At the end of the year, progress monitoring coach Bina Shah will take a new job as the dean of students for an international American middle school in the Jeju Islands, which is off the coast of South Korea.
“My official title will be dean of students,” Shah said. “My job will be doing student discipline. I’ll be in charge of student leadership. And then I will be in charge of assisting our faculty in and out of school events. I will also be teaching a couple classes.”
Shah has been a part of Central since her own high school days, as she attended the school. In 2006, she came back as a teacher in the business department before moving to her current administrative position.
“What I think I will miss myself and what Central High is going to miss is her perspective,” Shah’s close friend and the 10th grade principal Sarah Power said.
Shah’s new international job required her to undergo a long process before she was given the position. She started by using an international recruiting agency in late November before attending a job fair in San Francisco. Before she could accept the offer, Shah was required to gain FBI clearance to enter and teach in another country, along with a visa to allow her to stay in South Korea.
“The process was very good, as I interviewed and met people with like-minded passions and goals,” Shah said.
While Shah looks forward to the next step in her career, there will certainly be some challenges associated with her new task.
“The challenging piece is that 90 percent of the students are Korean, and I think that cultural aspect brings a different element to the school setting,” Shah said.
Shah has both experience and love for foreign cultures, which stems from her experiences volunteering in Tanzania.
“The first time I was in Tanzania, I taught English and basic Swahili to preschoolers,” Shah said. “I’m helping two of my Tanzanian friends start a local, non-profit program that sends underprivileged kids to school.”
While Shah took the job based on her spirit for international travel, it was no easy choice.
“It was a very hard decision because this was my first job and I went to high school here, so I’ve been at Parkway Central for half of my life in some capacity,” Shah said.
Yet, despite the memory Shah will forever hold of Parkway Central, she is ready and excited for her new job.
“I am most excited to live on an island and getting to do my dream job,” Shah said.
Students who have worked with Shah all four years of high school were sad to see her go.
“I’ll definitely miss having someone to talk to,” senior Carly Beck said. “She was very easy to relate to and she was very understanding.”
Senior Lexie Winter said she appreciated Shah’s professional role in the school, but she more so appreciated her personal help.
“I’ll miss our daily conversations about what’s going on in each other’s lives,” Winter said. “I’ll also miss all the great advice she gave me. I really learned a lot from her, and I know we’ll stay in touch. She has been my STUCO representative since freshman year, but we really became close this year.”