This summer, 13 Students and two faculty members are traveling to South Korea to study Korea’s remarkable economic journey in the post-war period, while strengthening their skills and deepening their understanding of leadership in action in the world. Please enjoy these blog posts below from Jessica ’26 and Naomi ’28 about their student-led outings across Seoul, from golf simulators to thrifting and river walks, where students put leadership into practice by navigating cultural unfamiliarity, time constraints, and teamwork while reflecting on their growth in communication, adaptability, and initiative.
By Jessica ’26:
We woke up bright and early Sunday morning ready to tackle another busy day in Korea. At 8:30 AM sharp we had our daily morning debrief dissecting the question of the day and elaborating on yesterday’s experience. Once we indulged in a fulfilling conversation about the initial leadership objective, we separated into our student-led exploration groups. This would be an opportunity for the students to enhance our leadership skills through distributive leadership roles in a group and individual desires/enjoyment. In these groups we sharpened our plan, devised roles, and prepared to take off in what should be a successful student leadership mission within our chosen groups
Prior to this moment we separated ourselves into 3 groups. One group had a desire to enjoy golfing and utilized this entertainment choice to enhance their own individual leadership skills by teaching one of our guides to golf. The second group desired to thrift, finding the meaning of leadership through Korean culture and creativity. And the last group, my group, simply wanted the freedom to further explore the depths embedded within Korea, by exploring a city, and valuing quiet relaxation at the Han River. Intertwining this idea of relaxation, nature, industrialization, with leadership and Korean culture.
After more planning for our student-led exploration, we continued to navigate the hot sunny day and took a bus to the Leeum Samsung Museum where we were lucky enough to meet Katie Yoon who kindly greeted us and toured us around the museum, while giving us the freedom to explore its uniqueness through our own lens and create our own interpretations. The museum was very erratic. Specifically, there was a special exhibit in a dark room which, in my opinion, significantly enhanced the uneasiness of the moment. At the end of this tour many mixed reviews were later expressed ready to be unraveled during that night’s debrief session. After touring the museum, we headed out to lunch hosted by several alumni who were kind enough to answer any lingering questions, as well as speak on their experiences at Deerfield.
Once lunch came to an end, we said our farewells to the Deerfield alums and headed off to our next task of the day which was visiting the National Museum of Korea where our peer, Keoni, gave us a presentation on Korean history, with an additional drawing activity. This was a great opportunity for leadership practice. We toured two exhibits where Korean history was artistically expressed. Then we had the freedom to explore and enjoy the depths of the museum, on our own. This was also an opportunity to compare the Leeum Samsung Museum we toured previously and how its effect may differ from the National Museum of Korea.
By Naomi ’28:
One of the main pieces of itinerary today was the student-led exploration, which was where students planned and led trips for the faculty showing them around specific areas of Korea with an objective in mind. The group split up into three teams. One group went to the flea market in Dongmyeo, another went to a golf simulator, and one went to Seongsu City as well as the Han River. In all the trips, students had to navigate challenges and struggles as they explored a country as leaders where they did not speak a language or know the culture as well. Some strengths the groups fostered were communication and positive spirit while some of the weaknesses we discussed were lack of time management and the lack of planning ahead with possible setbacks in mind.
With this exploration overall, we were able to apply the different leadership skills we learned throughout the trip so far and find needs for new ones through this hands-on experience.
