POSTECH’s Summer Experience in Society (SES) program is an extremely popular program that nearly all Postechians hope to participate in at least once during their studies. SES is a new type of university education where students participate in internships in industrial and research fields to learn how theory and knowledge taught in the classroom can be put into practice. When the program was launched in the Summer of 2016, 18.1%, and, in the following two years, nearly 25% of students partook in the internship program. The satisfaction rate of the participants towards the program and the companies were very high, being 90% and 89%, respectively. In order to find the reasons for such a tremendous reputation, The Postech Times interviewed Professor Kim Sang-uk, Director of the Office of Admissions and Student Affairs.
Why is our SES program superior to other universities’ internship programs?
Although other universities’ internship programs are mainly for employment and government support projects, POSTECH SES program’s main objective is to provide the best for students’ career exploration and social experience. Therefore, unlike most university internship programs, POSTECH’s SES program is more selective and accommodating. By close consultation with various companies, SES selects excellent companies and conducts a ‘1 to 1 matching’ process between the student and the company to ensure a high accordance between the company and the student. Moreover, professors are sent to every single company during the internship period to conduct interviews with students and their company mentors. The university and departments provide close support, leading to a high satisfaction of the participating students and making POSTECH’s SES so prominent.
What does the University expect for students to achieve through the SES program?
Participants can have a valuable experience which is difficult to attain through lectures. The program will be helpful in choosing future careers, more importantly, it will also provide students the opportunity to integrate into society and waork collaboratively. Moving forward, the development of technology will be extremely fast and relative adaptation to such advancement will be much slower. Theoretical lessons will not be enough to cope with the increasing complexity of real-life problems. Becoming a leader requires experience-based wisdom, and SES can provide students with environments to achieve such SES (Social-Emotional Skills) including emotion control, cooperation, open-mindedness, social adjustment, and task completion.
Can you offer any advice for Postechians, potential participants in SES?
Firstly, please participate in SES at least twice during your studies: once in the field of your major and once in a field that is less related to your major, dividing your experiences in a major company and in a start-up company. Experiencing both categories will be extremely beneficial. Secondly, be prepared; collect plenty of information about your desired company, contacting the ‘Office of Student Affairs’ or your department, and provide an attractive application essay; contact your assigned mentor in advance to prepare for work and work passionately. It is important that gain something valuable from the internship. Lastly, please actively share the information about SES through social media, webpages etc. These things will contribute greatly to creating a better SES program.
