Throughout the SolBridge campus, students are playing an active role promoting global awareness and bridging diversity between each other through the “SolBuddy” program.

Organized as an intercultural project binding international students of SolBridge International School of Business with Woosong University students, SolBuddy encourages all participants to share experiences between the Korean culture and the many cultures represented by the international students and faculty participating.  The SolBuddy program does this by pairing students with a ‘buddy’ from another culture. This partnership encourages familiarity between cultures as information is shared such as key celebrations and festivals, languages, traditional cuisine, jokes, music and every element that someone might be curious about. These partnerships are then grouped together as a team for more activities together.

Within the SolBuddy program there are many activities that keep the students active, including “SolMUN”, which is based on the Model UN process, involving debate and political skills as teams discuss and negotiate various global issues. Another activity is “Zubbies” which is part of the “SolBridge Zincubator” program and organized to support new entrepreneurs as they establish their first “Pop-Up Business” venture. Other activities have included partners exploring the different regions, festivals, monuments and national parks within Korea while using the Korean language and designing a group Hoodie then voting on the most popular design. Group activities have included a weekend camp event in a national park, cultural celebrations of key holidays leading up to the New Year, sharing traditional cuisine meals, recipes, wearing traditional costumes, exchanging personal interests in popular culture and music and even a wild celebration of Halloween, complete with crazy costumes, candy and chaos!

While being engaged in different activities together SolBuddy participants learn to view the world from different perspectives. By exchanging experiences personally, everyone in the program is able to develop new communication skills while having fun interacting with each other. You only have to follow the messages left on Facebook by the SolBuddies to see the impact of this program, as exchange students return to their home countries, expressing homesickness for their new Buddy in Korea or Buddies still in Korea updating their international friends on recent events and activities.

As quoted by one participants, “When the SolBuddies are not together, everyone misses their new friends and international brothers and sisters.”

You can follow these activities on the Facebook pages for each group: (Click on the link)

SolBuddies

SolMUN

SolBridge Zincubator and Zubbies