Dr. Emily Lembeck, superintendent of Marietta City Schools, shares a symbol of Marietta Reads with the principal of a middle school in Seongdong-Gu, Seoul, South Korea.
The visitors met with the city's government leaders and were taken on tours of Korean companies, to the Korean War Memorial, and to the city's schools and universities.
"We have nine Korean companies in Cobb now with two coming to Cobb just last years," County Chairman Sam Olens said. "They are clearly discussing with each other where in America they will be warmly received and where they may not. One business leader with a company now in Fulton said they couldn't wait to get out of their lease so they could move to Cobb. Not that they're discouraged by Fulton, but they know that we work hard to welcome them and work with them. The more we can do to build these relationships with the Korean community, the more economic development I think we'll see in Cobb."
Olens said when Korean companies come to the United States to expand their businesses, the top few people in the company are from Korea and the rest of the workforce is made up of American citizens.
"There's potential for hundreds of jobs to open up to Cobb residents when these companies expand to our county," Olens said.
Olens joined Commissioners Bob Ott and Tim Lee on the trip; along with Kennesaw State University President Dr. Dan Papp; Marietta City Schools Superintendent Dr. Emily Lembeck; Chattahoochee Technical College President Dr. Sanford Chandler; Cobb Chamber of Commerce President Don Beavers; Cobb Economic Development Director Michael Hughes; and successful Korean American businessman Sunny Parks. This was the first visit to South Korea for Lembeck, Chandler, Ott and Lee.
Olens said no taxpayer money was spent on the trip, as he, Lembeck and Ott used their personal frequent flyer miles for their flights, while others' plane tickets were paid for through the Chamber of Commerce and their respective school foundations. The Korean hosts provided hotel accommodations and all food and transportation.
Ott said the trip was highly informative and important for the county.
"It was interesting to see how relationships can be built from 10,000 miles away," he said. "They knew the chairman, and even asked about people back in Cobb that they knew. When you're trying to bring quality businesses to Cobb, these companies start asking you questions. Does the county have the ability to find good employees for us? And we can answer that as a yes, tell them why, and hopefully make things happen in the future."
Ott said many of the Korean leaders they visited with have planned a trip to Cobb next March.
"I learned a lot about business etiquette and that the Korean people are very welcoming and very pro-America," Ott said. "They met us at the airport with flowers, and after visiting the Korean War Memorial, is evident they want us to thrive."
Lembeck said the trip was one of the "best professional experiences of my life."
"The level of parental involvement and expectation is tremendous," she said. "Education is obviously the primary focus in everyone's lives, and it is extremely important to both the parents and the students."
Lembeck said the schools there were all combined into one district, with the high schools being managed by the government. Most of the schools were combined with grades kindergarten through sixth, and middle schools with seventh, eighth and ninth graders. The district has 139 schools with 69,000 students, and Lembeck said she shared ideas with the district's leaders and came away with a few of their ideas that she is discussing with others in Marietta City Schools.
"In many ways, they're very similar to us. They use interactive white boards and technology with their instruction, and discussed that they are wrestling with teacher evaluations, compensations and programs to assist the low-income students," Lembeck said. "They were very open to things I wanted to see or know about, and were extremely welcoming, as I was provided with two drivers and an interpreter. Like Marietta, they have a strong sense of tradition and I brought some literacy ideas back with me that I received there. And they were very interested in the Marietta Reads program and I think some are even going to implement a similar program."
But Lembeck said there were differences too.
"They certainly don't have the level of diversity we have, as 90 percent of their students are Korean. But 85 of their students go on to universities, which is incredible. And I couldn't believe the high schools left a wing open until 11 p.m. for students to study with no adult supervision. I don't see that happening here," Lembeck said.
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This is another example of spending gone wild. This should be added to the artificial turf, the retreat which funded hall County eleven thousand
dollars, the parks fiasco, the courthouse workers.
We need leadership to suck in and tighten thier belts, not spend every penney they can.
I wish Korea's E.nopi Academy is in Marietta area. I think they have BEST supplemental education program out there. E.nopi programs uses critical thinking based program and its one of its kind. KUMON style makes students hate subject with repetition and yet no critical thinking program.
E.nopi uses global curriculum and keeping US Education Standard in mind and prepares students better for SAT right from their formative years. E.nopi is name for world renowned supplemental program offered in US by DAEKYO- world’s leading supplemental education provider.
Koreans, Asian Indians are tough competitor for our kids and we must prepare our kids from school and from supplemental education programs like E.nopi.
Thanks for sharing news.