When Aran Park directed a tutoring center in South Korea, her workday ended at 3 a.m. That's when her last class let out. 'We have a saying in Korea: If you sleep three hours, you succeed; if you sleep four hours, you fail,' she said. Park opened another tutoring center in the corner of a Centreville, Va., office building last year. At the Living Stone Academy, she runs a strict program with daily quizzes and lots of homework, but on a distinctly American schedule that ends by 4 p.m. 'It is summer vacation,' she said, laughing. 'I don't want to take away all the fun they deserve.' Many Koreans who move to the United States are relieved to be rid of the expensive and energy-sapping cram schools where, driven by intense competition to get into top universities, students spend most of their waking hours after the school day ends. But a new and gentler version of cram school is emerging in the United States. Over the past 15 years, scores of Korean-run academies have opened in strip malls and office buildings in immigrant enclaves. Names such as Elite Academy and Einstein Academy reflect the educational goals that brought families halfway around the world. This summer, thousands of Korean-American students, along with an increasing number of non-Koreans, will attend them to prepare for next year's math classes, SAT tests or the entrance exam for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The schools are designed to give students a competitive edge, but many offer far more than academic support. They help newcomers adjust to a new culture, new expectations and a dramatically different public school system. For some families, they are a lifeline between the old world and the new. 'It's not all academics in America. You have to get involved in other things,' said Matthew Lee, who emigrated from Korea as a teen-ager and established Best Academy in 1994. Getting involved can be a difficult concept for students who for years have been pushed to make academics their primary focus. So Lee, a guidance counselor in Fairfax County, Va., schools, offers academic classes in the morning and fills the afternoon with extracurricular activities that many public schools offer and American colleges expect to see on applications. He also counsels parents who are unfamiliar with American education traditions. Best Academy charges $1,100 for an eight-week enrichment program for elementary and middle school students. Many academies' rates are far higher. In the fall, students go once or twice a week after the regular school day. This summer, they are taking art classes, going on field trips and volunteering on political campaigns. They go to the pool, and they watch movies. The school offers clubs for origami, journalism and mental math. On a sunny afternoon this week, two dozen third- and fourth-graders in art class concentrated on a blank page. Their task, the teacher said, was to draw a jar and fill it with something large and 'outside the ordinary.' With colored pencils, they filled the space with a dragon, a candy store, a beach and a man. Lee tries to introduce newcomers to American public school traditions. 'Spirit days,' such as Funny Hat Day or Pajama Day, are commonplace in American schools but baffling to students accustomed to regimens and uniforms. He lets them practice the goofy tradition at his academy first, 'where they feel more safe,' he said. 