Superintendent Mr. Ray Johnson Phone +82 2-797-5104 Mascot Guardians School type Private school | Website www.yisseoul.org School district Yongsan District Founded 1990 Enrollment ~970 | |
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Established 1990 (ICS Seoul)
2006 (YISS) Address South Korea, Seoul, Yongsan-gu, 285 Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu Seoul | ||
Yongsan International School of Seoul (YISS) is a private, coeducational Christian school, offering an American curriculum based education to the international community in South Korea.
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History
The school was founded in August 1990 as International Christian School Seoul (ICS Seoul) with the first graduation being held in 1997.
KFSF
In 2004 the Korea Foreign Schools Foundation was established under the Korean government's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy with the task of establishing and operating foreign schools in order to foster talents and improve the educational environment so as to contribute to attracting FDI in Korea.
YISS was established by the Korea Foreign Schools Foundation in 2006. The project was initiated by financial contributions from the national government and business organizations. KFSF leased the land for the campus from the Seoul Metropolitan Government and provided the school facilities.
Location
YISS is located in Hannam, not far from Itaewon, the heart of the foreign community. Seoul Metro Govt provided a free lease on the 23,100 square meters of land, valued at some 50 billion won (US$50 million) in 2005, for 50 years and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy funded the school to the tune of 13 billion won (US$13 million), the largest amount given to any international school. KCCI also financed the rest of construction costs, about 20 billion won (US$20 million), on behalf of the school.
Student Body
The student body at YISS represents about 50 nationalities with 60% of the students being ethnically Korean.
Academics
In 2011 the students SAT scores were above the national average of the United States, with a mean of 1,255, compared to a U.S. average of 1,028.
Students have been admitted to global educational institutions including Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia University, Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany and Korea University.
Students have an option of choosing a Christian or a secular based curriculum. This is done because the school was funded by KFSF whose requirements were that students of different culture or religion could study at YISS.
1:1 Laptop Program
The 1:1 Laptop Program was started in 2011 with the completion of the High School and Middle School rollout completed in 2012.
Facilities
Facilities at YISS include a modern auditorium, music room, gymnasium, weight training room, indoor swimming pool, playground, soccer field, and basement parking facilities.
Sports
YISS students participate in sporting activities in Far East and South East Asia through various conferences. The sporting activities include: cross-country, basketball, football (soccer), tennis, swimming, volleyball and cheerleading.
GWAM
GWAM also known as Guardians With a Message is a YISS school program in High School through which students serve others in Korea and other parts of Asia. The Immersion program is the Middle School version of GWAM. Both Immersion and GWAM participate in events in places such as Manila, Baguio, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Yanji, Gunsan, Taebaek and Seoul.
Others
Students participate in Model United Nation events such as BEIMUN and SEOMUN. They also participate in the Chess Tournament.
Controversy
There has been some controversy as to how students are admitted, particularly those of Korean ethnicity. In 2008 the school was accused of admitting unqualified students who were children of Korean staff within the schools. There were also allegations that the children were exempted from paying school fees which was at about US$20,000 per year at the time.
YISS admitted that there were admissions irregularities and that the children were no longer attending the school.