Soo Yeon Hong

Crab soccer, push-ups and running along the James River at 5:45 a.m. is a regular morning for Soo Yeon Hong. Hong, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, is also a member of Seal Team Physical Training. Seal Team PT, taught by a former Navy Seal instructor, provides group training work outs.
“I’ve never worked out in my life,” Hong said. “This has given me a lot of confidence. I can kick some butt.”
Before coming to VCU, Hong taught at Syracuse University, where she also received her master’s degree in magazine journalism in 2000.
“I loved it so much,” said Hong. “I really liked graphics.”
Professors encouraged Hong to go into that field of work. Focused on graphic design, Hong worked at Time magazine in New York for six months.
“It was interesting working there because they had chauffeurs take you home every night,” said Hong. “You work crazy hours. I learned a lot of discipline.”
Hong worked full time, but was not considered a full employee at Time. Hong got hired at its sister publication, Health, a women’s magazine with more than two million subscribers. She worked there for two years as a designer in Birmingham, Ala.
“I met a lot of great people there. It was very different coming from New York City,” said Hong. “I was very lucky to work there.”
When the editor at Health asked Hong what she really wanted to do, she said she likes writing but also likes visuals. Hong’s editor suggested that she should try film making.
Hong went back to Syracuse and got her second master’s degree in television, film and radio in 2005.
“I hated it,” Hong said. “I hated making documentary and short films. I thought, ‘what am I going to do.’ At that time I was teaching a graphics design course as a master’s student and I really enjoyed teaching.”
Hong asked her professor what to do and was told to get her Ph.D.
When Hong was accepted to the program, one of the interviewers told Hong to promise to leave after getting her Ph.D.
“They joked that I should be receiving tenure since I had been at Syracuse for so long,” said Hong.
In 2008, Hong received her Ph.D. in mass communications at Syracuse. Hong didn’t know anything about Richmond until she came for an interview. Her mentors in Syracuse are friends with Judy Turk, director of VCU School of Mass Communications, and said that Turk is great and Hong will love working with her. Hong’s friend graduated from VCU and told her great things about Richmond.
“I had a favorable perception,” said Hong. “On my way back to Syracuse I told myself that if I get an offer, I will go here. And I got the offer. No regrets. One of the things I really like about VCU is the energy of the students, so diverse. And the faculty is very young.”
Yan Jin, a professor at VCU, has known Hong since 2006.
“It is very pleasant and rewarding to work with Soo,” said Jin. “We are currently working together on a joint research project on crisis communication and organizational identification.”
Hong said teaching is great because it has a beginning, middle and end. She meets new students and sees past students making progress and eventually graduate.
“It’s a very fulfilling and rewarding job,” said Hong.
Anuj Singh, one of Hong’s past students, said he would recommend Hong as an instructor.
“I never thought I was creatively inclined,” said Singh. “But Professor Hong helped bring that out.”
When asked why multimedia skills are important, Hong said if you don’t know the medium the target audience prefers to get the message, how are you going to reach them?
“It has more to do with not the content creator but with the content receiver,” said Hong. “I think that’s why multimedia moving to different platforms is important. Reach the people you want to reach. The more you know, the better. You don’t have to be an expert on everything, I don’t think you can. You should be able to not be intimidated. It’s really a great place to have conversation with your target audience. You can directly have a relationship with them. And provide something they want and they will come to you. Try to show you care and know what they want.”
Hong said we have more tools to reach our publics and a greater opportunity to have direct conversations.
“In last 15 years, public relations is more than media relations. It’s leading more to relationship management,” said Hong. “Graphic design is a skill to take advantage of because the younger and older generations are visually driven.”
Other than graphic design, Hong’s interests include writing short stories. She has always loved writing. Hong also takes online writing classes. She likes cooking too, especially Korean food.
“Before I came to Richmond, one of my professors in Syracuse said to be happy. Because happy professors will teach well and make students happy,” said Hong. “I wanted to not only spend my time teaching and doing research. I also wanted to have a life. I wanted to be a good model and not get stressed out.”
Being a member of Seal Team PT has helped give Hong the balance in her life.
On a recent morning, Hong ran 5 miles.
“It’s so pretty to see the sunrise. You can see the city waking,” said Hong. “It’s a very different lifestyle than what I did in Syracuse, when I would just stay in the office, work for 14 and 15 hours. But here I get to enjoy.”