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The Stanford Program on International and Cross-cultural Education (91�Թ�) serves as a bridge between FSI’s research centers and elementary and secondary schools throughout the United States. Over the past year, 91�Թ� curriculum writer Rylan Sekiguchi and Joon Seok Hong (MA, East Asian Studies, 2007) have been developing a curriculum unit for secondary schools called “U.S.–South Korean Relations” in consultation with Professor Gi-Wook Shin, director of the Korean Studies Program (KSP). The KSP was formally established in 2001 at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center with the appointment of Professor Shin as the founding director. “U.S.–South Korean Relations” is the result of 91�Թ�’s first formal collaboration with the KSP.

For more than half a century, the United States and South Korea have been close and strong allies, a relationship nurtured under war and the pursuit of common interests. Despite this long and established alliance, U.S.–South Korean relations and Korean history are not adequately taught in American secondary schools. “U.S.–South Korean Relations” seeks to fill the gap by exposing students to the four core pillars of the alliance: democracy, economic prosperity, security, and sociocultural interaction. Each pillar supports the U.S.–South Korean relationship in a different and important way.

Lesson One examines South Korea’s maturing democracy, providing students an overview of South Korean democratization and engaging them on the concept of democracy. Students also study how the U.S.–South Korean relationship affected South Korea’s democratization and vice versa. Ultimately, students consider how common political and social values serve to strengthen relations between two countries and societies.

Lesson Two introduces students to the economic aspect of the U.S.–South Korean relationship and encourages them to recognize how economic interdependence between the two countries has served to draw them closer together. Students examine modern-day trade,such as the recently concluded U.S.–South Korean Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA), and also learn about the historical role the United States played in helping South Korea industrialize after the Korean War.

Lesson Three outlines the security concerns that South Korea and the United States have shared since the Korean War and the signing of the Mutual Defense Treaty in 1953 to the recent nuclear weapons issue with North Korea. Students study the history of the U.S.–South Korean security alliance and evaluate why both Seoul and Washington have considered the alliance so important and beneficial.

Lesson Four complements the broad country-tocountry perspective of the first three lessons and encourages students to consider how the U.S.–South Korean relationship has influenced the individual lives of Koreans and Americans. Students contemplate how the cultural interactions between the two countries have influenced both societies and changed the lives of their people.

The U.S.–South Korean relationship is one of the most successful bilateral relationships in the world. 91�Թ� hopes that the curriculum unit, “U.S.–South Korean Relations,” not only offers U.S. secondary students a broad overview of this relationship but also inspires students to enroll in college courses on Korea through programs such as the KSP.

On April 4 91�Թ� formally received the 2008 Franklin Buchanan Prize at the Association for Asian Studies conference in Atlanta. The Buchanan Prize, which is awarded annually to an outstanding curriculum publication on Asia designed for any educational level, elementary through university, this year recognized Waka Takahashi Brown and Selena Lai for Bundled Set: Chinese Dynasties Part One and Two.

Together the units cover each dynastic period beginning with the Shang through the fall of the Qing, providing more than 12 weeks of material for middle- and high-school history and social science courses. The units provide an accessible synthesis of an enormous span of Chinese history, introducing students and their teachers to key questions and sources for understanding Chinese civilization at different moments in time. Through primary sources and age-appropriate readings, the units engage students in standards-based lessons that address an impressive array of institutions and ideas, including political and social developments, ritual, philosophy and religion, technological innovations, arts and literature, education and the economy.

This is the fourth time that 91�Թ� has won the prestigious Buchanan Prize since it was established in 1995. The Association for Asian Studies publishes the Journal of Asian Studies and is the largest scholarly association on Asian countries, cultures, and regions in the world.

The Asia Society last week awarded the 2007 Goldman Sachs Foundation Media and Technology Prize to the Reischauer Scholars Program, a college-level, distance-learning course about Japan for American high school students developed at Stanford.

Gary Mukai, 91�Թ� director, and Naomi Funahashi, the primary instructor for the scholars program, accepted the prize, a plaque and a check for $25,000, at a March 10 luncheon in New York City.

Mukai said he would use the money to fund the 2008-09 scholars program, which is named in honor of Edwin O. Reischauer, a former U.S. ambassador to Japan.

Currently, the program receives funding from the Center for Global Partnership of the Japan Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes international cultural exchange and mutual understanding between Japan and other countries.

