Jinhee Lee may work in Charleston and live in Champaign, but her ideas are about Asia as much as they are about Illinois.

Her heritage, career and life have all made her especially aware of the effects of history and an awareness gap amongentwined societies.

“She’s sort of the epitome of the scholar and teacher,” said history professor Sace Elder.

Lee was instrumental in the organization of the Asian Heritage Month Celebration events held on campus April.

Lee, a history professor and chair of the Asian studies program, was raised in Incheon, the third largest city in South Korea. Her family was poor but caring; her mother would use the old threads of sweater to make new ones in order to save the little money they had. The family of six slept in the same bedroom.

Early encouragement to learn about the history between Japan and Korea came from Lee’s father’s questions about the meaning behind everyday items.

It wasn’t until her junior year at an American college that she came to appreciate her father’s efforts. That epiphany, along with her new experience with a teaching style based on class discussion, inspired her to enter the field of history, Lee said.

“Asia is big and so influential in global economy, politics, security and cultures, and the importance will rise even more in the future. Yet our education before college has been so limited in equipping us with Asian languages and cultures,” Lee says of American public education.

After teaching at two state universities in Illinois and Kansas, Lee found herself at Eastern three years ago, where she has aimed to enlighten her students about how historical accounts have some subjectivity and how important it is to learn about foreign cultures.

“She is a really energetic, dynamic person,” said Shaukat Mahmood, a graduate student in communication studies. Mahmood recently joined the Asian American Association, an RSO dedicated to raise awareness of Asian-Americans.

“She’s like the older sister of all of us,” said Julia Morss. Morss, a senior English major, acted as president of AAA this year.

Lee gives presentations on campus and acts as the adviser for AAA and the Asian Cinema Organization, another RSO. She has written several books on the subject of Asian history and modern issues.

Lee’s actions three years ago resulted in an exchange program with several universities in Korea, Japan and China. Two students from Seoul, South Korea, attend Eastern through the program, while an Eastern student is studying at Sogang, one of the top universities in Korea.

Lee has also been known to have guests from Korea stay at her home so they can attend school in America.

“I want to find out what is doable even for a small person like me in order to make our university and local communities a better place for people to live, and how I can utilize the training, health and competence I have,” Lee said. “Life is too short to be wasted waiting for the day of death meaninglessly, and there are too many people whose lives can be touched to be ignored.”

Joshua Van Dyke can be contacted at jmvandyke@eiu.edu.