Diversity in Leadership Panel at Seoul of a Leader in 2020 (from left to right): Dr.Aquil Bayyan, Quaime Lee, Margaret Park, Elsa Donahue, Dr.Josephine Kim
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Seoul of a Leader (SOAL) is an educator-led leadership conference that aims to provide professional development and professional networking opportunities for current and aspiring education leaders. SOAL was founded in 2019 by a group of educators who were committed to leadership development and equipping others to become stronger leaders who would make positive change in their spaces. Our hope was to create a professional learning space where current and aspiring leaders could come together, learn from and inspire each other to become the best version of themselves as leaders.
We believe that Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice matters because people matter. All human beings are valuable and their voices are important. Poet and Author Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” We all can do better. On behalf of our students who we are equipping to be future leaders, we need to do better.
This year, our virtual leadership conference will be centered around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice as we believe that schools should be an equitable and just place for their communities. After attending many educational conferences, our team observed that keynote speakers received compensation whereas presenters and panelists did not. To challenge the status quo of how education conferences are organized, our team decided that for this year’s conference, we would have panelists and presenters, and equally compensate everyone. We also were intentional about inviting a diverse representation of panelists and presenters and responded to the current landscape of professional learning by offering a virtual conference. We invite other conference organizers to critically think about ways to make their conferences just and equitable for all participants.
We are thrilled about our upcoming virtual leadership conference on 11 September 2021. This year’s theme is Just Us: Leading Together for Justice as we value Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice in our education institutions and in society at large. We have a diverse group of dedicated, experienced, and inspirational leaders who will be sharing their stories, wisdom and expertise. Throughout the conference and beyond, we aim to challenge our participants to continue to ask questions, reflect on the injustices and challenges of our time, and take systemic accountability in leading impactful and transformative actions in their own spaces. We invite you to join us on the journey of making our communities more equitable, more diverse, more inclusive, and more just spaces.
The SOAL planning team has dedicated and experienced leaders who are committed to fostering leadership development in the international school community. The SOAL planning team members are as follows: Heather Breedlove- Digital Learning Coach, Seoul Foreign School, David Han- MYP Mathematics & Schoolwide Academics, Seoul Foreign School, Michael Lucchesi- PYP Coordinator, Seoul Foreign School, Aaron Moniz- Co-Founder, Inspire Citizens, and Margaret Park- Elementary School Assistant Principal, Seoul Foreign School. We, the SOAL team, feel privileged and honored to have the opportunity to learn from and with so many important voices in education.
Registration and the agenda can be found on our website (bit.ly/sfssoal21) and please follow @seoulofaleader on twitter for updates.
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Margaret Park currently serves on the AIELOC Advisory Council, Seoul Foreign School as its Elementary School Assistant Principal and is a Co-Founder of Seoul of a Leader.
