About
Our Mission
Korea Bridge Initiative is a community service organization led by Fulbright ETAs and affiliated with the Korean American Educational Commission. Our mission is to bridge the educational gap by providing free, fun, and educational English camps to underprivileged students throughout South Korea. We primarily focus our efforts towards helping students who do not regularly attend hagwons due to financial limitations, students who attend rural or vocational schools, and students from multicultural families.
Our Pillars
Since KBI was started, we created our programs with three key principles in mind.
Communication
Classes are taught in English to increase students’ speaking and listening skills. We believe this immersive environment is invaluable to our students’ language development. Many of our activities encourage student participation in dialogues and debates.
Culture
Classes often explore American culture, history, and slang to help students better understand life in the US. Furthermore, we highlight the need for global citizenship and the ability to not only understand other cultures but to also be able to explain one’s own culture to others. We hope to prepare our students for careers in an increasingly international society.
Creativity
Classes promote creativity and problem solving through various roleplaying games, art projects and crafts. We encourage students to think outside the box and have fun while learning English with their classmates.
Our Story
KBI was founded in 2012 by two ETA grantees, Jessica Zucker and Thomas Wilson. The first ever program was at the American Corner Gwangju in Mudeung Library, and hosted 21 students from the region.
KBI is an independent community service organization, but works in close collaboration with Fulbright Korea (Korean-American Educational Commission) and the U.S. Embassy in Seoul.