The power of faculty and staff philanthropy
Two retirees honor impactful careers by creating endowments in support of areas about which they are passionate.
During their combined five-plus decades of service, Soonja Choi and Coleen Geraghty left significant legacies at San Diego State University.
As a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Asian/Middle-Eastern Languages, Choi was the driving force behind the launch of SDSU’s Korean language program.
As a key campus communicator, Geraghty documented — and helped to propel — SDSU’s growth in academic excellence and national prestige.
Now in retirement, both have taken their impact a step further by making significant endowed gifts, funded in part with bequest intentions, to SDSU in support areas about which they care deeply. Together, they illustrate the power of faculty and staff philanthropy in shaping the future of the university and its impact on future generations.
Soonja Choi
When she arrived at SDSU from the East Coast in 1987, Choi was one of only four Korean professors across the entire campus.
She remembers feeling lucky to teach on a campus in a city full of sunshine, beautiful trees and a temperate climate.
“The sky was blue, the palm trees were there and SDSU really embraced me from the very beginning,” said Choi, who was hired to teach language acquisition and the psychology of language. “I was an immigrant, and I was happy that I had a place that welcomed me as a professor, as a profession, as a professional.”
As she settled in she noticed the College of Arts and Letters only offered Japanese and Chinese language programs. She wondered, “Is there a Korean program?” Choi often thought she should find a way to promote or start a Korean language program.
“As a Korean, I felt like I had a mission,” she said.
With CAL Dean Paul Wong, she found a supporter. He amassed grant funding to help build the program and, with only a few months before the semester started in 2008, she gathered faculty and assembled a program. The first Korean 101 class was filled with about 30 students.
Studying a language like Korean “not only fulfills a language requirement, but it enriches you, your philosophy, your point of view,” she said. Through the study of language, students learn cultures and respect.
“What we need, as a country, is to learn about other people to understand the whole world,” Choi added.
Now, 38 years later, Choi is giving back to the program she established with the Soonja Choi Director of Korean Language Studies Endowment and the Soonja Choi Korean Language Scholarship. Both will strengthen new initiatives, scholarships, and leadership. She hopes with her support, the program will expand with a directorship and appear on a “bigger platform.”
“I’d like our Korean Studies program to be not only the San Diego community’s pride, but also nationwide,” Choi said.
Coleen Geraghty
For more than a decade, a globe-trotting journalist brought SDSU’s vibrant community to life in the glossy pages of 360, the alumni publication now known as SDSU Magazine.
Geraghty served as editor of the magazine from 2005 until her retirement in 2019. It was the culmination of a career in journalism that began as a reporter in her hometown of New York City and took her to posts in Washington, D.C., Brussels, London and Hong Kong.
So when Geraghty and her husband Gary Kemper decided recently to leave a legacy at SDSU through philanthropy, the area they chose to support was somewhat unexpected: future teachers.
“My career was in journalism, but so much of it was also in education,” she explained. "I think about it like that. Gary and I want to ensure that people who really want to be teachers, who are dedicated to the profession, are able to do so.”
The result was the Liz and Simon McAllister Endowed Teaching Scholarship, which just awarded its first student recipient during the fall 2025 semester. The scholarship supports first-generation students with demonstrated financial need.
Geraghty’s youngest sister, Liz McAllister, teaches study skills and drama at Minnetonka (Minn.) Middle School East, winning the teacher of the year award for her district in 2016. Liz’s husband, Simon McAllister, is a teacher at Groves Academy, a St. Louis Park, Minn. school for students who experience learning challenges.
"I just believe so deeply in education and how it can transform lives, and help people understand the world that we're living in and think critically," said Geraghty.
Geraghty certainly understands the power of a scholarship. It was the only way she — one of six kids from a middle class family in Astoria, Queens — could have attended New York University and made her journalism dreams come true.
“What's happening at SDSU is the equivalent of what happened to me in New York in the 70s,” she said. SDSU is helping students who otherwise might not be able to go to college. Those students’ lives are forever changed for the better.”
As a key campus communicator, Geraghty played an important role in The Campaign for SDSU, which raised $815 million between 2007 and 2017. She added that she hopes her own giving will inspire other current and retired SDSU staff to do the same.
“SDSU is about its people,” she said. “That makes it really special."
