While many UCSD students spend their college careers studying and pouring over readings and notes, Kathy Lee, the assistant director of the University Events Office and advisor to the A.S. Programming office, did not find her education in a textbook when she attended UCSD in 1994.
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“I wasn’t a very good student,” Lee said. “What I got out of UCSD as a whole wasn’t the education — it was working in the A.S. Programming office. Working in the office has definitely propelled me into my job today.”
Lee spent four years in the programming office, starting out as a volunteer and working her way up to commissioner of programming in her third year. She was re-elected in her fourth year. “I just got hooked,” Lee said. “I just wanted to get as much exposure before I left. The programming office was a great training ground for me. You can make really big decisions, but you can also make mistakes. I just knew it was what I wanted to do.”
Lee said that the training she received at UCSD in the A.S. Programming office —putting on shows like FallFest, WinterFest and Sun God — was invaluable to her decision to continue in the entertainment and music industry after she graduated from UCSD in 1998.
“It’s really the rush that you get after all your hard work, seeing an entire arena of people seeing their favorite band, a band you brought to your school,” Lee said.
Lee’s work to get to where she is today has not been easy. Her worst memory of a show was when she worked in Massachusetts with the Iron Horse Entertainment Group doing promotion. The show was in August and the weather was humid. That night, the Beat Junkies and Jurassic 5 were scheduled to play, but the owner forgot to book several staff members for the night including a ticket-taker and bar-back.
“It was sold out and absolutely packed,” Lee said. “The air-conditioning system went down after sound check and we had to scramble to find fans. There were only four windows in the entire place, and the artists were freaking out because there was moisture on their records and they couldn’t use them. That night I was selling tickets, running upstairs to get ice, going back to sell more tickets and giving out a lot of free water. It taught me to be flexible, and we all got through it together.”
Lee said that her decision to continue in the programming office was influenced by her advisor at UCSD, Linda Stack, who pushed her to build her resumé through internships. After seeing the impact that Stack had had on her during her college years, Lee knew that she wanted to work with college students in the same way, and was excited when she saw a job opportunity to do just that at her alma mater.
Lee’s job as assistant director of UEO includes booking the UEO performing arts season that includes the chamber music series, dance shows and concerts in jazz, world music and RIMAC Arena-ready rock.
“There really is no regular day,” Lee said. “Especially on a show day, you never know if an artist is going to show up, or what time they’re going to arrive. You can get up at 5 or 6 a.m., and then it’s high speed all the way till the end. Students just don’t realize what the programming office does. You get to see how much abuse your mental and physical well-being can take.”
Lee said that her job allows her to give back to the community and is a merge between her experience with booking, passion for the arts and music, and her desire to work with students.
“It’s so fulfilling. At the end of the day when you see a house full past capacity, or people that are so excited about one dance piece that you get this tingly-giddy feeling when you see it. It takes my breath away and inspires me,” Lee said. “It humbles you to know you have one of the best jobs out there.”
Lee’s job offers her many perks including invitations to different shows and the opportunity to meet artists. Yet Lee says that her main passion for music, unlike other fans, does not lie in meeting bands or hanging out with them backstage.
“It doesn’t interest me too much to go backstage and meet [the bands],” Lee said. “It’s more exciting for me to see the effect the band has on an audience, and look out at the arena and see people enjoying themselves. It’s such a rush, more of a rush than hanging out with a band. I mean, what can you say to a band that they haven’t heard before?”
