Now, at the halfway point of our trip, it is astonishing to think that we have only been in Korea for three days, given the amount we have seen and done, thanks to our classmates who have organized this incredible experience.
Our Korean food adventured deserves its own separate write-up, so for now, we will focus on the tourist highlights and company visits.
- Nanta a non-verbal performance and the longest running show in Korea, which is best described as a cooking-themed version of Broadway’s “Stomp”
- Gyeongbokgung Palace Tour
- Shopping in Dongdaemoon
- Korea War Memorial Museum
Yonsei University
Our visit to Yonsei University began with a presentation from Dr. Hahn, Columbia Business School PhD (‘81), about the transformation of the Korean political and economic environment during the past 60 years. Learning about the growth the country has undergone during a relatively short timeframe was astonishing. We then had an exchange with Yonsei MBA students and went on a guided campus tour where we got to “experience” the high-tech Samsung Library. We were blown away by the flat screens scattered throughout the first floor that served as large touch-screens allowing students to do everything from using an interactive campus map to reading the news from nearly 100 countries in any language imaginable. The whole group was struck by the beauty and energy of the bustling campus; based on our initial impression of Yonsei, it is easy to see the appeal of attending this prestigious and thriving university.
-Liz Millman, CBS ‘14
Severance Hospital
We were graciously received by Severance Hospital, the flagship branch of the Yonsei University Health System, Korea’s first modern medical institution founded in 1885 by American medical missionary Dr Horace Allen. The medical faculty gave us a presentation on Yonsei’s work in robotic surgery, which at a cumulative caseload of 8,000 surgeries, is one of the world’s most experienced centers of robotic surgery. Yonsei has made impressive breakthroughs in expanding use of robotic surgery beyond urology and gynecology into general surgery (GS), where it has performed by far the most procedures in the world in part due to the FDA having not yet approved robotic surgery for GS in the USA. We toured Severance, built in 2005 and designed by American architects Ellerbe Becket, which resembled more of an airport terminal than a hospital with ubiquitous kiosks resembling ATMs for patients checking in. Severance is 100% paperless with exclusive use of electronic medical records (EMR) and has over 1,200 beds. Nearly all of us were left wishing we had such an efficient, comfortable, and modern hospital back home in New York.
-Paul Brandenburg, CBS ‘13
Lotte Co., Ltd.
Nanta!
Seoul at night
Outside the Palace
the Palace
at the Lotte Home Shopping Network
Life’s tough decisions at Lotte Confectionary Factory
In front of the tanks at the Korean War Memorial Museum