Chong Geyer

College of the Redwoods

Nominated in 2025

In 2003, Chong Geyer was living in her vehicle with endometriosis, in constant, excruciating pain. Although she was born in Korea, she moved to the US at 23 with a sixth-grade education. After years of abuse, she escaped a toxic relationship but had no place to go and knew no one in the area. In 2006, she had surgery and was crushed to learn that the surgery would result in her being unable to have children. Shortly after Chong began working and paying back the General Relief which had kept her alive while she had been homeless. In 2020, she was unable to continue working after Covid and decided to begin attending Adult Education classes at College of the Redwoods. These classes rekindled her interest in education and desire to improve her English. She was able to maintain her education through a grant from the college and she kept studying.

Chong has since taken nearly fifty adult education classes at nearly 500 hours of participation. Her English is now fluent. She is currently enrolled in her first credit class—English 1A—and is doing very well. She is also working on earning her GED. Chong has found a calling in supporting her fellow students. She is both an advocate for her fellow Adult Education students and a great resource. She has supported students in class, encouraging them to attend, study and ask questions. And she has also supported students outside of class by organizing car pools, food drives and childcare. Chong is president of the recently formed College of the Redwoods’ multilingual club and had a major role in its creation. With completion of her English classes, she has also become a writer. Her writing has been featured several times in creative writing journals and has earned her accolades in the creative writing community.

Today, Chong is a model student. She says, “before College of the Redwoods’ Adult Education classes, knowledge of English was a barrier to my success. Now I feel comfortable using the language, and with this comfort, I have discovered opportunities to lift my fellow students; those who are in the place I was when I first began to learn.” Thus, empowered by her education, Chong is now working on her memoir which she hopes will serve as an inspiration to others in addition to her advocacy work on and off campus. She frequently reminds faculty and staff that she is now “ready to go out and change the world for the better.”