We here at Mason Korea are enormously proud of Eunmee Lee, a faculty member in our English for Academic Purposes program, who has been awarded a 2024 George Mason Presidential Award for Social Impact. The presidential awards are the highest awards that George Mason University gives to its faculty.
Professor Lee earned the award for her positive impact on our community here in Incheon, and particularly for two initiatives. First, she has long organized educational programs for Incheon area high and middle schools, as well as training programs for their teachers and principals. More recently, she took the lead on George Mason’s part in the Incheon Citizen College program, which offers free, non-credit courses to Incheon citizens, taught by Mason faculty. Lee’s efforts over the years have impacted thousands of Incheoners, directly and indirectly.
We’re proud in part because this award represents the value we at Mason put in serving our community. We pride ourselves on the mission of George Mason to provide access to excellence. Professor Lee’s efforts extend that mission even further, beyond those who can become admitted students here at Mason Korea.
We’re proud too because the bestowing of this award on Professor Lee reflects that we are One Mason, despite the thousands of miles that separate Mason’s Korea campus from its three others in Virginia. Professor Lee is the first faculty member from Mason Korea to win a presidential award. Our faculty here at Mason Korea strive to achieve the same kinds of successes as faculty in Virginia and are likewise honored to have done so. Professor Lee is the first, but I do not think she will be the last. (Several Mason Korea students have also won Mason awards.)
Finally, I am personally proud of Professor Lee, whom I am honored to call a colleague and friend. When I think of Eunmee, I think of the impromptu “peace garden” she started in an out-of-the-way (but sunny) corner of a hallway in our building. Over the years, one by one, she added plants first to window ledges, then brought in shelves for still more plants, so that members of Mason Korea could enjoy a quiet place to sit and find solace and pleasure in this garden’s beauty.
Eunmee likes to provide spaces for growth. We are better for it. Congratulations Eunmee!
April 18, 2024