From Korean Immigrant To Mukilteo School Honors

MUKILTEO - With all his symbolism and nevermores, Edgar Allan Poe is a tough guy to figure. Especially in ninth grade.

And even more so when English is your second language.

Poe "was just overwhelming," said Jae Lee, who graduated June 28 from Mariner High in the Mukilteo School District. "But everyone was pretty much lost in the class. I was relieved because I wasn't the only one having trouble."

That was a year after Lee and his family moved to Washington from South Korea. He was 14 and knew no English. Now 19, he just graduated with the second-highest grade-point average in his class and is headed for Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.

"I don't feel strongly about it," Lee said of his accomplishment. "Right now, I'm just thinking about what I'm going to do in college. I'm not thinking about, `Yeah, I did this, and I did this, and I'm great.' " He paused and allowed himself a compliment. "But it feels good."

Lee, who represents part of the changing ethnic fabric of Snohomish County, didn't find his experience so easy - but he couldn't think of it as difficult, either.

He recalls incidents that teetered between racism and insensitivity, times he thinks he might have been treated differently if he were white.

He barely remembers being teased as he learned the language, as he struggled through science classes and unfamiliar words like "thermometer" and "temperature."

Even so, he earned A's. "It was pretty obvious what was going to be on the test," he said. His command of English now belies any difficulty he might have had with the language.

Although his parents didn't pressure him to do well, he said, he felt better when he maintained the standards he knew his elders held. His grandfather has written several Korean school textbooks, and his father holds a degree in economics.

"It was just that they were there, a kind of motivation," he said. "My uncle, he came here when he was in 12th grade, and I always hear stories about how he had to look for a job and work in factories day and night and study. And I always end up comparing my situation to his and finding it a lot easier. That's one of the reasons I don't feel too much about what I've accomplished."

Not all of his classmates had that level of motivation. He said he saw laziness and indifference, and he tried unsuccessfully for a spot as graduation speaker with a speech that echoed those observations and called for an end to nationwide apathy and complacency. Lee said he knew school officials preferred a more upbeat message but decided to take a chance anyway.

He eventually was able to publish the speech in Mariner's school newspaper.

His writing is not as good as he'd like it to be, but without his high-school teachers, he said, he wouldn't be where he is today. Teachers who made their subjects interesting and those who encouraged outside activities like giving blood and registering to vote are the ones he remembers most fondly.

Ann Kashiwa, who taught Lee's American history class, called her former student well-balanced, with strengths in math and science. "He's very well-respected," she said. "Kids like him."

Lee plans to major in engineering at Swarthmore, a college he chose for its ethnic diversity, among other reasons. "I didn't want to go to a school where I would feel uncomfortable," he said.