CSUSB's Palm Desert Campus Outstanding Graduate shares his unique journey into higher ed

Geoffrey Demke will be the first to admit that his path to college was neither easy nor straightforward.

As a child, he moved frequently, never staying in one city for more than five years. That changed in 2016 when he and his family relocated to the Coachella Valley after his wife, Niccole, was offered a teaching position at a local elementary school with Desert Sands Unified School District.

"We fell in love with the area and decided to make a change for us. We figured if we were going to move, we needed to do it now," Demke said. "We didn't want Allison, our daughter, to experience that same kind of moving around as I did."

When Demke was in fifth grade, his parents decided to homeschool him and his siblings, but it didn't exactly work out that way. Instead of focusing on education, he worked with his father on tile and stonework projects. Demke eventually returned to school in the 11th grade and graduated from high school.

"That was really hard, really difficult," he said, "so the idea of college felt kind of scary because I felt I was playing catch up when I was in high school."

He then started working for a tile company, where he spent the next 18 years. His manager advised him that advancing in the company would require going back to school and taking some classes. Demke was motivated by the goal of becoming a manager and running his own store, but at that point, he had met his wife and they decided she'd go to college first.

"When she was done (with school), she was like, 'OK, it's your turn.' I was like, 'Oh, great,'" Demke said.

He started at College of the Desert in early 2019 as a part-time student, eventually transitioning to full-time studies while maintaining his part-time job. Returning to the public school system triggered some anxiety, which led to "crazy meticulous" notes at first, as he anticipated being questioned on every minor detail during exams.

"By the time I started, I was in my late 30s, and I thought I'd be older than everybody. It had been so long since I graduated from high school. I didn't know if I could get back into it and do it. I thought everyone would judge me; but when I got there, it was great," Demke said. "It wasn't really as bad as I was having nightmares about. There were people who were older, people who were younger. It wasn't a big deal."

During this time, he found joy in actively engaging with his daughter's education during her elementary school years and he realized he was interested in pursuing a career in teaching. "I just love the enthusiasm of younger children," he said.

He switched his major from business to history, moving forward from the tile company. The rest, as they say, is history. In 2022, he earned his associate's degree in history and transferred to Cal State San Bernardino's Palm Desert Campus. "It was difficult, it was work," he said, "but it was definitely attainable."

He fully immersed himself in various facts of campus life, taking on roles such as vice president of the History Club, participating in the school's Soccer Club, serving as a College Corps Fellow, and volunteering at the Coachella Valley History Museum. He even completed an internship with the museum's Junior Historians after school program.

“Sometimes I’ll give tours to people that come in at the Coachella Valley History Museum and I love it when there’s students that come in because then I always try to ask them questions and keep them engaged," he said.

Demke will graduate from the Toyota Arena in Ontario on Friday, earning a bachelor's degree in history with a 4.0 GPA. He was honored as this year's outstanding graduate by CSUSB's Palm Desert Campus.

This fall, he will return to the Palm Desert Campus to embark on his journey toward earning his multiple subject teaching credential to teach at the elementary school level. He can be found attending DSUSD's recruitment fair the day after graduation, eager to secure a teaching internship while at CSUSB, or at the very least, to get his foot in the door. He's not wasting any time kickstarting his second career.

"Listen, I worked for the same business for 18 years, and instead of just staying there and trying to make it work, I chose another path," Demke said. "And you should always be trying to learn. You never know everything. It doesn't matter what path you take, you can always get there eventually."

Jennifer Cortez covers education in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at jennifer.cortez@desertsun.com.