Troy University opens new Korean center

Troy University’s Korean Center, a partnership with the Jeollanam-do Office of Education in South Korea, was officially opened in Hawkins Hall last Friday. 

The center’s official title is the Jeonnam Glocal K-EDU Center, but it’s known as the K-Center. It was set up to establish a hub for glocal (global and local) learning for both Troy students and South Korean students. 

“Through this partnership, having the K-Center at Troy University, we can provide a diverse experience for the students in Troy, and then we can develop some kind of study abroad program to the Jeollanam-do in Korea, so they can all have more experience – international experience,” said Dr. Win Koo, the director of Troy’s HSTM program and liaison with the Jeollanam-do Office of Education.  

The focus on international experience for students is not new to Troy University, as it has always placed a high priority on study abroad programs and international student opportunities. The K-Center will allow for more frequent and easier access to these opportunities for students to gain the global exposure the university advocates for so heavily. 

“From day one at Troy we wanted to become more diverse, but in a very healthy way, and I think by creating opportunities for students and faculties from other countries to come here and to share their culture, their history, their language with us – and their values – makes us better as a people,” said Chancellor Dr. Jack Hawkins Jr. “I think diversity is the key.  

“Too often we fear differences, but when you understand differences then you can understand differences and those weaknesses become strengths. We want our students to be competitive on a global scale, and I don’t think you can really be globally competitive if you’re not globally aware.” 

Koo believes opportunities like this are valuable and hard to come by for U.S. students and citizens in most cases. 

“I think students in the U.S. are having some types of experience with other countries, particularly the countries close to the U.S., more so than the farthest, the Asian countries,” Koo said. “Those having the global experience are going to be the future leaders of nowadays’ international industry.” 

Lilly Ortloff, a junior event management major from Atlanta, is in the Festivals and Special Event Tourism class that helped set up and run the event. She, along with other students in the class, showed up wearing Hanboks – traditional Korean dresses – to emphasize the importance of opening up to foreign cultures and practices. 

“I grew up travelling and being able to experience other cultures, and I think that it’s the best thing that has been given to me,” Ortloff said. “It opens your mind up to a lot about other people in the world and gives you way more experiences.” 

Troy University has international students from all around the world, but the focus on expanding Korean culture on campus was not a coincidence or an accident. While one of the university’s goals with the K-Center is to explore culture differences, another is to understand and embrace the similarities and collaborative opportunities between American and Korean culture. 

“I think it’s really important for the people of America to realize the strong alliance that exists between the United States and South Korea,” Hawkins said. “Korea, by its very nature, shares a belief in freedom, a belief in democracy, a belief in the free market system [and] family values, those same beliefs and values that we hold dear in America and particularly at Troy University.”