Farewell to Pearson

In June 2010, I joined Pearson as an intern, and I can't tell you how excited I was to join the company. Making a direct impact on people's education, career, and life is such an important mission and I’m very lucky that I got to be part of it.

When I was ten years old, I moved to the United States from Korea and only knew some basic English words. I was terrified to start a new life at a new school where I didn’t know the language or culture. 

Thankfully, I had a teacher who not only helped me learn to speak English fluently, but also made the classroom (and America) feel like home. She did everything from pairing me up with a buddy so I didn't feel alone to putting Korean words around the classroom so that I could learn English faster. She even allowed me to write my parent/teacher night note in Korean and showed it to my classmates so they could see how cool it was to know another language. Without this teacher, Kathy Gibson, I wouldn't be here today. Because of her, I learned to overcome any obstacles through learning and appreciate the learning process itself. Just last year (after 18 years) I had the opportunity to reconnect with Kathy--it turns out, we were both working at Pearson this whole time! 

Throughout my seven years here, I had the opportunity to constantly learn and grow with each and every one of you. I worked on "Making the Grade" with the Higher Ed Marketing team, developed the Pearson Leadership Development Program (PLDP) and Pearson Education Internship Program (PEIP), founded the NY/NJ Women in Learning and Leadership group, and launched our employee volunteering and giving programs (and of course our global partnership with Kiva!) This is just a snapshot of some of the exciting projects I’ve been a part of during my time at Pearson, but the list goes on and on and I’ve been fortunate to work with so many of you throughout my journey. 

At Pearson, we get to foster a love of learning within ourselves and our families, friends and colleagues... and as a company, we get to instill this same love of learning in people all over the world. This learning has transformed both my professional and personal life. Embodying the "always learning" spirit makes you invincible to the challenges that may lie ahead. No matter where life takes us next, I'm confident that all of us at Pearson (past, present, and future) will always have this spirit within us.