March 15, 2024

The Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) has agreed to sponsor a unique summer study abroad trip to Korea for Columbus State University students to learn more about the country, its history, its culture and its growing importance to the economy of Georgia and the United States.

With the automaker’s investment of $60,000, this program will underwrite half of the travel expenses for each student—now called HMG Scholars.

“The Hyundai Motor Group’s support is an incredible note of support for our year-long effort to engage our students in a study of the legacy of the Korean War and the relationship between the Republic of Korea and the United States during the war’s 70-year armistice,” said Dr. David Kieran, Columbus State’s Col. Richard R. Hallock Distinguished University Chair in Military History and an associate professor in its Department of History, Geography & Philosophy. “It also makes our trip to Korea much more financially accessible to students who are eager to learn more about one of the world’s major economic powers.”

HMG owns the United States’ only Kia manufacturing plant, which is based in West Point, Georgia. The company is expanding its U.S. footprint by investing $7.59 billion to build its first dedicated full-electric vehicle plant near Savannah, and an additional $5 billion to build an EV battery cell plant in Bartow County, Georgia. The two new manufacturing facilities are expected to employ 12,000 workers.

The Korean-owned company’s economic impact on Georgia is just one aspect of U.S.-Korean relations that Columbus State students have been studying this year. The university has hosted a series of lectures and panel discussions focused on the Korean War’s legacy and post-war relations between the Republic of Korea and the United States. With about 5% of the university’s faculty being Korean-born, it’s been a natural progression to explore the two countries’ enduring partnerships, military cooperation and economic impact.  

Speakers and panelists for those events have included Gen. (ret.) Robert B. Abrams , former commander of U.S. Forces Korea and ROK/US Combined Forces Command, a research associate and professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, and Dr. Daewoo Lee, an associate professor in Columbus State’s School of Policy, Justice & Public Safety and a South Korean native who has been planning the symposium series alongside Kieran.

A final panel is scheduled for April 4 and will include Ambassador Sangpyo Suh, the Republic of Korea’s Consul General in Atlanta; Kia Georgia President and CEO Stuart Countess; U.S. Congressman Drew Ferguson of Georgia's 3rd Congressional District;  and Troy Stangarone, senior director and fellow of the Korea Economic Institute.

The panel will begin at 7 p.m. in the university's Cunningham Conference Center on its Main Campus. RSVPs are requested. It is presented by the D. Abbott Turner College of Business & Technology in partnership with the college's Butler Center for Research & Economic Development, the Hallock Endowment for Military History, and the School of Policy, Justice & Public Safety.

In late May, Kieran (pictured), Lee, and retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Pat Donahoe will accompany a group of as many as 15 Columbus State students to South Korea for a two-week experience that will be an endnote to the symposium series. The study abroad excursion will include visiting several Korean War conflict sites; some of the military installations where U.S. troops serve today; and the think tanks, consular offices and corporate headquarters that highlight the enduring relationship between these countries.

Each year, more than 250 Columbus State students participate in study abroad programs—which include opportunities in as many as 20 countries. These include popular international destinations and places off the beaten path like Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Jordan, Tunisia and Botswana. Short-term and semester-long study abroad trips allow students to travel the world as they accrue course credit toward earning their degrees.

Those experiences are vital to developing lifelong skills beyond classroom knowledge, according to Dr. Eric Spears, the university's Mildred Miller Fort Foundation Eminent Scholar and Chair of International Education, as well as the executive director of the university’s Center for Global Engagement.

“We’ve developed our education abroad programs in a way that encourages students to develop the critical soft skills necessary for a successful career once they leave CSU,” he explained. “The majority of students who come back to me after they graduate tell me that their study abroad experience helped them land their first job, or get their first graduate school placement or assistantship, or entrance into a professional school.”

The U.S.-South Korean connections are especially unique in Columbus, the professors said, since the university has already developed exchange programs with several South Korean universities, and nearby U.S. Army Fort Moore is where many South Korean Army officers come to train in the United States.

Media contact:
Michael Tullier, APR, Executive Director of Strategic Communication + Marketing, 706.507.8729, mtullier@columbusstate.edu