English teacher Cindy Ung grew up in Santa Ana, she said. She did not like where she grew up, she added.
Santa Ana had gang activities and primarily had low-income populations, Ung said. “Much of my resentment stemmed from me being the only Chinese person in my neighborhood and classes, in which over 90% of the population would be Hispanic,” Ung said. “Thus, I felt isolated and that I didn’t belong. I
was often bullied for being Asian in middle school.”
She wanted to do extremely well in school, equating education with opportunity, she said. “I later learned to appreciate where I came from and be proud of the people I met in Santa Ana,” Ung said. As a child, Ung wrote poetry as a form of release, she said. “Whether I felt depressed, angry, frustrated, confused, and so on, writing poetry helped me to process my emotions,” Ung said. “That’s what led me to teaching poetry at UCI (University of California Irvine).”
After high school, Ung attended UCI for a bachelor’s degree, Ung said. During that time, she taught a real college class where her students earned credit, she added.
“It was through this program called UTeach,” Ung said. “That course taught me how to create lesson plans and a syllabus to teach to a class of my choice. My class was on spoken word poetry.” She wanted to travel the world to perform her spoken word poetry, she added. “Being a poet was another dream job,” Ung said. “But I knew to be realistic, at least. Being a teacher was something I knew I wanted to do since around middle school.”
While in college, she realized she was resilient while persevering through imposter syndrome, she said.
“I felt like, as a person who came from Santa Ana, (I) wasn’t worthy of being in communities that had more opportunities and (I wasn’t worthy of) being around intelligent people,” Ung said.
Despite her hardships, Ung is proud of herself for being resilient and overcoming them, she said. One of the challenges she faced in college was being a resident advisor who would take care of other college dorm students, she said. It was a lot of work, she added. “I’m really glad I took up that challenge and lived in a dorm and moved out,” Ung said.
One of the memorable moments she had in college was when her residents surprised her with a cake and movie bonding night as a farewell event, she said. She thought it was sweet that they appreciated her hard work, she added. If not for the coronavirus pandemic, she would have stayed as their RA, she said.
After UCI, Ung attended Stanford University and began working at MHS after graduating from Stanford.
“When I met Ms. Ung, it was clear that she was a pleasure to be around and that she cared for her students,” senior Andrew Zhu said. “Even though she was behind her desk and busy, she took the time to learn my name and talk to me briefly as she had work to work on.”
She provided Zhu, his friends, and Mahjong Society with a safe and consistently available space to be themselves and to be open with each other, he said.“She understands her students well given how often many of them try to visit her, whether they moved on from her class or not,” former student senior Allie Ly said. Ung is one of Ly’s favorite teachers, and the reason she decided to take English III Honors during junior year and AP Lit in her final year, Ly said. Ly still talks to Ung about grammar rules or the book she’s currently reading, she added.