Written by: Rebekah Kim
Photos of Rebekah Kim's family
I am in my 10th year of education and am almost to the end of my 5th
year of being a principal of an elementary school of 550 children
(K-6). I attended a total of 7 years of college at University of
Washington, ending with my Master of Educational Leadership and Policy
Studies. I am now pursuing my doctorate in education to broaden my
experience with more research-based methods to improve my instructional
leadership. During my principalship I have had two children. Balancing
motherhood, marriage and my career is a lot of work. Having a
supportive and helpful husband has been essential. I find stress relief
in exercise and spending time relaxing with my family.
Since I have become a principal my advocacy for diversity and equity have grown. I have been blessed with the opportunity to serve on our state principal association's diversity task force as well as district cultural competency committee and am currently helping to work on refining our race and equity board policy.
As a mother, it is has become easier for me to work with parents and think about their perspective when dealing with issues and concerns about what is best for their child while keeping their academic experience at the forefront. Wearind both the parenting and educator hat has been an eyeopener when you align the two. I continue to think "if this were my child's school or I was in the seat of the parent, how would I be feeling?" I continue to be humbled as I work through this daily.
Here is an article that was written about me in a local Asian newspaper a couple of years ago, the International Examiner. I think it does a nice job of summarizing my passion in education:
Principal Rebekah Kim: Advocate of cultural competency and equity in education
Rebekah Kim remembers the experience of feeling like an outsider when she was a student. Having grown up in predominantly Caucasian towns, Kim, a Korean-American, said she was no stranger to being the recipient of racial tokenism and discriminatory remarks when she was younger.
Now a principal at Marvista Elementary School, Kim said she draws upon these experiences in her work as an educator. “I always remember where I came from when thinking about students,” she said.
Kim recently started her third year as principal at the Normandy Park school. On top of pushing for strong academic work from her students, Kim has another goal – boost cultural competency among instructors.
An advocate for cultural competency and equity in education, Kim has focused much of her career on these issues. They were the focus of her Master of Education at the University of Washington. As a teacher in the Tukwila School District and a principal intern at Aki Kurose Middle School and John Stanford International School, she witnessed economic, language and other inequities among her students, she said. In response, she led a cultural competency professional development program and created a cultural competency rubric.
Now, she’s part of the Highline School District’s Cultural Competency Committee and teaches cultural competency workshops to instructors from her school and around the district.
The workshops focus on making educators self-aware of their own backgrounds, privileges and stereotypes before looking at those of students, Kim said. “Otherwise, it’s not meaningful,” she said.
In the long run, the committee plans to train all district staff members, Kim said.
Her own experiences growing up instilled a passion to reject insensitivity to diversity, according to Kim. “That passion just grew as I went to college,” she said.
In the long run, she hopes to see more Asian American leaders in education. “It’s important for students to see leaders who look like them and teachers who look like them,” she said.
Kim is part of a generation of younger educators who are starting to replace retiring baby boomer principals, said BiHoa Caldwell, former principal at Aki Kurose, who described Kim as an energetic and caring educator.
In her early 30s, Kim may be younger than most principals, but her goals aren’t much different. She said she hopes to make Marvista an effective place of learning where her 550 students don’t get lost academically and also a place that holds high expectations for all students, she said.
Kim didn’t always strive to be in education. She started off pursuing a career in broadcast journalism, she said. But her father encouraged her to pursue education because of her love for children, Kim said. And she’s been at it since. “I fell in love with teaching and I knew it was my calling,” Kim said.
We thank Rebekah for allowing us to take a look into her life. If you have any questions for Rebekah, please leave a comment. She'd like to share more topics that you'd be interested in reading about - on the education system and learning. We can't wait to hear from you!
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