Mun Choi, first Asian-American leader of UM System, reflects on AAPI Heritage Month

Acknowledging Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month is an important exercise, said Mun Choi, the first Asian-American president of the University of Missouri System and MU chancellor.

"I think it's very important," Choi said of the month. "It provides us with an opportunity to reflect. It's very valuable in that regard, with how we benefit as a society and try to gain a better understanding of people of different countries, different backgrounds and cultures."

Choi spoke Thursday in a wide-ranging interview from his office in Jesse Hall.

Choi is the top administrator of MU and the UM System, whose other Asian-American leaders include Provost Latha Ramchand at MU and Mauli Agrawal, chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

The UM System, and University of Missouri, tries to find the very best, so it spreads a wide net to find them, Choi said.

"We all want to broaden the (applicant) pool to find the very best person for the job," Choi said.

Koreans represent the biggest group of alumni among all international alumni, Choi said.

"My understanding is that back in the '50s, President Truman asked the university to allow Korean students to attend so they can return to Korea to help their country," Choi said. "Many went back to help rebuild the fractured country."

MU was able to get a taste of Korean politics when a campus site was designated as a polling place for Koreans in the United States voting in the South Korean Presidential election.

"They selected MU because of its historic ties to Korea," Choi said of the South Korean government. "Many of our faculty helped with the polling place."

Choi's family roots in South Korea

His own story began in Seoul, South Korea, in 1964.

"The country at the time in the '60s and '70s was nothing like it is now," Choi said.

South Korea was a developing country with a military dictatorship governing it until the 1980s, he said. Now, the democratic country has a vibrant economy.

His parents moved to Akron, Ohio, on July 4, 1973, with Choi and his three younger sisters. Choi was 9.

His parents wanted to provide him and his sisters with opportunities they didn't think they would have remaining in South Korea, he said.

It worked.

"All four of the children graduated from universities and lead good lives," Choi said.

Choi, sisters, learned English through immersion, television

Arriving in America was fun, he said.

"It was wonderful," Choi reminisced. "We were, in the best sense of the word, a novelty to many."

They were among the few Asians in Akron at the time. He made many friends, some of whom remain his friends now, he said.

He didn't know English when he arrived.

"We quickly learned English by being thrust into the school system," Choi said. A third-grader in South Korea, Choi initially was placed in a first-grade class with his sister until his English skills advanced.

"It was immersion," Choi said of the language education. "My sisters and I watched a lot of television like 'The Three Stooges' and 'The Little Rascals.'"

His parents didn't find jobs in the U.S., so they followed a traditional immigrant path of creating their own business, sewing taekwondo uniforms. They started out from their home with a single sewing machine, he said.

Choi practiced taekwondo.

"I was one notch below black belt, then I stopped," Choi said.

His reason?

"I was going into high school,"  he said. "I decided to play football."

It was great working together as part of a team sport, he said, though "we weren't very good."

By then, his family was in Chicago, where they moved in 1975.

His parents' business had grown beyond the single sewing machine — and uniform material was more available in Chicago, he said.

"Chicago had more opportunity," Choi said.

He recalls as a senior in high school in 1983 participating in the naturalization ceremony with his parents and sisters when they took their oaths as U.S. citizens, he said.

"It was a very special day," he said.

His father died 12 years ago, but he said his 85-year-old mother lives in Grandview, Illinois, just a 15-minute drive from the O'Hare airport.

Reflecting on leadership

Choi received his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His master's degree and doctorate are from Princeton University.

His positions before coming to Columbia include assistant and associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago; department head of mechanical engineering and mechanics at Drexel University; dean of engineering, provost and executive vice president at the University of Connecticut. He's been serving as system President since March 2017 and was appointed to the dual role of MU chancellor in July 2020.

He receives criticism for some decisions, but said that's expected in a leadership position and none of the criticism has bad motives.

"I am responsible for making decisions," Choi said. "My job is to make decisions. I do always try to put the best interests of the university and its people at the heart of my decisions."

He doesn't consider himself a role model for students, he said.

50 years in America

An important personal anniversary is coming up for Choi.

"Next year will be 50 years in the United States," Choi said.

As a 9-year-old kid in South Korea, he thought the United States would be a perfect country, he said. But no country is perfect.

"This is a country that gave my family and countless other families an opportunity," Choi said. "My parents came here from a foreign land without a clear plan of what the future would hold."

He didn't know if he would have the courage to do the same, but he said he's grateful his parents did.

Roger McKinney is the education reporter for Tribune. You can reach him  at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mun Choi, first Asian-American leader of MU, UM System reflects on AAPI Heritage Month