Grading the man

Our international school community has been able to enjoy the diversity and different leaderships of numerous secondary principals. Mr. Lee is now our eigth secondary principal come from B—to serve our school body. Even though his goal and motive may be noble, is he fit for the job? Is he able to hold our community and help it grow? I interviewed him to find out if he was the man we needed for the job.

The most important aspect of being a principal is definitely the professional education and career of the person. He graduated from one of the best Californian high schools in California. He trained to become a teacher and taught at a number of different schools. He is still new as a principal but nonetheless he knows what he’s doing at school.

I next wanted to find out if he was a good match for our school. Being such a diverse community many would find it extremely hard to become a bridge between all the different races and cultures in our school. It’s vital that the principal be able to hold a common ground with all the students or otherwise the school body won’t be able to be unified. Though I expected him to be a typical Korean-American immigrant, I found out that he hardly had that typical background. Mr. Lee immigrated to America at the young age of one year and . His parents have a store in an African-American neighborhood, so he grew up with different races. He went to a top Californian high school which had a high concentration of Asian-Americans. He worked in South Korea and Germany before coming to Turkey. He also has contacts from all over Asia. He's experienced cultural differences on numerous occasions. He knows what we TCKs have to go through in a myriad of cultures.

Even though we’d love a guy who knows how to make us happy both in a professional sense and personal sense, I wanted to know what he is as a person. During the interview I saw that he was very open and honest; a truly transparent person. He tried to show who he truly was and made us comfortable when talking with him. He showed that he had numerous role models to guide himself during his life. I was amazed to see how he shared that he also learns from students, something I certainly wouldn’t admit if I was the principal.

I loved how he had so many entertaining events in his life and he was more than happy to share that with us. A student commented, “Mr. Lee is omnipresent; you can find him just outside the hallway anytime and anywhere.” His life motto, “inspired by One, he inspired many” really explains what he’s doing at our school.

How does Mr. Lee score as a principal? Honestly, he easily gets an A. Is there a negative side about him? Yes, he wasn’t at our school during the time which he taught. We are pleased to have Mr. Lee as our secondary principal. Competent, transparent, sincere, and a true friend.