For more than two decades, Sunny Hills has assigned only two instructors to teach Korean classes. However, two weeks after the start of the 2023-2024 school year, school officials decided to hire a third because of high demand of students interested in taking Korean classes to teach one period each of Korean 1 and Korean 2 and two periods of Geometry. While The Accolade produces feature profiles on new faculty hires working full time at Sunny Hills, we have decided to post an article about the new, part-time hire because of the extraordinary circumstances of the situation.

June Lee can relate to students with an immigrant experience.

At 15 years old, Lee said she moved to Nashville from Seoul because of her parents’ business.

Besides the culture shock, she had to adjust to speaking a new language – one that she only had a small amount of knowledge about.

“Before going to Nashville, the only thing I knew about English was the alphabet, so I had a really hard time with making friends, understanding the teacher and [navigating through] just everything in general,” Lee said. 

Going to elementary and junior high school in South Korea, Lee said she was hardworking and involved herself in many clubs and played in the band. Then, moving to a foreign country, she said she felt like an outsider, trying to catch up to her peers. 

“I couldn’t understand what my classmates were saying at times, or I would just have trouble interacting with people,” she said. “I felt like I had to work five times harder for things, and it was definitely difficult at first.”

It also didn’t help that she and her family did not stay in one place throughout her high school years, attending four different campuses: one in Nashville, another in Atlanta, back in Tennessee again but in a small city called Murfreesboro and attended school there at Oakland High School, where she graduated in 2000.

Because Lee moved around so much, she implements her immigrant experiences into her lessons through her bilingual education. 

“Especially in my Korean class, I try to make my lessons so that kids are able to adapt and learn easily because I know how it feels to learn a foreign language,” she said. 

CHANGE OF HEART

Education wasn’t Lee’s first major after graduating from Oakland High School in 2000.

The Korean and math teacher said she majored in nursing at Tennessee State University but switched to education two years later.

“When I was studying to be a nurse, I just realized that it wasn’t for me, and I knew that I really liked teaching, so I decided to go for it,” said Lee, who completed her bachelor’s degree in Korean and Math in 2006.

After realizing that she wanted to pursue education, she researched for schools with a strong education program and decided upon California State University, Northridge [CSUN]. By 2008, she completed her teacher credential program at CSUN, with a single subject emphasis on math. 

But because of the recession that year, Lee was unable to find a teaching position and so she accepted an offer to be a Korean-English translator at the Fullerton Joint Union High School District [FJUHSD]. 

She said she had many duties in the district such as translating flyers with information in English into Korean and attending board and expulsion meetings to translate for Korean parents.

“I really enjoyed working as a translator because I was able to learn effective communication with parents and students and understand them better,” Lee said. “And because I was once in their situation, I was able to connect myself to [both the parents’ and students’] shoes.”

Lee said the FJUHSD also needed assistance with English Language Development class at Sunny Hills in 2008. 

So she would coordinate self-tests – exams that track students’ progress with English – for the class and felt motivated to continue seeing the students grow. 

“I have a heart for high school students and those who are struggling,” Lee said. “Especially kids from Korea or other places, I think I really have the heart to want to help them.” 

In 2011, she resigned from her position after getting married. Over the next 10 years, she dedicated herself full-time to raising four kids. 

“I was sad to let go of my job but also excited for the next chapter in my life,” Lee said. “I knew I wanted to come back in the future though.”

FROM MOTHERHOOD BACK TO LANCERHOOD

In 2021, Lee said she decided she didn’t need to stay home full time to tend to her family, and so she returned to the FJUHSD and was also hired by the Fullerton School District as a substitute teacher from 2019-2022, teaching kindergarten-12th grade.

Then two weeks into the 2023-2024 school year, she saw an opportunity to return to the FJUHSD and teach at Sunny Hills.

“I saw that they were hiring for someone who can teach two periods of Korean because there were so many students interested in taking a Korean class, and I was so excited because I knew I always wanted to come back to Sunny Hills,” Lee said. “I really liked the culture here and I already knew some of the staff members so it would be a familiar environment.” 

Like her experience as a youth in having to adjust to ever changing situations, Lee said she was able to handle the disadvantage of not starting the school year with her students.

“Of course, it made the bonding process with my students take a little longer because they suddenly had to transfer out of their previous class and come to mine, but I was still excited to get to know them,” she said.

Weinreich shared the same excitement in having Lee as a new addition to the campus. 

“We wanted someone competent and knowledgeable in both Korean and English, and so we knew Mrs. Lee would be perfect,” Weinreich said. “She has also been part of our district in the past, so she’s familiar with some of the staff.” 

Eight weeks after she started teaching fifth period Korean 2 and sixth period Korean 1, Lee was challenged again with another change. 

School officials needed to create a fourth period Geometry class because of unanticipated high numbers of students enrolled in that subject. 

“[The administration] found out I had a math credential, so they gave me a math class to teach, and I was happy to take it,” Lee said. 

The part-time instructor said her philosophy of education is to make sure every one of her students is cared for. 

“I feel like all my students should have an equal opportunity and be treated fairly,” she said. “I want them to know that I care and give them more opportunities to do better like opening my class during lunch and after school for them.”  

Freshman Kyle Kang said he’s enjoying being in Lee’s sixth period Korean 1 class.

“She is really enthusiastic while teaching, and she gives a reasonable amount of homework because she cares about her students,” Kang said. 

Outside of school, Lee said she enjoys spending time with her husband and four kids either at home, at the movie theaters or at the park. 

“I don’t really do much outside of school except just hang out with my family and make sure I always make time for them,” Lee said. 

For the next semester, the Geometry and Korean 1 and 2 teacher envisions getting all her students on the same pace. 

“I want to focus on closing the learning gap because they are all from different classrooms,” she said. “Some of the students already learned so much from other teachers and some students aren’t there yet.”