6-7, KPop Demon Hunters, clothing styles, entertainment, and nourishment are all part of culture and can be spread very far and wide. For instance, KPop Demon Hunters, a very popular movie that has spread across the United States rapidly, is originally a Korean film. This just showcases how influential culture can be and how truly it matters throughout the world.

Getting involved with activities, especially extracurriculars such as art,  is very important  not only for children, but also for young adults and high school students.

According to the National Endowment for the Arts, art has proved to be astonishing in improving this age group’s academics. “At each grade level from kindergarten through fifth grade, taking arts classes outside school was positively linked to reading, math, and science scores. High school participation in extracurricular arts activities was generally associated with positive outcomes as recorded by math scores, high school GPAs, high school graduation, and college GPAs.” This just proves that children and young adults should highly consider participating in the arts, even to the extent as from a different culture. Culture has many influences on people and learning about it is very important. So with that, a South Korean organization has paired up with a location in Minnesota to do just that, with art.

This organization founded in 2020 called Pathways to Cross-Cultural Understanding (PCCU) has done just that with a small town in Cannon Falls, MN. Although the well accomplished organization has been around for six years, it has done various events from Travel Contests, to art, and video and photo contests, including newer events, such as the Global Exchange Project for Teachers. The President of the organization, Hye-Seung “Theresa” Kang, had an interest in cross-cultural issues through her own personal life. PCCU intends to make the adjustment of going from Asia to North America living, learning, and working better, and also to help advance North America’s awareness of Asian cultures. Information sourced from Pathways to Cross Cultural Understanding.

A recent project that the PCCU has completed is The Global Exchange Project for Teachers, which helps students from different parts of the world engage and learn about different cultures. “The Global Exchange Project for Teachers is a collaborative initiative by the Jeonbuk State Office of Education and Pathways to Cross-Cultural Understanding (PCCU) to promote creativity, global competence, and multicultural understanding.” As found in PCCU. Through this project, students were able to express, experience, and engage in these diverse cultures.  

Each teacher, both from the United States and South Korea, were tasked with the job of creating a lesson plan that would be shared with one another to see how each other’s lessons were being implemented in their classroom. Gahwi Han’s 8th grade students from South Korea learned about the Visual Culture around Jeonju city and Korean Art History and Cultural Heritage. On the other hand, Nicolette Hernke, the United States art teacher representative, had her 6th grade students learn about Pop Art which is an art of boldness, wittiness, fun, and repetition. Every student’s job was to create a unique piece of art based around their own culture. Referenced from Work of Gahwi Han and Her Students and Work of Nicolette Hernke and Her Students.

It all comes together when the students complete the lesson plan from the opposite teacher. So, Mrs. Han’s 8th grade students take Mrs. Hernke’s lesson plans and vice versa, and complete them with their own cultural backgrounds and surroundings. Both teachers had a total of two meetings in order to share and discuss lesson plans. “When we met, there would be Professor Kang, the other teacher from Korea, myself, and Teresa had two other people that helped with the program,” Mrs. Hernke explains, “They all spoke Korean and I was the only one who didn’t, but they also spoke pretty good English as well.” As it would seem that language would be a big factor here, it proved to be only minor since everyone could speak English.

Many different art pieces were created based on the knowledge that students had of their culture. One of Mrs. Hernke’s 6th grade students created an art piece of spiderman, while another had the major brand name louloulemon. But when it came time to apply Han’s lesson plan, the 8th grade students from the United States created artwork of cultural surroundings in the United States. Some examples are the Hollywood sign, the Library of Congress, the Statue of Liberty, and the Lincoln Memorial. “I chose the Hollywood sign because we had to pick something that represented the United States’s culture and it is a major symbol for U.S. pop culture,” describes 8th grade art student Lola Winchell.

All in all, the cooperation between teachers and their students was remarkable, and provided each with a memorable learning experience. “It was very interesting because Gahwi Han actually taught in Minnesota at one point.” Getting to learn about one another is a very important part of humanity so that we can better understand the needs of others and have respect for the different traditions people have around the world. According to PCCU “Strength lies in our differences, differences are the source of our cultures.”