Sereimony Sek, a Global Korea Scholarship alumna from Cambodia, speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the newspaper's office in Seoul, May 10. Korea Times photo by Jung Da-hyun
As Korea intensifies efforts to attract and retain global professionals, the Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) program plays an important role in bringing international students to the country. This is the fourth in an interview series that follows the journeys of GKS alumni, offering insight into how their experiences reflect the opportunities and challenges shaping Korea’s evolving global workforce.
Studying, finding employment and settling down in a foreign country is rarely a smooth process — even for recipients of the Global Korea Scholarship (GKS), a government-funded program that covers tuition, living costs and language training for outstanding international students. What it cannot guarantee is that they stay.
Sereimony Sek, a GKS alumna who arrived from Cambodia at 17 and now works as an artificial intelligence (AI) developer at a Seoul telecommunications company, says the difference often comes down to something simpler: whether students ask for help.
“I think it’s important to seek help when we need it because I’ve seen some GKS students give up their scholarships and return home for various reasons,” she told The Korea Times in a recent interview.
“Because we come here through the GKS program, we already have a strong support network around us, so students shouldn’t be afraid to reach out to others or ask for help.”
Sek believes that such support systems and alumni networks can play an important role in helping international students adapt to life in Korea, continue their studies and pursue long-term settlement opportunities.
Sek first arrived in Korea in 2018 as an undergraduate GKS recipient. After completing a one-year Korean language program in Busan, she went on to study computer science at Yonsei University. She now works as a developer at a telecommunications company, curating data used for fine-tuning and pretraining AI models.
While the scholarship’s financial support initially attracted her, she said the language program and support system surrounding GKS students ultimately became the most meaningful part of her experience.
“The one-year Korean language program really helped me to not only learn the language but also understand Korean culture and integrate into life here,” she said.
Source: Korea Times News
