Bridging the Gap
Korea Bridge Initiative Is Helping Disadvantaged Youth
In 2012, Jessica Zucker was a Fulbright English teaching assistant working at a vocational girls’ high school in Gwangju when she noticed her students’ lack of educational opportunities. Out of the 600 seniors at her school, only 12 were preparing for the suneung–Korea’s college admissions exam–and those that wanted to pursue higher education were often discouraged from doing so. She recalls walking home from school and complaining to Thomas “Taxi” Wilson about how one of her hardest working students was upset because she wanted to apply for university, but the school principal had urged her not to. Though Zucker’s students were smart, they lacked the resources to compete with wealthier peers. Being upset by her “own inability to help,” her students inspired Zucker to do something. She partnered with Wilson—a fellow Fulbright ETA—to found the first branch of the Korea Bridge Initiative—also known as KBI—in Gwangju. According to Zucker, “what started as a vision to help disadvantaged Korean students at [her school] ended up becoming a much larger program.” The following year they expanded KBI to Jeju province.
Three years later, KBI continues to grow in its Gwangju and Jeju locations with the current coordinators establishing frameworks for expansion into other cities. Gwangju KBI currently serves 30 students from Gwangju, Naju and Mokpo—the largest cohort of students to date. Jeju KBI, which rotates each semester between Jeju City and Seogwipo—recruits students from every high school administered by the Provincial Education Office and each semester serves students from between six to 10 schools.
According to Erin Slocum—one of two current co-directors of the Gwangju branch—KBI is a program “committed to bridging the educational gap in Korea.” The program attempts to do this by providing weekly English classes which emphasize English as a communicative tool as well as creativity and cultural exchange. “KBI’s mission is to provide free educational opportunities for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to practice conversational English,” Slocum says. Korey Morgan—who co-directs the Jeju branch along with Amanda Tse—emphasizes that though the Gwangju and Jeju KBI are very different administratively, both branches “coordinate [the volunteers] many talents [and] resources to better the KBI program and ensure it is here serving our communities for many years to come, long after the current leadership has moved on.”
To ensure that KBI continues to successfully serve its communities, this year the coordinators worked together to introduce two new initiatives targeted at providing even more English learning opportunities. Due to its successful partnership with the education office, the Jeju branch has attained widespread interest among English teachers and Jeju National University students interested in volunteering with KBI. This allowed the organization to create KBI Junior–a version of KBI aimed at middle school students. Morgan says they recognized the “real need to reach under-served students before they reach high school and at a time when [KBI] could make a large impact on their educational needs.” On May 9th, the KBI Junior pilot program was successfully completed, thus opening the door for permanent implementation.
In Gwangju, co-director Mathew Goldberg is spearheading a new scholarship program. Among the various other programs that Fulbright Korea runs is the Fulbright English Immersion Program—a two-week immersive English camp which incorporates American cultural education through the inclusion of American junior counselors. Having noticed how many of his own economically underprivileged students wanted to study English in an immersive environment, Goldberg was inspired to create the KBI Scholarship. It awards two KBI students from each of the branches who have perfect attendance with tuition to attend the Fulbright English Immersion Program. The scholarship is funded through various fundraising efforts, the most notable of which is a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of raising $5,000—enough money to provide four $1,000 scholarships and establish an expansion fund to open KBI branches in other Korean cities. When asked what she thought of the scholarship program, Zucker expressed excitement that “such an incredible opportunity” was being made available to those students who can’t afford it but “would benefit the most from [a] specialized learning environment.”
At its core, KBI is a program that seeks to improve the lives of Korean students by expanding their educational opportunities in an exciting environment. KBI has succeeded in reaching out to the Gwangju and Jeju communities because it challenges students through fun lesson topics like dream boarding, hip-hop lyrics analysis, and poetry writing. Woo Chang, a second year student at Kukje High School in Gwangju who participated in KBI for two semesters, described the experience as “useful and fun” while adding that he was happy to have participated. One thing has not changed since Zucker and Wilson first had the conversation that inspired KBI’s founding: KBI participants’ dedication to providing engaging English educational opportunities to Korea’s students.