Calling All Students! Join Our Advice from Seonbae Project (Apply by 3/15)
Dear Students,
Are you looking for a meaningful way to help your fellow students while gaining valuable experience and getting to know your peers from your own and other departments? We invite you to join our semester-long Advice from Seonbae project—an informal, student-created English-language guidebook designed to support international students as they navigate life at SNU.
In Korean culture, seonbae (선배) means a senior within the same organization, and seonbae play an important role in guiding and helping their juniors, or hubae (후배). International students often miss out on this network, leaving them to figure things out on their own. Our project aims to change that by preparing unofficial live English-language guidebooks that offer real, department-specific advice—just like a kind seonbae would share with their hubae.
📖 About the Project
This initiative started in the Anthropology Department in 2021-2022 (https://bit.ly/AdviceFromSeonbae), but now, we want to expand it to more departments to make sure international students in different programs get the support they need. While the SNU Office of International Affairs provides excellent general resources, every department has unique processes and expectations—some of which might not even be written down and are passed from one generation of students to the next. Korean students learn about such things from their seonbae. We want our guide to become like such a seonbae to international students.
We are looking for department-based teams of 3-7 students to develop customized guides for their degree programs (BA, MA, PhD). We also welcome exchange students to create a guide tailored to their specific needs. If you’re interested but don’t have a team, still consider applying—we’ll try to match you with others to form meaningful groups, either by department or by focusing on general “Life at SNU” topics.
🌏 Who Should Join?
- Students (both Korean and international) who want to help their peers
- Students who enjoy sharing knowledge and helping others
- Students who are passionate about internationalization at SNU
- Students who want to meet motivated peers and build a strong SNU international students network
🔥What You’ll Do
- Attend monthly workshops of 2-3 hours, led by project coordinators, who will provide step-by-step guidance for what your team needs to accomplish in the following month
- Identify real challenges that students in your department face through autoethnographic methods and peer interviews
- Find practical solutions by interviewing department assistants and administrators
- Capture those solutions in a structured, easy-to-use guidebook format in Notion
- Submit a brief monthly report on your team's progress
- Help spread the word about the project to the SNU community
- Receive a certificate of participation from OIA at the end
- Earn the gratitude of your hubae and be remembered as a great seonbae by future generations 😉
🏆What You’ll Gain
Being part of the Advice from Seonbae project isn’t just about helping others — it’s also a chance to learn, grow, and add valuable skills to your CV! Here’s what you can gain:
- Hands-on Research Experience: Learn and practice interviewing techniques and autoethnographic research methods to uncover the real needs of students in your department.
- Guide Creation & Publishing: Collaborate with peers to create a practical, useful guide that will be publicly credited to you in the final version.
- Official Recognition: Receive a Certificate of Appreciation from the SNU Office of International Affairs and the Advice from Seonbae team upon successfully completing the project.
- Network Building: Connect with motivated, like-minded students across different departments, building a supportive international student network.
- Leadership & Teamwork Skills: Work closely in teams, take initiative, and contribute to something that will benefit future generations of students at SNU.
This project is a great opportunity to gain real-world skills, contribute to your community, and leave a lasting impact at SNU — all while earning the gratitude of your future hubae! 💙
⏳Time Commitment
Beyond the workshops, each team will spend about 6-12 hours per month working on the project. To keep the workload manageable, we recommend teams of at least three members.
Both Korean and international students are warmly welcomed! If you’re interested, come join us in making SNU a more supportive place for all students. Your experience could make a huge difference for future hubae!
🌟 Project Coordination
- Oxana Jeoung-Rakova, Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology, Vice-Ambassador of EASA Applied Anthropology Network in South Korea
- Olga Fedorenko, Professor of Anthropology
- Tomris Silan Kurt, MA student at the Department of Anthropology
- Milica Radovanovic, MA student at the Department of Anthropology
This project is supported by the Office of International Affairs (OIA).
To apply, fill in this Google Form by March 15, 2025.
[We’d love to include everyone who applies, but due to practical constraints, we may need to give priority to participants from the same department when teams can be easily formed. Unfortunately, this means we might not be able to accommodate everyone — but we truly appreciate everyone's interest and enthusiasm!]
Interested? Have questions? Feel free to reach out—we’d love to hear from you at advicefromseonbae@gmail.com!
Let’s work together to build a stronger seonbae-hubae community at SNU! 😊