Linda Lee, Phillips Scholar 2003-2005
Sometimes it’s tough for Linda Lee to find the right words to explain her life dreams to her parents. The dreams aren’t inexpressible. She knows they start with a college education. It’s the words that are hard to come by. “Try explaining terms like ‘financial aid’ in Hmong,” says Lee. “It’s impossible and then you get really frustrated and just say, forget it, I’ll do it myself.”
Lee, a Hmong American born in Long Beach, California, has experienced quite a bit of do-it-yourself in her life. She admits that good mentors and serendipity have played substantial roles in assisting her through middle school in St. Paul, high school at Saint Paul Academy, and now, to Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, where she is a junior, but she has still had more than her share of going it alone. Given the choice, Lee wouldn’t have done so much on her own, and now, her experiences are fueling a community service project that will ensure that at least ten Hmong American adolescents won’t have to learn the ins and outs of the college preparation process by themselves.
As a 2003-2005 recipient of the prestigious Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation Scholarship, that provides $14,000 toward her college education, Lee is charged with creating a community service project that will address an unmet need in a Minnesota community. Lee is planning a project for the summer of 2004 that will take her back to her Saint Paul neighborhood as she joins forces with the Hmong American Partnership (HAP) to provide Hmong American adolescents with valuable college preparation.
Finding an unmet need was not difficult for Lee. She surveyed her peers early in her high school career and asked what areas they perceived needed to be addressed in the community. College preparation topped their list; Lee could empathize. “My parents and I didn’t know the college preparation process. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t get started on it until the very end of my junior year in high school,” says Lee. Those feelings of frustration stayed with Lee, and when the opportunity arose to apply for the Phillips Scholarship she had her project idea. “I started planning, asking, well what did I do to get to college?” says Lee. “Then I did some research and found out things that even I didn’t know about college. Part of it was putting the information together and planning a week-by-week theme.” Lee incorporated these ideas into her scholarship proposal and continues to use them as she puts the pieces of her program together.
Over ten weeks in the summer of 2004, Lee plans to have program participants explore different careers, learn about and prepare for SAT and ACT tests, complete college applications and financial aid forms, and visit Minnesota colleges and universities. Lee also will partner with the Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans to identify individuals in the Hmong American community who are interested in being mentors to the program participants. “I’m trying to pair students up with professional Hmong individuals, so students know that they can make it in their chosen field.” Mentors will meet with participants once a month and participants will spend at least one day job shadowing.
Lee also plans on involving parents and families. “My parents didn’t know anything about the college search process,” says Lee. “They were just signing forms. I don’t want that to happen to other kids.” She hopes to use at least one of her two-hour program sessions to educate parents and families about the college search and application process, including financial aid, and have a Hmong speaker on hand to translate difficult terms and make sure families are as involved in the process as they can be.
Finding the time to work out all the details of an intensive summer community service project, go to school full time and remain active in many on-going community service initiatives is tough. “I’m busy, really busy here,” says Lee. As a co-chair for “Building Bridges”- an annual, student run conference at Gustavus, diversity mentor for first-year students, a Big Partner to Saint Peter adolescents and an active participant in Asian Cultures Club and the Peer Assisting Network, Lee never has a dull moment. “I started volunteering my freshman year in high school,” says Lee. “It’s great giving back to the community.”
Now that she’s more than half way through her own undergraduate experience, Lee is not spending as much time trying to explain “financial aid” to her parents. She knows all about the Minnesota State Grant, scholarships, loans and other forms of aid that are powering her educational dreams. These days, she spends more time explaining to her father why she is not pre-med and studying to become a doctor. “In the Hmong community the position of the doctor is so great,” says Lee. “So, I’ve tried to explain to him what I’m doing now, but it’s really hard to explain what Criminology and Sociology are. I’d rather get a job that pays me less, but where I’m happier.” Lee contemplates graduate school after Gustavus. “Sociology and statistics looked really good for research with the government, public policy type things,” says Lee “I know I want to do my own research in the end.” For now, her research is focusing on curriculum and college search resources so she’s ready for the first day of her summer program.
As the Phillips Scholarship competition deadline for new applicants approaches in March, Lee plans to hang out in the Diversity Center working with students on their project proposals. She hopes to do a few presentations about the Phillips Scholarship program and do her best to encourage others to apply. There also is “Building Bridges” to plan for, a young student to mentor, and myriad other activities to complete. Before she knows it, she’ll be back on the east side of Saint Paul, paying homage to her own mentors as she mentors the next generation of college students. She’ll be trying to explain to them, in the plainest terms possible, what financial aid is all about, how dreams may begin with it, and the many ways to go about chasing those dreams while helping others.