Dr. Junghee Lee Fosters Relationships Between Portland State University and South Korea

Most scholars hope to make lifelong friends during their university experience. It’s even better when they’re able to travel, discovering new cultures without worrying about expenses, all within an engaging, fun, learning environment. That’s how doctoral student and adjunct instructor Hyuny Clark-Shim describes her time in Seoul, South Korea, studying welfare programs and delivery systems with Dr. Junghee Lee. 

“Many of us are still in contact, sharing our continuing friendship,” said Clark-Shim of their cohort, “In some cases we visited Korea again to learn more and enjoy Korean culture.”

Dr. Lee is a Professor at the Portland State University School of Social Work and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Public Service at the Hatfield School of Government. 

“The City of Portland has a great reputation in Korea,” she said, “It is known for its beautiful nature, kind people, safe living environment, and progressive political culture, including no sales tax for foreign visiting scholars!”

Since 2008, Dr. Lee has facilitated several relationships between PSU and Korean organizations. These collaborations offer global engagement between both social workers, public administrators, and academics, all with the goal of serving these organizations with training, education, and experience. 

A first-generation Korean-American, Dr. Lee was born and raised in Seoul, before emigrating to the United States. She believes her unique academic training background and her cultural orientation are why various groups of scholars are interested in working with her. 

“Korean culture is very relational,” she said, “In this regard, my Korean identity and value orientation, and my social network are critical factors that provide me with access to a multitude of individuals from various organizations.”

The first of the relationships Dr. Lee fostered for PSU was Director Generals Hak Myung Woo and Jung Soon Hong from the National Library of Congress in Korea. While hosted at PSU in 2014, the two connected the Korean National Library’s database with PSU’s library, making it the first institution in Oregon to have access to the Republic of Korea’s (ROK) National Assembly Library (NAL) database. 

The largest digital Korean language-based database, the NAL has more than 3.5 million historical and contemporary documents and resources primarily published in Korea, including master and doctoral theses, periodicals, journals, multimedia resources, publicly available Korean government documents and white papers, and internet resources. It helps promote parliamentary democracy and quality of life for Korea, while preserving intellectual heritage for future generations.

Another unique partnership enabled by Dr. Lee is between Portland State University’s School of Social Work and The Catholic University of Korea’s Department of Social Welfare and Graduate Department of Addiction Studies. Together with a research team from the latter, Dr. Lee, along with then doctoral program students Jesse Homan and Katie Winters, presented a study about teen suicide and social work responses and responsibilities at the 2016 Joint World Conference on Social Work, Education, and Social Development in Seoul. While they were there, the team (along with Celeste Seibel from the Regional Research Institute) were invited by City Council Chairman Jonghwan Jeon and former PSU doctoral student Junghee Bae to also share their study at the Cheon-An City Welfare Forum. As a result, Dr. Yongseok Kim of the Catholic University of Korea would like to establish further educational collaborations with PSU and plans to visit Portland in 2022 to formalize the partnership.

By the summer of 2017, Dr. Lee’s relationships with Korean organizations were so prominent she was able to work with the Seoul Welfare Foundation to host MSW and PhD students from PSU for three consecutive years. While visiting, these students learned to better understand Seoul’s welfare programs and delivery systems. Dr. Lee maximized student learning by carefully designing a week-long program, consisting of two morning sessions based on expert presentations, and two afternoon site visits that showcased the systems in person. This allowed the students to learn from experts and government employees who provide such services through lectures, observations, inquiries, or direct engagement. Dr. Lee also arranged for the students to visit the Korean National Assembly to learn more about the Korean political and administrative systems.

“Each day was designed to provide different components of the social welfare systems in Korea so we were able to learn varying components/programs during the week,” said Hyuny Clark-Shim, one of the participants, “Throughout our program, we were able to learn historical contexts as well as ongoing or newer social problems that Koreans have encountered and how the welfare system in Korea has evolved to meet different needs and ultimately to make a community a better place to live in.”

Clark-Shim found that there were noticeable differences between U.S. welfare programs and Korea’s. “In Seoul,” they said, “welfare programs are generally more government-driven. While the Seoul Welfare Foundation engages Seoulites to seek ideas or feedback, many of the programs still tend to be delivered by government employees or have heavy involvement of government employees.” Another difference Clark-Shim noticed was that the Seoul Welfare Foundation appears more flexible in how they design and apply their programs to meet local needs to engage citizens.

