John Lee
Political Science and Philosophy
Hesburgh Program in Public Service
Glynn Family Honors Program
Los Angeles, CA
I am currently a junior at the University of Notre Dame studying Political Science and Philosophy, and a proud native of Southern California. I am passionate about addressing issues concerning social justice in our society today such as education, health, climate change, and immigration, and I hope to emulate my personal hero, Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., and enter into a career in public service to help support policy issues that will both protect the civil liberties of Americans, and preserve the dignity innate in human beings around the world. I would ultimately, however, be content with a career teaching for the rest of my life.
I enjoy discussing politics and religion in my leisure, which unfortunately can be the two most polarizing (yet edifying) topics to be discussed at the coffee table, dinner table, or any table for that matter. I am attempting to take up art as a third interest of mine, a seemingly more benign subject. My hobbies also include reading, writing, napping on the beach, and snowboarding. I am also not ashamed to admit I am a die-hard Notre Dame football fan. Go Irish!
My project last summer was on comparing and contrasting the cultural and generational differences between Korean immigrants and Korean-Americans, and the effects of these differences on their perception of the American Dream. The American Dream grant gave me the opportunity to go out into the community of Koreatown in Los Angeles, to analyse and record, but also to sit down and listen to the life narratives of both Korean immigrants and Korean-Americans whose distinct, individual experiences curiously shared considerable common ground with those of many others.
This summer opportunity allowed me to dig deeper into my own life experiences and my parents’ experiences as well, being from an immigrant family myself. I am happy to report that I grew immensely not only in the knowledge of others and their experiences, but also in wisdom and understanding of myself and my experiences. I feel it is quite common for a research project to change its researcher, and my case was no different.
