• August 11, 2015

  • Sociology Ph.D. alum and soon-to-be lecturer is part of an anteater family legacy

dadJonathan Lui had no idea when he stepped foot on campus for his undergrad education that he’d be spending the better part of a decade getting to know the ins and outs of UCI. In fact, he wasn’t the only person in his family to have “University of California, Irvine” printed on a diploma; his father, Gee Lup Lui, and his youngest brother, Kenneth Lui, all earned degrees as anteaters.

The trio has spent nearly two decades on campus between them, earning a total of five degrees and two teaching assistant of the year awards—one for Jonathan and one for his father. But what brought three members from the same family—all with very different research interests—to the same university? Jonathan believes it has a lot to do with UCI’s impressive academic programs and quality faculty.

“All we wanted out of a college was a place to learn and study,” Jonathan says. “So we looked for the best environment for that.”

This work ethic and no-nonsense attitude toward education was passed down to Jonathan and Kenneth from Gee, who made the trek from Hong Kong to Hawaii with his parents when he was 14. Though he had a bit of a rebellious streak, he was a bright student who found a passion for technology—specifically, radio communications. This “wild nerd” quality, as Jonathan calls it, eventually led him to the world of electrical engineering.

childAfter earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Hawaii, Gee moved across the Pacific to California where he began taking classes at the local university—UCI—in his spare time. At first, this was just to satisfy his personal thirst for knowledge. But when he accepted a job in the military electronic systems branch of TRW Inc., the company offered to pay for Gee to earn his Ph.D. Based on the quality of the courses he had taken at UCI, Gee decided to enter the electrical engineering program in 1981. He was hooded in 1986, and though Jonathan is proud of his father now, the then five-year-old didn’t find the commencement ceremony very exciting at the time.

“I just remember being at his graduation and it being really hot and miserable,” he laughs. “I didn’t really know what was going on then.”

Still, though he only vaguely remembers his father’s graduation day, he thinks being exposed to higher education at a young age may have influenced him on a subconscious level. Recalling how his mother used to hand him scraps of paper to draw on with his father’s advanced math equations on the back, he notes that getting a Ph.D. just seemed like something people did.

“My dad wasn’t big into forcing us to do anything and he was a pretty hands-off parent, but at the same time education was a big thing,” he says. “I think most fathers and sons connect by talking about sports and throwing a ball around in the backyard, but growing up, my dad would give us logic and math problems to solve—that was just kind of his thing.”

Even with their father’s quizzing, neither Kenneth—who earned his bachelor’s in biological sciences—nor Jonathan followed in Gee’s career footsteps. However, Jonathan still found himself influenced by his father when choosing an area of study—specifically the relationship dynamic modeled by his mom and dad. Jonathan explains that his parents maintained more “traditional” gender roles, with Gee being the breadwinner and his wife taking on the household chores and child-care responsibilities. And as a child, Jonathan remembers being puzzled, even annoyed, by that dynamic.

“You have more bargaining power in a relationship when you are investing in paid labor versus household labor,” he says. “And it kind of bothered me a little bit that my mother was doing most of the housework.”

So, when he got the chance, he decided to delve into those dynamics head on as a social science major, eventually morphing his studies to focus on the ways that couples spend time, both together and apart.

Though education was a constant presence in his childhood, Jonathan wasn’t necessarily a dedicated student from the get-go—nor was his brother, Kenneth. Both received less than stellar grades during high school and had to change their habits before being accepted to UCI.

It actually wasn’t until his senior year that Jonathan experienced his “aha” moment during a beach camping trip with friends. At that point it was too late to make up the grades to get in a good school right away, but the teenager decided that he needed to make a change if he wanted to succeed academically. Once he finished high school, he enrolled in community college and took a job at a mortgage company that, fatefully enough, boasted a view of the UCI campus.

“I remember seeing the campus and thinking, ‘one day I’m going to go there,’” he says. “I don’t know if it was just getting older, but there was definitely a turn when I went into community college where it felt cool to learn and I devoted a lot more time to studying.”

Jonathan’s hard work paid off in the fall of 2001, when he transferred to UCI to complete his undergraduate degree in social science.

After walking the stage at the Bren Center to receive his diploma for the first time, Jonathan took two years off to work full-time, but he was back at UCI by 2005 to earn his master’s degree in the Demographic and Social Analysis program. Once again, his family took their seats at the Bren Center while Jonathan crossed the stage.

After that, another break from education sounded great to Jonathan. He packed up and headed to Los Angeles for a job at a dot-com, but a little less than two years later, school was calling his name again. After exploring a few Ph.D. programs at different campuses, UCI proved, not surprisingly at this point, to be the best fit. By the fall of 2008 he was back at the familiar campus—his third round as a UCI student.

“I think for me, it made the transition a lot easier,” he says, explaining why he chose to attend UCI for a third degree program. “I didn’t have to worry about things like getting to know the faculty again, getting to know the resources on campus—and I could really just focus on what I came here to do.”

One thing was different about this round at UCI, though. Kenneth, who had completed community college and transferred to UCI as an undergrad in biological sciences in 2007, was also roaming the campus. For a few years, the brothers crossed paths on campus until Kenneth graduated in 2011. The youngest of the Lui anteaters didn’t go too far though. He now works as a microbiologist here in Irvine and even paid a visit to his alma mater this June as Jonathan was recognized in a traditional, graduate hooding ceremony—nearly 30 years after their father’s took place.

“The morning of my graduation for my doctorate, my dad whipped out his dissertation,” Jonathan says. “He had a photo album out and was looking at pictures and he brought out his diploma. He’s not a very sentimental guy—he’s more of a practical, pragmatic type—but I think he’s pretty happy.”

Even though Jonathan believes he’s the last in his family to attend UCI, the Lui family’s legacy at the campus isn’t over yet. As Jonathan has recently accepted a lecturer position in the social science department, there are plenty more UCI memories in the family’s future.

-Bria Balliet, School of Social Sciences
-Top photo: Jonathan and his father, Gee. Top right: Jonathan's father, Gee, at his Ph.D. graduation. Lower right: Jonathan as a child. 

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