Biography

Originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and having lived in Shanghai, China for 8 years, Suyi Leong received her B.A. with Honors in Psychology and Early Childhood and Family Studies from the University of Washington, Seattle. After graduation, she spent one year working as a Research Consultant at the Center of Leadership and Strategic Thinking (CLST) at the Foster School of Business, and continued volunteering as a research assistant at the Culture Collaboratory supervised by Dr. Stephanie Fryberg. As a Research Consultant at CLST, Suyi worked primarily on data management, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and contributed to several research projects while mentoring a few research assistants. Throughout her undergraduate career, she worked with Dr. Yuichi Shoda and Dr. Laura Brady as an honors student developing cultural models of family between first- and continuing-generation college students on how the role of family differs across both groups in their college experience. She continued her research and sought to develop cultural models of sacrifice to understand whether family sacrifice affects academic motivation. Outside research, Suyi enjoys traveling, baking treats, and solving jigsaw puzzles.

Research Area

Suyi is primarily interested in challenges individuals face while transitioning into a different cultural context. Specifically, she looks at how narratives, messages, and relationships in the context affect the performance and motivation of individuals across different socioeconomic backgrounds, race and ethnicity. 

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