On a Mission

When she was two years old, Hee Uk Chung and her family moved from South Korea to the U.S. Chung’s father, Steve, worked in advertising for Samsung and settled in Bergen County, New Jersey, in part because of the excellent reputation of the public schools there.

Chung enjoyed school, with one exception. “I used to hate the first day of class, because of all the teasing [about my name]," she says. So, in third grade, she started calling herself Stephany. “I'm not sure why I picked it. I just liked the way it sounded.”

Like her father, Chung is a devout Christian and active in a variety of civic and religious causes. As a youth, she went on evangelizing missions to countries in Europe and South America. Meanwhile back home, the demographics of Bergen County were changing. By the time college rolled around, Chung was ready to leave. "Too many Asians!" she jokes.

Chung’s first stab at college was RISD--the Rhode Island School of Design--where she studied interior architecture. Last year, she transferred to The New School. She's a little coy about why. "RISD just wasn't for me," she says.

At Lang, Chung seems to have had no problem establishing herself. She is the new photography co-editor at the student newspaper, The New School Free Press. She has also successfully proposed her own major—a combination of journalism and civic engagement that she calls “Engaged Journalism.”

Nevertheless, she admits that The New School is not always a natural fit.

“It’s pretty far left here, and I’m pretty conservative,” she says. “I don’t know who I’ll vote for this fall.”