Hojung Lee did not initially plan to study education policy and become the first doctoral graduate of UD’s interdisciplinary education and social policy programme. She had focused on economics and game theory as an undergraduate in South Korea. However, after mentoring students from low-income backgrounds and seeing how transformative targeted support can be, she set her sights on a bigger goal: making education more equal.

“I wanted an advisor who was as passionate about educational inequity as I was, and a programme that would allow me to do research that could change lives,” Lee says. “I am grateful for what I found at UD.”

Lee would go on to produce three empirical studies on policies affecting disadvantaged students, two of which have been published. The work earned her a 2025 Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Equity and Inclusion Young Professional Fellowship and a postdoctoral role at Rice University.

“One of the most valuable aspects of doing research in the US is the incredible access to high-quality data,” Lee says. “The US Department of Education, through the National Center for Education Statistics, offers one of the most comprehensive and transparent public education datasets in the world. Coming from South Korea, I can say this level of openness is rare and deeply empowering for researchers.”