More opportunity than ever imagined
Mount Holyoke College senior Grace Jaeeun Lee ’25 said, “Mount Holyoke has a very collaborative community, a very accepting environment, which helped with [my] confidence. Even if I bring just a little to the table, I know my peers will have my back.”
Grace Jaeeun Lee ’25 will tell you that Mount Holyoke College taught her about possibility: the possibility of who she could be and what she is capable of.
Lee was born and raised in Koreatown, Los Angeles, by Korean immigrants and is the first of her family to attend college. She credits her grandmother — who grew up in wartime and whose formal education ended after the sixth grade — as a fierce advocate for opportunities she never had. Lee’s grandmother told her, “Try your best, no matter how tiring or difficult you find something. It’s a privilege to suffer in a situation like this.”
While at Mount Holyoke, Lee learned that “it’s okay to fall and stumble, as it’s also an opportunity to learn something new.” During her sophomore year, Lee had to take medical leave, and she worried about her studies. While she was away and upon her return, Kim Parent, associate dean of studies, and Erica Weathers, clinician and outreach coordinator, “helped [her] find a balance between taking care of [her] body and [her] academics.” This prompted Lee to support and advocate for accommodations and resources for other students who find themselves in similar situations.
Initially, Lee’s only major was biology, and she entered school with an interest in pre-med. “I was one of those insufferable kids who said they wanted to be a doctor since the age of 4,” she said with a wry smile. “Taking biomechanics with Gary Gillis (who later became my advisor) and animal physiology with Sarah Bacon helped me ‘rediscover’ how fun and exciting studying biology was for me.”
Early on, though, she asked herself, “How might an individual choose something mundane versus something big in their life? What’s the basic biological background that we all come from that pushes our behavior forward?” Thus, she added psychology as a second major. “Jared Schwartzer hired me as a research assistant and is currently my advisor for independent study. He has repeatedly reassured me that I have the ability to [ask] and answer my own scientific questions,” Lee said.
“It’s been very enlightening,” Lee said of her time at Mount Holyoke. “The depth and the width, for both my bio and psych classes, are much bigger than what I could have imagined.”
Lee cited one of her accomplishments at Mount Holyoke as “the fact that I’m able to do research. Being able to work in a lab alongside my lab mates almost daily is something that I think really enriched my life.” She said, “The research I do at the Schwartzer Lab looks at how asthma attacks during pregnancy can affect brain and behavior development in the child, and my side project looks at if there are any effects on cognition and memory.”
Regarding support she’s received and continues to receive for her research, Lee said, “My RA in junior year, Shanthini Ragoonaden ’24, helped me reach out to professors for research. Despite being an alum now, she still helps me with research communication.”
During her time at Mount Holyoke, Lee worked on campus and held summer jobs. Coming from a low-income household, she entered MHC with the intention of fully paying for any of her remaining tuition after financial aid. She said, “While there were some challenges in time management, my on-campus jobs helped develop my soft skills. School is a great place to learn what you can and cannot do and how far you can push yourself.” Lee worked as a notetaker for students with disabilities, a barista and a front desk clerk at the Kendall Sports & Dance Complex. She said, “I try to help out other students who are low-income. Every fall, I offer to proofread essays for high schoolers in that demographic.”
While multiple jobs and a double major kept Lee busy, she made time to be the marketing director for HackHolyoke, the annual hackathon, and to sing with Chorale. Lee was also a member of the Korean Student Association and STEMPOC, a club for students of color in science, technology, engineering and math.
Lee arrived at Mount Holyoke thinking, “I'd just keep my head down and focus on my studies. The College is definitely a lot more lively and filled with opportunity. Turns out you can balance studies and have a social life.” It was more than she initially felt capable of. “Mount Holyoke has a very collaborative community, a very accepting environment, which helped with [my] confidence. Even if I bring just a little to the table, I know my peers will have my back, and vice versa.”
After graduation, she plans to apply for medical school to become an internist or psychiatrist — she’s still deciding which to pursue.
Jaeeun, her Korean name, dovetails nicely with her American name, Grace. It means “one who is blessed with grace.” While at MHC, Lee developed a mantra to help light the way forward: “I want to be somebody who can help lead others with warmth and wisdom.”