Stanford was one of four winners of the 2007 Goldman Sachs Foundation Prizes for Excellence in International Education awarded by the Asia Society, an international organization whose goal is to strengthen relationships and promote understanding among the people, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States. The prizes were created to identify and recognize the most promising and successful examples of international education in the United States.

In addition to Stanford, the society also awarded prizes to a Florida elementary school, an Oregon high school and the Ohio State Board of Education.

Every year, the Reischauer Scholars Program selects 25 exceptional high school juniors and seniors throughout the United States to take part in the course, which offers a broad overview of Japanese history, literature, religion, arts, politics, economics and contemporary society, with a special emphasis on U.S.-Japan relations.

The course is offered through 10 "virtual classes" via the Internet over four months, and includes lectures, readings and online discussions, as well as videos and presentations that creatively display maps, statistics, images and digitized primary resources. Senior scholars, diplomats and other experts from the United States and Japan teach the classes. Students who successfully complete the course earn credit from the Stanford Continuing Studies Program.

The Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education is a K-12 education outreach program at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

The advisers to the Reischauer Scholars Program are Michael Armacost, a former ambassador to Japan and now a distinguished fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute; Daniel Okimoto, a professor emeritus of political science at Stanford; Consul General Yasumasa Nagamine of the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco; and Nisuke Ando, a professor emeritus of law at Doshisha University in Japan.

For 2009, 91�Թ� has developed four new curriculum units: Examining Long-term Radiation Effects, Interactive Teaching AIDS: A Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Prevention Curriculum, China's Republican Era, 1911 to 1949, and Teacher's Guide to Wings of Defeat.

Gary Mukai, director of the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (91�Թ�), was awarded the Foreign Minister's Commendation at the official residence of the Consul General of Japan in San Francisco on Oct. 5. The commendation recognizes Mukai for "greatly contribut[ing] to the promotion of mutual understanding between Japan and the United States, especially in the field of education...[and] lend[ing] his energy and expertise to actively supporting and implementing the goals and objectives of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET Program) and the activities of the JET Alumni Association of Northern California."

Mukai has been developing curricula on Japan and U.S.-Japan relations for secondary school students since he joined 91�Թ� in 1988. As part of his leadership of 91�Թ�, he helps oversee the , a distance-learning course co-sponsored by 91�Թ� and the Center for Global Partnership at the Japan Foundation. Each year the program selects 25 exceptional high school juniors and seniors from the United States to engage in an intensive study of Japan. Though his own experience teaching English in Japan, from 1977 to 1980, predated JET, Mukai has been closely involved with the 20-year-old program. He has been an interviewer since 1989 and has also spoken at JET orientations and panel discussions.

In bestowing the commendation, Consul General Yasumasa Nagamine called Mukai a "bridge between our two countries."

Mukai accepted the commendation with characteristic graciousness, thanking the foreign minister and crediting his 91�Թ� and FSI colleagues for the honor. "I am very humbled by this honor from the Japanese Foreign Minister," said Mukai. "I would like to say that none of my work at 91�Թ� would be possible without my 91�Թ� colleagues. Also, I truly feel indebted to my colleagues at FSI. Without them, 91�Թ� wouldn't be what it is today and 91�Թ� wouldn't have such an embracing home."

With regards to promoting cross-cultural understanding, Mukai said, "Since joining 91�Թ� nearly 20 years ago, one of the highlights of my work has been working with Stanford faculty and the Consulate General of Japan, San Francisco, on helping young American and Japanese students better understand one another and appreciate the importance of U.S.-Japan relations."

Retired Stanford professor , who recently received a medal of honor from the Japanese government for his role in U.S.-Japan relations, praised Mukai in a short speech. "No one deserves this honor more than Gary Mukai," Okimoto said. "I think Gary is a remarkable leader, mentor, entrepreneur, and friend."

Since 1976 91�Թ� has supported efforts to internationalize elementary and secondary school curricula by linking the research and teaching at 91�Թ� to the schools through the production of high-quality curriculum materials on international and cross-cultural topics. Housed in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at 91�Թ�, 91�Թ� has produced over 100 supplementary curriculum units on Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the global environment, and international political economy. 91�Թ� draws upon the diverse faculty and programmatic interests of 91�Թ� to link knowledge, inquiry, and practice in exemplary curriculum materials.