By Tyler Dahlgren

“It was an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime educational experience, but it doesn’t have to be once-in-a-lifetime.”

Between the two of them, Drs. Larianne Polk and Dan Schnoes have over seven combined decades of experience in the world of education. Over the course of their careers, the two have done and seen it all.

Chopsticks training, though? That was a new one. 

Ahead of a 12-day journey to get a first-hand look at education in Seoul, South Korea and Singapore, the pair of Chief Executive Officers (Polk with ESUCC and Schnoes with ESU 3 in La Vista) were able to cross it off the list.

The trip, part of an effort to develop global education partnerships through the Association of Educational Service Agencies (AESA), was a once in a lifetime educational experience, said Polk. But it doesn't have to be. The world shrunk during the COVID pandemic, allowing for easier connections in igniting the possibilities that exist within global education.

A couple of years ago, New Haven, CT-based ACES International reached out to AESA and pitched the idea with the intention of sharing the work being done by service agencies in the U.S. on the international stage. 

“The AESA Executive Board discussed the idea at several of our meetings and ran it through some of the different networking groups to see what people thought,” said Schnoes, who was elected president of AESA last spring. “We thought this would be a great opportunity for us on the national level to expand our reach and to provide these kinds of opportunities across the board.”

Polk, who stepped into her position with ESUCC last summer after a decade leading ESU 7 in Columbus, and Schnoes were part of a leadership academy that was assembled several months ahead of the trip.

“As a part of that, we had expectations and responsibilities through the year to grow our knowledge of the cultures of which we were visiting, understand more about their educational situations that they have over there, and to spend time with some leadership growth in general,” said Polk. “It was a huge professional development opportunity for all of us. It was really amazing.”

The preparation process alone was a spectacular learning experience. Educators from both Seoul and Singapore attended the training sessions, either in-person or over Zoom, and provided invaluable tips on what to expect. Learning from them was an honor in itself.

“The top ten percent of college graduates become educators in those countries, so there’s a very heightened sense of respect for teachers in the places we visited,” said Polk. “They’re right up there with doctors and lawyers in the importance that they play. It’s understood that students can’t become what they dream to be without first having an incredible educational experience and foundation.”

Their pre-trip preparation went far deeper than proper chopstick protocol. The delegation of 30 learned proper business card etiquette, when to bow and to not chew gum in Singapore. Singapore’s national language is English, so communicating was easier there than in Seoul, where an interpreter attended their meetings. Schnoes and Polk also prepared to share on the vital services and supports that ESUs give to school districts across Nebraska.

On Monday, March 31, the group departed for Seoul from airports all across the U.S. On Tuesday, they arrived at Incheon Airport, where they were welcomed by the ACES International team. They reached their hotel that evening and had dinner together, excited and exhausted. For the next eight days, they stringently followed an itinerary that had very few gaps.

“We were busy,” said Polk, noting that the group would meet for breakfast at 6:30 and would return to their hotel around 8:30 most nights. “We were mindful of the reason we were there. We didn’t go to do the sightseeing, though we did get to do some of that. The purpose of our trip was to identify ways global education can extend to the United States in a way that ESUs in Nebraska can support and coordinate.”

Their first day in Seoul was full of highlights. After visiting the Jogyesa Temple and Gyeongbokgung Palace, they made their way to Hanseong Science High School, where they had lunch with some of the brightest young minds in Seoul. The school was opened in 1992, and accepts only the top 3-percent of middle school graduates. 

“It was a great honor and a privilege to be there,” said Schnoes. “We were able to meet their principal and some of the people who run the school. We got a full tour and heard from some of their teachers. We met with students and were able to ask them questions about their life. Their days start early and some of their programs last well into the evening. Hanseong is a boarding school during the week, and then they’d go home on the weekends, so there was a little homesickness that some of the students talked about, but their parents were so extremely proud that their kids had landed in one of the top science high schools in the whole region.”

The students at Hanseong were top of the top, said Schnoes, destined for places like MIT, Harvard or Yale, and yet they looked and acted like high schoolers here. They carried around laptops, iPads and cell phones and they laughed and joked with each other like teenagers tend to do.

“But the work that they were doing in some of the classrooms we visited was really pretty cool stuff,” said Schnoes. “They were all engaged in being there and learning from each other.”

The culture at Hanseong, Polk explained, is highly competitive. The students are externally motivated to put in long hours, studying into the night five days a week. 

