Welcoming Message
Dear fellow international students and friends,
It is an honor to have the opportunity to represent international students here at Seoul National University (SNU) and to be the president of the SNU International Students Association (SISA).
Briefly, with the aim of representing 1,400+ international students at SNU, SISA was officially founded in March 2007. The truth is that many international students tend to face a lot of difficulties while studying and adapting in SNU. Mainly due to cultural differences as well as social integration problems. Therefore, our main activities in SISA have been to communicate and help to resolve those problems by organizing various events and gatherings throughout the semester. We have also been making an effort to better provide students with important information and academic updates.
During the 2019 Fall semester, we have successfully organized a total of eight events—including several new events for the international student community in SNU. For starters, we have started making “Fact Fridays”, which aims to provide international students with useful information or details related to life in Korea. Furthermore, we also organized several new events for the first time this past semester: a “Graduate Students Gathering”, where graduate students can gather and share their experiences while meeting new friends from other departments; and a “One-day Winter Excursion”, where students can embark on a day trip to explore new destinations and create unforgettable memories with their fellow peers.
All in all, I believe SISA has made great improvements ever since its establishment with the help and support from the university, especially, the Office of International Affairs (OIA). However, it cannot be denied that there are still a lot of issues and concerns that have yet to be addressed.
In my opinion, the most important thing we can do in order to resolve such issues is to adapt an open mindset and embrace the fact that we all have very different backgrounds, cultures and experiences. Despite that, there is nothing wrong with being different. If everyone could learn to understand each other’s differences and help each other out, they would realize that a lot of problems are not as difficult as they seem.
It was a really big honor for me to be able to serve the international community during the past semester and I would like to extend my thanks to every single member for being there with me. We, as SISA, promise to continue dedicating our best efforts to the international community for the upcoming 2020 Spring Semester.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the newly admitted international students and wish the best of luck for the upcoming semester to all of the international students in SNU.
You are more than welcome to engage in upcoming SISA activities and stay connected with us! Should you have any suggestions, please feel free to send us an email or contact us through our social media platforms.
Thank you,
SISA President
Suvd Lkhagvasuren