Similar to this international field experience class for our students, Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) administrators come to the US each year in order to visit several cities in western states with a different research focus. For example, research interests included US efforts to improve public administration using artificial intelligence, air quality control and management, social welfare and justice. For the past several years, Dr. Lee has organized and implemented this professional development training program consisting of lectures and field site visits including various government offices and non-profit/profit organizations such as the Metro Regional Government, the City of Portland's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, Bonneville Dam, Google headquarters, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and more. 

This professional training is designed for public administration officials to not only explore adaptations of the United States’ exemplary programs to the SMG, but to also share cultural experiences, which are increasingly important for public administrators in this rapidly changing global society. This professional training program has been well perceived by the SMG, and Dr. Lee said, “All the successful implementations were possible because of the strong support from our School and Dean Coll.”          

Because of previously established partnerships like these, Dr. Lee is highly regarded within the SMG, allowing her to establish a Memorandum of Understanding between their organization and PSU. From 2019 – 2020, Dr. Lee also enabled two visiting scholars from the Seoul Metropolitan Government to enroll in PSU’s Master of Social Work classes, so they would go toward their degree requirements at the University of Seoul. 

Taking courses in Social Justice in Social Work, Research & Evaluation, Welfare Policy Advocacy, and Societal, Community, and Organizational Structures and Processes, both Korean students had to pivot when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their studies.

“Dr. Lee responded quickly to guide us how to stay safe during the unexpected pandemic situation,” said Miran Kim, “She frequently reached out to me to explain what was happening, and later to inform us about changing restrictions and regulations.”

Even more, in Spring of 2020 Dr. Lee set up an online course for Kim and colleague Jaehyung Cho, so they could continue learning. Kim said Dr. Lee not only helped facilitate their courses, but also helped them get accustomed to living in the United States. They learned about U.S. history, the voting system, and traffic laws from Dr. Lee, while also gaining insight into American lifestyles and attitudes. When they had difficulty with course materials, Dr. Lee helped them understand by sharing her knowledge and experience in the social work field here.

“I was moved by her relentless efforts and devotion during my stay in the U.S.,” said Kim, “I am so thankful for all her support that enabled me and my family to get accustomed to a new environment and stay safe and well during an unprecedented pandemic.” 

The courses that Kim and Cho took at PSU helped them think differently about the social justice values social workers commit to their practices. Kim’s first course at PSU was “Social Justice in Social Work” with Keela Johnson. “It broadened my perspectives and profoundly changed my value systems,” she said, “I especially appreciated the opportunities to learn about racism, discrimination against LGBTQ communities, as well as equity for historically marginalized communities.”

This training subsequently changed Kim’s practice orientations in Korea, encouraging them to learn more about the discriminatory working conditions for foreign laborers there, while developing strategies for their betterment. Kim found that learning at PSU also helped them reflect deeply on the social issues of LGBTQ+ communities in Korea, which they say are often silenced in public spaces there. 

Both Kim and Cho found their work ethics and practices changed as officers of Seoul’s Metropolitan Government. Cho approached work more flexibly, moving away from rigid organizational culture in an effort to adapt to an ever-changing society. Kim said they now appreciate how their work contributes to making their society more than just a place. “All of these [courses] helped me engage in my work more enthusiastically,” they said.    

While Dr. Lee facilitated these classes for Kim and Cho, she was also collaborating with Ewha Women’s University Graduate School of Social Welfare, establishing another Memorandum of Understanding with the Portland State University School of Social Work. Dr. Lee and Dean Jose Coll visited Korea in the summer of 2019 to develop the Memorandum. Shortly afterward a student-led international field experience program to Portland was initiated with Dr. Okkyung Yang, but because of the pandemic the trip couldn’t be implemented in person. So Dr. Lee provided a Zoom lecture for four Korean students who wanted to address the role of social workers in Portland’s experiences with community and neighborhood building. 

Even through the pandemic Dr. Lee has provided an engaging, fun, learning environment for her students, all while building more relationships between PSU and Korean organizations. Just last weekend she hosted visiting scholars from the Seoul Metropolitan Government (see below), masks and all! This kind of global engagement between institutions encourages a shared understanding of social work and public administration, so that each learns from the other’s perspectives.