Jung-Sook Lee Student Paper Competition
The Jung-Sook Lee Award, presented at each year’s national conference, recognizes the best student paper which makes “a substantial contribution in substance or method on a topic related to communication technology and policy.” The award honors the division’s 1997-98 research chair, Jung-Sook Lee of the University of Southwest Louisiana, who died soon after the Baltimore convention in 1998. Authors of the top three student papers will receive a cash award and be recognized at the convention. In addition, the author of the best student paper will have his or her conference registration fee paid by the division.
IN REMEMBRANCE OF JUNG-SOOK LEE
1946-1998
Professor Jung-Sook Lee was vice head of the Communication Technology & Policy Division in 1998, when news of her untimely death reached colleagues shortly after that year’s AEJMC Convention in Baltimore, MD. She died of a brain aneurism at the age of 52.
A native of Seoul, South Korea, Jung-Sook Lee was known in the academic community for her research, lectures and publications in advertising and mass communication. She graduated with honors from Ewha Women’s University in Seoul and became the first woman account executive at one of her country’s largest advertising agencies, Korea First.
In 1979, she resigned her advertising position in Seoul to accept a scholarship at the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Professors Phil Tichenor, Don Gillmor, Dan Wackman and her mentor, F. Gerald Kline. Upon graduation, Dr. Lee accepted a position to teach at Boston University and later Michigan State, where a former BU colleague, Dr. Robert E. Simmons, recruited her in 1991 to join the faculty at Southwestern Louisiana. She became an associate professor and served as both the graduate program coordinator and coordinator of the Mass Communication/Advertising program at what is now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Dr. Lee’s research methods class was legendary for its high, exacting standards, but her students recall most her personal touch. “I will always remember Dr. Lee, her laugh, her smile, and her inspiration to my fellow classmates and me,” wrote one student. Academic Affairs Vice President Dr. Gary Marotta called her “a powerful force, rich with energy and intelligence. I shall remember her always, her great smile and total commitment to her profession and the University.” Colleagues considered her a role model who lived the Korean creed, “Song boo, Song jo”: Serve one another in order to enrich one another.
In recommending that CTEC’s student scholarship award be named in her honor, then-division officer Dan Morris of Boise State recalled “her voice, her laugh, and her advice,” and how touched she seemed after winning the AEJMC certificate for best division research report that year. In endorsing naming the student research award in her honor, fellow officer Dick Schaefer of New Mexico described Jung-Sook Lee as a “great source of patience, rationality and guidance … her conscientious attitude and open style” were among her many strengths.
Each year, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette awards one of its best graduate students the Jung-Sook Lee Scholarship, based on his or her performance in research and service. It is perhaps fitting that her name in Korean means “straight and clear.”