“Beep-beep-beep.” Biology teacher Boram Lee wakes up with her alarm’s sharp sound and opens her eyes to a morning of the new school year. A couple of hours later as she walks through the hallways of CHS, she runs into her students, greeting and chatting with them. When the bell rings, a brand new story begins for her.
Lee, who is in her 12th year of teaching, was born in Korea and moved to the United States at the age of two. As staff and students welcome her, she is very excited to open up a new page in CHS. She already has positive thoughts about CHS and is very pleased to be a teacher here.
“I love the science team, the admin is very supportive,” Lee said. “I think our principal is really great. Students [are] also very respectful and their parents have been really supportive.”
When Lee married her husband Nick, they got a dog, Winston. Growing up with Lee’s two daughters, Haven and Cris, Winston became a big part of their family and turned five as of this year.
“My youngest is in a phase where she needs a lot of attention from us and of course our poor dog doesn’t get the attention he deserves,” Lee said. “It’s definitely tough but at the same time it is really fun.”
Apart from art and crafts and cooking, Lee enjoys shopping. Visiting stores and wandering around with a shopping cart, trying on new clothes and examining different products is her guilty pleasure.
“I always tell my husband that ‘oh I am shopping for the kids,’” Lee said. “I love finding new outfits and toys for them.”
Lee describes herself as pretty cultural and wants to experience living in Korea with her family for a short period of time. Although she did not want to be a teacher in Korea because the education system is very intense, she was interested in experiencing a different lifestyle with her family.
“I recently thought about it, I don’t want to permanently move there and live there for years because the lifestyle is so different.” Lee said. “I did experience it for a short period of time, maybe like a year.”
Lee also taught biology at Westfield for two years, where she enjoyed introducing students to the wonders of life sciences. However, her time there was brief, so she missed the chance to build long-term connections with her students through high school.
“I haven’t been at a high school long enough to see my freshmen become seniors and graduate,” Lee said. “I hope to see that so I can experience high school with them. Even though I am not going to be their teacher every year, I will be at their graduation.”
