Summer programs have failed serious students. We're here to fix that.

Every year, thousands of undergraduates finish introductory Korean summer programs with the same frustrating reality: nowhere to go next. They've toured the palaces, tried the traditional crafts, posed in all the hanboks. Now what?

We refuse to let bright students plateau at cultural tourism.
We refuse to treat advanced undergraduates like beginners.
We refuse to accept that summer programs must dead-end at appreciation.

We demand better.

Smart undergraduate students deserve methodology, not museums. They deserve theory, not tours. And research-based education that matches their intellectual capacity.

We train undergraduates who decode rather than describe. Who investigate rather than appreciate. Who build knowledge rather than collections of experiences.

Korea deserves an approach capable of matching its complexity. Summer experiences that transformative require methods that rigorous.

Our approach upgrades everything: street-level ethnography meets critical theory. Our standards elevate the field: Vogue meets Vice meets the American Journal of Sociology. Our goal transforms students from Korean culture consumers into emerging Korean studies specialists.

This is what undergraduate summer programs in 2025 should be. Advanced. Analytical. Uncompromising.

When you're ready for the next level, you come to us.

KARSI: Korean Advanced Research & Studies Institute
Where serious Korean studies begins.