Joy Lee

Joy Lee
Northwestern University
Senior
Centreville, VA

Joy Lee is a student at Northwestern University, majoring in Learning and Organizational Change with a minor in Business Institutions. Growing up in an immigrant family, she became deeply aware of how language barriers, power imbalances, and limited access to resources can leave individuals and families vulnerable within complex legal systems and society at large. These experiences shaped her aspiration to pursue a legal career centered on advocacy, justice, and service.

At Northwestern, Joy has pursued an interdisciplinary academic path that integrates law, business, and organizational analysis. Through coursework in law, economics, and public policy, she has focused on understanding how institutions function and how they can be redesigned to better protect marginalized populations. She believes that effective advocacy requires not only legal expertise, but also a strong understanding of how economic systems and the broader world operate in practice.

Joy has gained hands-on experience through both legal and business-focused internships across multiple cities and countries. Her legal internships involved extensive research on data governance and athlete human rights, contributing to policy discussions surrounding Olympic athletics and human rights protections. In parallel, her business and consulting experiences strengthened her analytical and strategic skills while reinforcing her desire to pursue law as a profession that allows her to work directly with people and advocate for those in vulnerable positions. Her study abroad experiences in Italy and Australia further deepened her global perspective.

On campus, Joy serves as Treasurer of Quest+, supporting first-generation and low-income students through responsible financial stewardship, and as Vice President of Risk Management for Alpha Chi Omega, where she leads safety and compliance initiatives. Joy aspires to attend law school and use her legal training to advocate for underserved communities. She is deeply grateful to be selected as an SNUAA USA Scholar and hopes to honor this support through a lifelong commitment to justice, service, and impact within the Korean community and beyond.