Stan Chung never thought anybody would care to hear about his parents, their struggles, and his upbringing as the son of a Korean-born United Church minister. He never thought his experience extraordinary. He never thought it atypical, nor did he find it very interesting. Everybody has a story; his story begins and ends just like everyone else's.

So when he took his column in the Okanagan Sunday newspaper into personal experience he was surprised that readers greeted his explorations enthusiastically. Every time he submitted something to the editor that filled him with dread and anxiety, readers rewarded him with emails of praise and encouragement. These emails came in bunches whenever he wrote something that struck an emotional chord with readers. The column began to change as he tried to push the emotional content of the work, to take bigger risks, to talk openly about the suicide of a student, the death of his mother, how his parents abandoned him. Having been taught to take risks in his writing, Stan found that the more he risked, the more he realized that the column was becoming an intensely personal way of connecting with his community.

Stan Chung is an award-winning writer, and the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Camosun College. He was born in Seoul, raised in Williams Lake, and studied at UBC (BA Hons), University of Toronto (MA), and Simon Fraser University (PDP). Stan is well-known for his ability to provide visionary, consultative, and transformative leadership. His 20 years of experience in the BC college sector includes 6 years of senior experience as Director, Associate Dean, Acting Dean and Dean.

In 2008 he was selected as one of 230 to attend the Governor General's Canadian Leadership Conference. A passionate advocate for innovation and learning, he speaks regularly on educational issues while pursuing scholarly interests in transformational learning, community leadership, and advocacy journalism. Stan maintains an active community profile as a writer with over 600 published articles in a variety of publications. He was runner-up at the CBC Literary Awards and has published in AdBusters, Mission Review, Kelowna Daily Courier, Pentiction Herald, and Prince George Citizen. His feature column Global Citizen is published in The Okanagan Sunday. He is married with two young children, and lives in Kelowna and Victoria.