Cory Jong
She/they | Board Member
Who is Cory?
​Many know Mx. Cory as a longtime pillar of the YVA community. Mx. Cory has been a great organizer, educator and friend to many of us.
Cory Jong has 26 years of experience with grassroots organizing, including mass-line and direct action organizing training. They helped build anti-imperialist organizations in solidarity with the Philippines in the youth sector, API student organizations, community groups organizing to free political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, transnational feminist organizations, anti-war and anti-globalization coalitions.
Their family has lived in Oakland (Huichin territory, unceded Ohlone land) for over a century. They are proud to be living and working in the Town where they were born and raised.
They currently sponsor one of the longest-running social justice clubs at the middle school level in OUSD, Warriors for Justice, who were some of the youngest founding members of Youth Vs. Apocalypse. In 2022, Cory published an anthology with youth organizers: “Warriors for Justice: Our Future Has Its Eyes on You.”
They teach the first 8th grade core Ethnic Studies class at the middle school level in Oakland Unified School District at Urban Promise Academy in the Fruitvale district of Oakland. This is their 18th year teaching, with a background in non-profit youth development work beginning in the late 90s.
They are a CTA State Council Representative, a member of Oakland Education Association’s Common Good Bargaining Team, and a member of the OEA Community Schools Steering Committee.
They have been recognized by Oakland Unified School District for Teaching Excellence, and the 49er Foundation, with the Dr. Harry Edwards “Follow Your Bliss” leadership award, as Middle School Teacher of the Year in 2021.
One of Cory’s mentors, Yuri Kochiyama, shared a quote by Frantz Fanon that continues to guide them: "Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” Cory’s mission is to support frontline youth in discovering their passions and sense of purpose, and to organize to find their voice and be agents of change.