“There’s an expectation of high rigor,” Polk said. “Our trip was focused on STEM education, so that’s mostly what we got to see. They have top of the line equipment, they have an observatory and some impressive makerspaces. They share such an intentional partnership with their business community. In Singapore, too, they’re producing students who are engaged in the business and who are being recruited for when they do become employable.”

While in Seoul, the cohort was able to visit both the Seoul Ministry of Education (SMOE) and the Korean Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity (KOSAC), two organizations that AESA formed intentional partnerships with. At each location, Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) were signed to ensure that this type of international collaboration would continue.

“We all had gifts that we brought,” said Polk. “That’s part of the culture. When you bring in other leaders to an event where you’re meeting for the first time, you exchange gifts. There was a ceremony and we did that. It was pretty cool.”

On Friday, the group took a six-hour flight from Seoul to the surreal settings of Singapore, a country roughly the size of Sarpy County that is home to six million people and seven million trees.

“Singapore is one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever seen,” Schnoes said of the sovereign island nation that harvests its own water and does business with more than 6,000 American corporations. “They really have no natural resources. They talk often of how their number one resource is their people, their newest resource is their children, and if they really want to prepare their children for a global word, if they want them to stay there, live there, work there, and be a part of their country and their culture, they have to put an extreme investment into the people.”

Polk said that what you’ll find in Singapore is imagination put into practice.

“It is progressive, and it has to be,” she said. “Their vision is admirable and pretty remarkable. They have a strategic plan for the next 50 to 100 years. They’re intentional and marketed in how they talk about it, and some of their education is centered around how to achieve it. We saw some fascinating innovation. They don’t just imagine. They create. It’s so amazing.”

The group’s five full days in Singapore was just as regimented as their time in Seoul, and full of highlights. They visited the prestigious St. Stephen’s School and the Knightsbridge House International School and sat down with representation from the Singapore Teachers Union. They visited the National Institute of Education and the US Embassy of Singapore. The final day included time at the Gan Eng Seng Secondary School, which left quite an impression.

“A big focus for them, and it is a very elite school that families want to send their kids to, is maintaining and strengthening partnerships with their elderly community,” Polk said. “That’s an important aspect of their education system, is teaching connections and respect with their elderly community.”

Like in Seoul, Singapore closely monitors its students, giving them a test in sixth grade and placing them on a career track dependent on their results. In recent years, Singapore, like the United States, has placed an emphasis on the trades, completely reimagining their occupational schools into sought after destinations. In Singapore, creativity is becoming more of a focus than competition.

“Students in Singapore are being brought up with the idea of a global education world,” said Schnoes. “This is part of their life, part of their survival. It’s important and it’s emphasized. There’s opportunities for us to continue to develop relationships with Singapore because many of their students come over to the United States to attend our universities.”

The city of Singapore itself is an architectural marvel, unlike any other place in the world. Like Polk said, imagination put into practice. The two returned to Nebraska inspired, and with a call to action that could serve both teachers and students well.

“There are opportunities for educators in Nebraska to connect with educators in both Seoul and Singapore, and it doesn’t necessarily require travelling abroad,” Polk said. “It could, but it doesn’t have to be. There are opportunities to provide for teacher exchange in a virtual way, so that it doesn’t cost a school district a lot of money to give that opportunity to their teachers.”

Schnoes has already spoken with a few school districts about setting up joint developments (say a research project in science, for example) between students from Nebraska and students from South Korea. It was pleasantly surprising to Schnoes to see how exciting of a prospect working with students from the United States was for the students he met in Seoul. 

The possibilities are endless, and the collaboration is just beginning. Next year, AESA plans to send a second leadership academy to Portugal and Spain. 

“AESA has also invited members that we’ve met with from Singapore and Seoul to give a presentation at our national conference in Colorado Springs,” said Schnoes. “Of the five countries they’ve reached out to, two are already in, and Portugal is working on it.”

Historically, foreign exchange programs were a heavy financial burden for school districts. Sending a teenager overseas was emotionally taxing, too.

“It no longer has to be that way,” said Polk. “We need to broaden what we imagine could be global education. If we learned anything from the pandemic, we should have learned how much closer we can be. We can use technology to do this for us.”

Schools in places like Seoul and Singapore want to work with schools in the United States. Those places are a long ways away, but they’re no longer out of reach.