As she made her way through City College, a sign read, “Geography: it’s fun, it’s easy, it pays!” spurring young Geordie Armstrong to take a class that clicks the final piece of the puzzle for her career plan in place. 

Now a geography professor, Geordie Armstrong has been teaching the interdisciplinary subject for close to 15 years. Armstrong started as an adjunct professor and later in the year 2020 was hired onto the department full time. 

The professor has written curricula, served on the Academic Senate and many different committees on campus, and continues to set new goals for herself: in the fall, she will teach two more geography courses on top of the eight she taught this year. 

This was always Armstrong’s plan; at the age of fifteen, she decided her career objective was to be a City College professor. 

“Community college allows anybody from any background a better quality of life,” the geography professor said. 

Armstrong’s upbringing was nontraditional. She was not expected to go to college as her parents had not done so. 

While growing up in Santa Barbara with low expectations for her future, the professor took a City College course, hoping to get her credits in for high school. In that class, she found the place she would build her profession. 

“I’m teaching the thing I love, at the level I love, in the place I love,” Armstrong said. 

In the geography classes, culture and adapting to location are parts of the curriculum. Although culture shapes adaptability to a location, Armstrong warns students that it can also often be a form of putting people into boxes of what is acceptable. 

The professor emphasizes the fact that no part of a culture should tell people what they can and can’t do. 

“If they don’t see that they are just as exceptional, they are gonna stop before they even try,” Armstrong said. 

Through her experience being a woman in science, Armstrong has learned–and teaches–that it is possible for women to thrive in their field of choice. Although no one, even herself, believed she would go to college, she found herself succeeding in a profession that she felt very passionate about.

“The biggest issue that I find is women that just don’t believe in themselves,” the professor said. 

Armstrong wanted to show her students that anyone can make a difference. Through teachers the students can learn that not only the most idealized people make it to their goal careers. Just as their teachers have dealt with obstacles, so too can students overcome their own obstacles to reach success.