Bothell boasts a Rhodes scholar
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, November 25, 2004
Laurel Yong-Hwa Lee of Bothell and Bill Clinton have something in common.
They’re Rhodes scholars.
Lee, a senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, has learned that she was accepted for a three-year study program at Oxford University in England next fall.
“It’s a little bit overwhelming,” Lee said. “Lots of requests for interviews.”
Lee, studying neuroscience and biology at MIT with a focus on immunology, plans a career in medical practice and research. At Oxford, she’ll study infectious diseases and tropical medicine.
“It’s a natural extension of my immunology focus,” said Lee, 23.
She was nominated and endorsed for the scholarship by MIT, then submitted an application. A round of interviews were held at the state level, and finalists from seven western states were interviewed last weekend in San Francisco.
Three others with ties to Washington state were among the 32 nationwide selected for next year’s scholarship.
Lee’s road to Oxford started in her native South Korea, where she lived with her family until she was 16. They moved to Bothell in 1998 to increase educational opportunities for her, she said.
At Woodinville High School, Lee took the toughest courses, said her counselor there, Katie Holland. She graduated in three years with a 4.0 grade-point average.
“She was just incredible,” Holland said. “Just a consummate student in all aspects.”
Holland, now assistant principal at Bothell High, recalls how Lee ran a drive to collect books to send overseas. “She’s also very other-directed,” Holland said.
For a year after high school, Lee interned in biomedical research at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “It inspired me to go to MIT,” she said.
At the school, she worked in the Center for Cancer Research and earned a summer research internship. Two winters ago, she traveled to Honduras to set up a health care system for orphanages and women’s shelters serving several villages in the Central American country.
It helped lead to her being recently named to Glamour magazine’s Top 10 College Women list. With that came a prize of $1,500, a trip to New York to meet prominent women in many fields, and national recognition in the October edition of the magazine.
Lee is also active in music. She won a national violin competition as a child in Korea, played with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall and studies music analysis at MIT. That helped earn her distinction as a Burchard Scholar at the college.
And, as if that weren’t enough, Lee is a four-year varsity rower at MIT.
She admits she hasn’t had much free time lately. “But I do goof around with my friends,” she said. “Now I can celebrate.”
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com
