coffee Prince was filmed, allowing her to easily visit in person.

 

The program included a great deal of sightseeing in Seoul and elsewhere in the country, but some of the activities took place on Yonsei’s Sinchon Campus. Yelena’s brief experience at Yonsei left quite an impression on her, and she was delighted when she learned that she would be able to study on the same dynamic and beautiful campus as a university exchange student.

 

A Computer Science major, Yelena enrolled in a computer networking course at Yonsei. But she also studied Korean language, along with courses focused on the reunification of Korea and the ethics and social meaning of artificial intelligence (AI). The latter is offered by the Department of Theology, and Yelena calls it the “best class”she has taken in university, as it relates to her major and has made her think more critically about the social changes AI will bring about and their ethical consequences.

 

While Korean popular culture led to her first visit to Korea, she has developed a deep interest in traditional Korean culture. In particular, she is fascinated with Buddhism, both in terms of its important role in Korean history and the architecture and location of its temples, which offer breathtaking views of the Korean landscape. At the same time, her course on Korean reunification has spurred her to learn more about the South Korean government’s policies and the different generational perspectives on this issue.

 

Yelena’s semester at Yonsei has also made an impact on her future career plans. Before coming to Yonsei, she saw herself working for a tech company in Silicon Valley or in the northeastern U.S.; now, however, she is open to the idea of working in a Korean company like Samsung or LG Electronics. To this end, her participation in the AKFN Listeners Club (ALC), one of Yonsei’s oldest student clubs, has prepared her for job interviews in Korean companies.

 

Yelena is “100 percent sure” that she would recommend studying abroad at Yonsei to her peers at Brown University. In particular, she appreciates the opportunities provided for students to engage with Korean culture and society through tours and volunteer activities. She also cites the quality and diversity of Yonsei’s courses and the fact that all the credits earned abroad transfer to Brown.