Soo Jeong Jo, 2025 Lillian Bridwell-Bowles Innovative C-I Teacher Award recipient
June 02, 2025
For Dr. Soo Jeong Jo, teaching architecture is about more than design—it's about helping students think clearly, analyze deeply, and communicate effectively. Since 2019, she has consistently woven Communication-Intensive (C-I) strategies into her courses, bringing communication to the center of the learning process in LSU’s School of Architecture.
“My innovative C-I teaching practices influenced my students’ learning and development to be moreinteractive, diverse, and engaging,” Soo explains. Her classes are full of active learning: students play gesture games to improve oral communication, sketch quickly to build visual storytelling skills, and use tools like the “Rose, Thorn, and Bud” discussion exercise to explore and critique design ideas with clarity and structure.
These creative strategies help students connect with complex, data-heavy content that might otherwise feel abstract. Whether guiding group discussions or securing new digital tools andengagement resources through over $22,000 in grant funding, Soo works to make sure students have the tools they need to succeed—both in the classroom and beyond.
She is also a dedicated learner herself. Soo has participated in LSU’s Faculty Summer Institute and the C-I Teaching Lab, crediting these experiences with helping her grow as an educator. As she puts it, C-I practices open the door to “systematic thinking, critical analysis, and effective communication.”
The results speak for themselves. Soo has taught 14 C-I course sections over six years, and herstudents’ work has been recognized nationally at events like the National Conference on Undergraduate Research and the ACSA | AISC International Steel Design Competition, where herstudents took second place in 2021.
College of Art & Design Interim Dean Rod Parker calls her “a scholar and practitioner in Architecture who is totally engaged in her profession and totally dedicated to excellence in research and creativeactivity and, above all, in her dedication to the spirit and practice exemplified by Lillian Bridwell-Bowles.”
Students agree. School of Architecture Director Marwan Ghandour, shares that “Professor Jo is highly sought by motivated students to study with her or work under her supervision… because she is diligent in teaching them the research, professional, and communication tools to produce innovative and well-represented projects.”
About the Lillian Bridwell-Bowles Innovative C-I Teacher Award
The Lillian Bridwell-Bowles Innovative C-I Teacher Award recognizes, inspires, and continues to support innovation in C-I course/assignment design, teaching, assessment/feedback practices, classroom management, and teaching productivity/efficiency/effectiveness. Any LSU faculty member—tenured, tenure-track, or non-tenure track, full or part-time—who has taught a certified C-I course within the past three semesters and has not previously received this award is eligible. Recipients receive a $500 award. This award is named in honor of Lillian Bridwell-Bowles, an internationally recognized scholar of communication-intensive pedagogy andthe founder of LSU’s Communication across the Curriculum program.