Korean students in Lakeside Dining hall, L-R: business administration majors, Jungsoo Huh ’14, Yanghyun Song ’14, and Jong Sun Jung ’14, and English linguistics major, Hyun Jung Sim ’14.

EVEN THOUGH THEY ARRIVED during a frigid cold snap this January, Oswego gave a warm welcome to 40 South Korean students who enrolled as part of a 1+3 agreement with Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.

They were paired with current Korean students to serve as mentors, and housed in Hart Hall Global Living and Learning Center. Cooper Dining Hall added sticky rice and kim chee to the menu for every meal and Dining Services presented each student with a set of stainless steel chop sticks, the favored eating utensil in Korea.

Their Oswego sojourn promises to contrast considerably from the urban lifestyle at Hankuk University, however.

“It’s very big here,” said Hunmin Jung, a sophomore studying accounting. “We can enjoy nature and go anywhere … here you can enjoy the campus life.”

Several students noted the lakeside location of Oswego and its relative proximity to New York City and Canada as draws to enrolling here. SUNY’s reputation for academics is also important, students said.

President Deborah F. Stanley, right, chats with newly arrived Korean students Xioadong Lou ’15, sitting at center, and Sicong Wang ’15, standing at left, during a welcome social for new international students in Sheldon Hall Feb. 1.

“Oswego has a good program in accounting, better than in Korea, I think,” said Jung, who would like to become a CPA. Majors of the Hankuk students vary, though, from business administration to political science to English literature.

Na Kyung Kwon ’15 was eager to get started on her graphic design degree at Oswego while Yungmin Chung ’14 looked forward to watching hockey and getting involved in a student organization.

“I want to improve my speaking and writing skills,” Haengwoo Cho ’13 said,
sharing his goal with several others taking part in the program. Almost equally universal: the desire to network and make friends stateside.

The Office of International Education and Programs, a cross-campus committee and the college’s new Institute for Global Engagement have worked with Korean faculty and students to make sure the college is ready in terms of welcome, housing, curriculum, professional development and campus culture.

With the arrival of some 40 degree-seeking South Korean students in January, SUNY Oswego’s international student population topped 200 for the first time.

“We are positioned to welcome a large cohort of international students, and in so doing to grow the profile of international students on this campus,” said Joshua McKeown, director of international education and programs. “I feel very confident of where SUNY Oswego is in terms of welcoming international students. We have seen tremendous campus buy-in.”

McKeown and others pointed to numerous benefits of a growing population of students from other countries: amplifying intercultural awareness in an era of globalization; boosting interest among Americans to study, teach or do research abroad; establishing relationships with students from new global economic powerhouses; and presenting the opportunity for lifelong friendships.

— Shane M. Liebler

Physics Professor Shashi Kanbur works with his advisee Danielle Citro ’13 on an astrophysics project she will present at a national conference.

SUNY OSWEGO PHYSICS PROFESSOR SHASHI KANBUR travels to India this spring to open a new collaboration in Delhi for course development in astrophysics and research in realms including the evolution of stars.

A travel award from the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum and the American Physical Society will fund his trip to the University of Delhi.

Among Kanbur’s objectives are to develop and teach a two-week course, with an emphasis on statistical methods, to graduate and undergraduate students on topics related to stellar evolution, the extra-galactic distance scale and cosmology. With the assistance of professor Harinder Singh of the University of Delhi, he plans to work with researchers to construct software for the automated classification of variable stars. Also he aims to draft a grant proposal for the U.S. National Science Foundation to bring American undergraduates to India for summer research and to develop a joint online course in astrophysics between SUNY Oswego and the University of Delhi.

A long-term goal is to establish Delhi as a research partnership in SUNY Oswego’s Global Laboratory program, Kanbur said. The Global Laboratory offers students hands-on, immersive problem-solving opportunities in international laboratories in promising fields of study such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

There are two Global Laboratory sites in India, at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and the University of Calcutta, as well as in Brazil, Congo, Costa Rica, Republic of Korea, Taiwan and more. For more information on Oswego’s Global Laboratory program, visit oswego.edu/globallaboratory.

Jerry Oberst ’77, front left, associate director of admissions at Oswego, poses with more than three dozen first-year South Korean college students among the 53 eligible accepted, contingent on success this year, for admission to Oswego for their final three years of undergraduate study. Oswego was also represented by Peace Li of the Office of International Education and Programs.

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul held ceremonies in February for 200 first-year students potentially destined to study for three more years at seven SUNY colleges. Of those, 53 students have been admitted, contingent on success this year, to spend their final three years at Oswego, starting in spring 2013.

“Partnerships such as this one, designed to facilitate degree-seeking transfer students from outside the United States on 1-plus-3 (years) and 2-plus-2 programs, are gaining traction,” said Joshua McKeown, director of international education and programs. “We have multiple agreements, starting with China and Korea, and the HUFS program is the first to bear fruit in such a substantial way.”

Jerry Oberst ’77, associate director of admissions, represented SUNY Oswego at ceremonies in Seoul to kick off the series of agreements between Hankuk and SUNY colleges.

SUNY last June announced plans to increase international enrollment by 14,000 students over the next five years, to approximately 32,000 across all 64 campuses.

Saawan Pathange M ’02 and Pei-Chang “Jessie” Wu M ’03 traveled the world to meet, fatefully, at SUNY Oswego. Specifically, their world-class romance developed in Penfield Library.

“We had our spot,” said Saawan with a smile. He and his wife, Jessie, now living and working in New York City, visited Oswego in the fall as part of the School of Business Alumni Symposium.

Pei-Chang "Jessie" Wu M '03, left, and Saawan Pathange M '02 made their unlikely acquaintance at Oswego and are now married. Both work in the financial industry in New York City.

The couple found love and a great education during their time as Lakers.

“Because I was here, I was able to focus,” said Jessie, a native of Taiwan who currently works as an associate at Neuberger Berman. “To be here, to learn from other students — that was an important part of it.”

Both came to Oswego through the International Education program.

“It’s quiet,” recalled Saawan, a native of India who came to Oswego via Sydney, Australia. “You have time here and there are not many distractions.”

Both said faculty and staff were an important part of their Oswego experience as well. Professor Chuck Spector in business and Gerry Oliver, now retired from the International Education office, were particularly helpful to them.

Saawan and Jessie come back to campus whenever they can and are very encouraged by the quality of students and expansion of programming in critical areas like international business.

“I think there has been tremendous progress,” said Saawan, a director for UBS Investment Bank. “It’s good for students to experience [what they do] at this level.”