EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.
Born and raised in San Francisco, lecturer and author Amy Wong lived with her five siblings and parents who worked in a small, family-owned Chinese restaurant. At just 8 years old, she began helping her parents in the restaurant business.
“I think my strong work ethic comes from them because I know how difficult it is to make money,” Wong said. “I think it really just made me a person who also appreciated work.”
Starting at San Diego State University in 1995, Wong has been teaching for more than 60 semesters in both sociology and Asian American studies, focusing her research on mental health. With two master’s degrees and a doctorate in education, Wong brings her expertise in mental health to SDSU’s sociology and Asian American studies departments.
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Wong started her higher education journey at the University of Redlands as a political science major with a sociology minor. She became a teaching assistant for sociology classes in 1992 while completing her first master’s degree at SDSU and was inspired to continue with sociology through to her second master’s degree in social sciences.
“I’m in my 31st year, but after 30 years, I still enjoy it because I get to talk to students. I get to talk about what I enjoy,” Wong said. “I truly believe in what I’m doing. I think it has value.”
During her time as an undergraduate, Wong had the opportunity to study abroad in England, Scotland, Austria, New Mexico and Hong Kong. Just last year, she traveled to six countries in six months, visiting Japan, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ireland and Canada. This summer she plans to visit Amsterdam, Prague, Budapest, Spain and Portugal.
“Traveling is really important to me because I think it makes me a better teacher,” Wong said. “It allows me to infuse my lecture with different examples, but I also hope that it’s a source of inspiration for students that also want to travel, to see other things and to see things from a different perspective.”
Wong is the only woman in her department who teaches social theory classes, lecturing in both classical and contemporary social theory at SDSU. Her favorite class to teach is Sociology of Mental Illness because she can use her past research as a foundation for teaching college students about mental illness.
During her Ed.D. program at the University of Southern California, Wong spent her time working on her dissertation. After being encouraged by her committee to share her work, the dissertation became a book published by Oxford University Press in 2023 titled “Stories of Survival: The Paradox of Suicide Vulnerability and Resiliency Among Asian American College Students.”
“This represents about three and a half years of my life,” Wong said about her dissertation. “We’re always connected to the research that is deeply personal to us in some ways.”
A tremendous source of Wong’s inspiration for the book is her older brother, a University of California, Berkeley graduate, and a large part of Wong’s and her siblings’ lives. Wong’s brother died by suicide, leaving an impact on her that will always remain.
“That trauma is being transformed into me generating more knowledge, writing a book, teaching these classes so we can really talk about it,” Wong said. “Because it’s something we don’t give enough attention to.”
Wong dedicated her book to both her brother and the survivors of suicide ideation and suicide attempts. “Stories of Survival” was also nominated with distinction by the Rossier School of Education.
“When we’re afraid to tell our stories, then stigma wins. And I never want stigma to win,” she said.
SDSU’s Department of Asian American Studies recruited Wong because of her past research on the Asian American community and mental health. She has also been asked to teach a new class on mental illness in the Asian American community starting this fall.
Wong conducted interviews with college students for her dissertation during the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020. She credits her parents as a source of inspiration for finishing the dissertation and turning it into a book.
“Because I wasn’t writing just for my brother, but I was writing for what I believed was a lot of people, I think that gave me the courage and strength to continue because there were some days when it was just really hard,” Wong said. “But you continue to do it, because you’re trained as a researcher to do this. You’re also honoring your own humanity and your own vulnerability.”
Throughout her career, Wong has celebrated her success by continuing to do what she loves: traveling as much as she can in her free time. Her favorite place she has visited is Florence, Italy.
Wong also enjoys knitting, crocheting, reading and playing the violin. She began playing the violin again last year, naming her instrument Sherlock after one of her favorite characters, Sherlock Holmes. She also participates in community service, volunteering every week at Mama’s Kitchen in San Diego, a nonprofit organization that provides meals to those in need.
When Wong retires, she hopes to play violin for a community orchestra, as she used to play in an orchestra as a child and currently takes violin classes every Wednesday.
Wong’s mark on SDSU hasn’t gone without recognition. From 2015 to 2018, she received four faculty awards from the university: The Favorite Faculty Award, the College of Arts and Letters Excellence in Teaching Award, the Weber Honors College Outstanding Faculty Award and the President’s Leadership Award for Faculty Excellence.
Her journey through education, personal research and her love for teaching about sensitive topics brings an open-minded and intellectual perspective to the SDSU community.
“We learn to live with what we have,” said Wong. “It’s a part of who we are, and that’s part of our humanity. It was part of my brother’s humanity.”