Education major Alina Fore dreamed of taking a study-abroad trip to South Korea.
She faced a roadblock, though, when she started to look last fall: Indiana University East doesn’t have a study-abroad program that would get her there.
IU East students will be going this school year to Belize, Costa Rica, India, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Guyana and Europe. But, not to South Korea – yet. So, Fore researched, designed and implemented her own month-long study-abroad trip to Yonsei University in Seoul, which is the capital and largest city in South Korea.
She also paid her own way after efforts fell through to secure some financial aid from national programs.
Going solo was no problem from IU East’s end. In fact, she was encouraged to do so by Julien J. Simon, professor of Spanish and director of study abroad. He said other students could do the same.
“She made all the arrangements on her own. I helped her a little bit but she did everything (else) by herself,” Simon said. “She only had to make sure that the courses taken were going to count towards her degree.”
He said Fore’s study-abroad trip carried more significance because it was a first for a student in the Education Department. The 21-year-old from Eaton, Ohio, is the daughter of Cindy and Jason Fore. Alina Fore is on track to graduate next May with a major in elementary education and a minor in special education. She is the first in her family to attend IU East.
There is a lesson in her pioneering study-abroad experience, Simon said: “Even if students don’t find anything at IU East or in the IU-system, they can still do study abroad on their own.”
Fore said it was worth it to go her own way.
“I would definitely encourage others to do something similar,” she said.
Simon said one caveat of going solo is that it’s hard to get university funding, but the students may qualify for national help, such as the Gilman Scholarship. Four students from IU East have recently been selected for Gilman financial aid for overseas education.
Fore said she faced some uncertainties, but was helped through them by Simon and Carla Bowen, her adviser in the Department of Education.
“They were very supportive of my efforts, tried to make it happen,” Fore said. “No matter what roadblock we hit, we made adjustments.”
She did extensive online research of American companies that specialize in study-abroad experiences. She mapped out her trip with the help of an adviser from The Education Abroad Network (TEAN).
Fore said another closely related resource was the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). For information about those programs, visit https://teanabroad.org and ciee.org.
Before embarking on her trip, she participated in a Zoom meeting through TEAN that offered tips on such things as what to pack, transportation and banking. TEAN provided off-campus housing, which was like a long-term stay hotel, and offered some sightseeing trips. The students ate meals at the school.
Fore left June 22 and returned July 26. She spent two extra days doing sightseeing in South Korea. She paid for the trip with her own savings and a loan from her parents.
The roots of her trip began at New Student Orientation when she first started at IU East. Students were encouraged “to think of a place if they had the opportunity to go some day (on a study-abroad trip).”
She started looking in earnest in the Fall Semester of 2023.
“I really wanted to go to South Korea for a while, somewhere different, not common,” she said. “I looked up other places, too, to make sure I was set on going there.”
Why Yonsei? 
“It’s known for being very beautiful, has a lot of international students and is the site for many Korean movies,” Fore said.
She took a Beginning to Korean Language Course along with nine fellow Americans whose home states ranged from Texas to Tennessee and California to Pennsylvania. Other participants hailed from Australia, Hong Kong and Japan.
“We learned about their alphabet, how to introduce ourselves, how to count and order (at restaurants) – the basics you need in South Korea,” Fore said about the course.
She enjoyed interacting with her fellow American students:
“We were very close. It was a great experience.”
Many have maintained contact through Instagram. 
Fore hopes to work as a second-grade teacher at an elementary school in Ohio.
IU East offers six study-abroad programs in the 2024-25 school year. One this fall, Spanish in Costa Rica, and five in the spring: Business in India, Nursing in Belize, Mediterranean Food in Italy, Spain and Morocco, Sustainability in Guyana and Psychology in Europe. Students can still take part in them, except for the nursing course, which is filled.
More information can be found on IU East’s study abroad website.
Some of them have a Canvas page with additional information, Simon said.
It won’t be long until more students will head to South Korea for a school-sponsored study-abroad experience, he added.
A course titled Business in Korea is tentatively scheduled in Spring 2026. It will be led by Sanga Song, assistant professor of marketing.
Images from Seoul, South Korea and Yonsei University, provided by Alina Fore.
