Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide

January 23, 2008 7:30-8:30pm  Sylvania PCC Campus Room HT311 

As a Royal Rosarian, Kilong Ung is goodwill ambassador of the City of Portland, but as a Khmer Rouge genocide survivor and a former refugee from Cambodia, Kilong is a voice of the two million lives claimed by the Khmer Rouge genocide.  Kilong will share his story of surviving one of the most heinous crimes against humanity. 

Kilong Ung is a Khmer Rouge genocide survivor and a former refugee from Cambodia.  He is married and has two small children.  He is a member of the Portland Rotary Club.  Recommended by Portland Mayor Tom Potter, Kilong became a Royal Rosarian in April, 2007.

Kilong is a fulltime senior software engineer at Fiserv, a Fortune 500 company.  He is also an adjunct instructor at Portland Community College where he teaches “Introduction To Microsoft .Net Framework Using C#”.  Until the end of 2007, he served two consecutive two-year terms as the president of the Cambodian-American Community of Oregon. 

Kilong is a member of the 2007 Portland Immigrant and Refugee Task Force, the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Advisory Committee's Housing Subcommittee, and the Board of the Portland Village School.

Kilong survived the Khmer Rouge genocide that claimed two million lives including his parents.  He came to the U.S. in 1979.  He graduated from Cleveland High School in 1983, Reed College in 1987 (B.A.) and Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in 1989 (M.S.).

Kilong was an Oregon Beaver Boys State participant, a YWCA camp counselor, a BGSU Graduate Student Senate treasurer, a senior consultant at Andersen Consulting (aka Accenture), an account manager at United Data Processing and a Dale Carnegie team leader.

Kilong has been volunteering as a messenger of two million lives claimed by the Khmer Rouge genocide.  He had spoken at Clackamas High School, Newberg Rotary Club, Royal Rosaria, First United Methodist Church, Peace Memorial Park, Hollywood Theater and Portland State University. 

Kilong is currently writing a book about his life, “A Rotarian Who Survived the Khmer Rouge Genocide”.

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Andrew D. Cohen   Instructor of Composition and Literature

Portland Community College   Sylvania Campus/CT 219

12000 SW 49th Avenue   Portland, OR 97219  (503)977-8019