Editor's Note: Analicia Haynes, storytelling coordinator at Illinois International, shares a first-hand account from her experience covering the first day and the last day of a month-long summer break program for students from South Korea's Chungnam National University. The AI and Generative Models: From Algorithms to Applications research program was coordinated by Global Education and Training and took place from July 13 through August 7, 2026 on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus.
URBANA, Ill. — On July 13, 2026, I joined colleagues from Global Education and Training as they took a cohort of undergrads from South Korea’s Chungnam National University on a campus tour.
The cohort consisted of 24 students who participated in a four-week program centered on researching AI and generative teaching models. Monday, July 13, was the first day.
During the tour I did my usual thing. I snapped some photos, cracked some jokes, then disappeared in the background to watch new memories unfold. That’s my favorite part.
However, this time when I lingered behind the pack, I wasn’t alone. Mugyum Kim, a fourth-year undergraduate at CNU, walked with me in the back and listened, intently, to my version of the tour.
We chatted about campus, America, and Chicago, I asked about South Korea and told him the only word I knew how to say in Korean was, “yes,” which was all thanks to a Korean show I watched a year ago.
Occasionally he took out his phone to translate a word he couldn’t remember, then he apologized even though I told him his English was perfect.
As our conversation continued, I asked him what he was majoring in, and I was surprised when he said “AI.” I graduated college in 2020, which really isn’t that long ago, and back then (dare I say) we weren’t really talking about AI much less majoring in it.
Fast forward six years and it’s a whole new world.
Researching AI
The AI and Generative Models: From Algorithms to Applications research program that Kim and his cohort participated in was organized by Global Education and Training and CNU and spanned from July 13 through Aug. 8.
Students from CNU's School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence and the Department of Artificial Intelligence in the College of Engineering were selected to participate in the four-week program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Romit Choudhury, Ph.D., a professor in The Grainger College of Engineering, was the course instructor for the program.
With Choudhury’s guidance, the students learned about generative AI and were tasked with completing their own research projects that they presented at the end of the program. Their final projects covered a range of AI-specific topics, from verifying the safety of text-to-image models, restoring missing objects, and developing image-inpainting control technologies.
The students wrote research papers and created posters displaying what they learned, and— accordingfeaturing the program in the Times— seven of those papers are scheduled to be presented at international academic conferences.
What They Learned
Coincidentally, I saw Kim again on the last day of the program when I attended the recognition ceremony inside the Illini Union. He was one of two student speakers featured during the ceremony and graciously volunteered to be interviewed for this story afterward along with his new friend, Jonghyeon Park, a computer science and engineering major at CNU.
Sitting at a table in an almost empty room, I asked them separately about their month. I wanted to know how things went, who they met, where they went, and of course what they learned. I also wanted to know how they found out about this program and how they ended up in Champaign, Illinois.
Kim's journey started with his friends. They asked him if he knew about this AI-centered program that would take them to the United States for a month. That was the first time he had heard about it, and he had never been to the States before, so he figured he’d join his friends and apply.
During the month, he learned alongside his old friends while also meeting new ones from CNU. Together they gained a new academic perspective and learned little details about AI that he said he’ll take back with him to CNU.
He also learned how to dig deeper into his research to get right down to the foundations rather than simply scratching the surface.
“Research is like a puzzle,” Kim said. “I don’t really like sports,
Park learned about the program through an advertisement posted on his school’s website.
He wasn’t an AI major, but he still applied because he wanted to learn how to make an AI program himself. He sent in his application, took a test, was interviewed by a few professors, then got accepted.
“AI is very impressive to me because it can do everything I want it to do,” Park explained. “When I applied for this (it was because) I really wanted to learn how to make my own AI program, how to build my own program.”
When I asked him if he did, in fact, learn how to build his own AI model, he said almost. He may not know how to carry out the step-by-step process to build a program, yet, but he does know how to explain that process, something he didn’t know how to do a month prior.
Park and Kim said the program overall was difficult. For example, they each mentioned that certain mathematical equations and concepts were hard to grasp at first. However that didn’t stop them from learning.
They each acknowledged that despite the difficulty of the program, they were appreciative of it because it expanded their purview and helped them more than they originally expected. Now, they will take what they learned and continue to study AI when they return to South Korea.
Park said when he goes back, he will learn how to use the applications and models and have discussions with his friends and professors about problems that arise.
“I want to share my knowledge,” Park said.
Kim said he learned so much from his classes and was incredibly grateful for his instructor—Professor Choudhury.
“(Choudhury’s) appreciation for the field has left a deep impression on me,” Kim said in his speech during the ceremony. “In his class when (something) finally clicked, I felt a sense of joy.”
He added that being in the U.S. gave him the chance to make many new friends, and although it had only been a month, he said studying alongside them became a regular part of his life.
Their Favorite Memories
Not only was this program a wonderful academic experience that gave Park and Kim new ways to approach AI models, but it was also a truly moving life experience packed with memories that, I'm certain, will stay with them forever.
I asked them what their favorite takeaways from the program were and in addition to talking about what they learned in the classroom, they talked about what they learned outside the classroom.
When they shared these stories with me, their faces beamed.
“My favorite experience was traveling to other cities like Chicago and Springfield and learning about American culture from new American friends I met in my dormitory,” Park chuckled. “They taught me how to speak English and taught me their slang. I was so impressed by the people (I met). They were so kind.”
He noted that he also adored the food, and when I asked him what food he was referring to, he laughed and said, "definitely American food, like a fat sandwich (a sandwich from the restaurant Fat Sandwich Company) and a cake (milk)shake. That was so good it impressed me because it was so sweet, maybe too sweet."
Kim said his favorite memories were tied to the people he met.
He found folks to hang out with, study with, connect with, and have fun with, especially on the weekends.
"Every day I got to hang out with friends. With my CNU friends, my AJOU friends, and my American friends,” Kim smiled. “That was fun.”
Leaving the interview that day, and now writing this story, I got emotional. I’m talking, eyes watering, throat closing, choked up kind of emotional.
When I first met Kim on July 13, I asked him if he was nervous.
He nodded, gave a half smile, and said, “yes.”
Fast forward a month later, and it was like I was talking to a whole new person because he had so much more confidence.
I think that's the unintentional benefit someone gets from a program like this one— they realize their own capabilities and grow.
Four weeks earlier, Kim told me that his English wasn’t good. Now, he’s giving speeches in front of a room of his peers, explaining his intense research to people with a million questions, making new friends with complete strangers, and he’s doing this all while speaking a completely different language he said he hardly knew.
Seeing someone’s confidence evolve in a matter of weeks, in live time, is so moving and so inspirational, hard not to get emotional.
Analicia Haynes is the storytelling coordinator at Illinois International. She can be reached at ahayn2@illinois.edu.