Rising senior at Georgetown Day School, Kathryn Finley, will spend two weeks in South Korea Aug. 5-19. Finley received a prestigious scholarship as one of 100 students to attend the fourth annual South Korea Scholarship Program for high school students.

Finley found the two-week program online while searching for free study abroad options for high school students. Though she has been abroad before, she has never traveled to Asia and did not have any previous experience with the Korean language, she told Patch in an email.

But like any good student, she spent the summer studying up on Korean characters, words and basic grammar. The Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) program will offer an intensive pre-departure orientation and a "survival Korean language" lecture.

Finley has a lot to be excited about:

"I am particularly excited about the home stay - I will be staying at the home of a Korean student and his or her family for a weekend while I am there. I look forward to interacting with Korean kids my age as well as eating a lot of authentic Korean food. I also can't wait to explore Seoul and visit the Korean Demilitarized Zone. To be quite honest, I am excited about everything on the itinerary!"

The students attend academic lectures at their respected host institution Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. During the program they take tours and go on cultural excursions. The goal of the program is to foster "understanding and diplomacy between the U.S. and South Korea," according to a press release from CIEE.

Finley said she is used to calling her teachers by their first names, so she is anticipating an adjustment to "the underlying Confucian values as well as
the homogeneity of Korean society," as she described it.

"I hope that this experience will broaden my relatively narrow perspective
on life that comes from being a well-off teenager in the U.S." wrote Finley.