True North School partners with Global Embassy in early childhood education

In October 2020, Danny Hwang and Thanh Bui, two education entrepreneurs, met at the introduction of the Vietnam International Reggio Emilia Society (VIRES) community event hosted by Global Embassy at the Embassy of Italy in Hanoi.

They found their educational philosophies and pedagogies for disruption in teaching and learning aligned. Aspiring to bring innovation, creativity, and a global context, while still preserving a mindset of national identity among Vietnamese youth, their conversation shifted to forming an official partnership - True North School and Global Embassy.

Hwang and his team of educational leaders and visionaries started True North School, aimed at educating the next generation of leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators in Vietnam. The school system carries his long-lived goal of building a bilingual, STEAM-focused, K-12 hybrid learning education institute that began at the United States Military Academy in West Point, U.S., coupled with his experiences building education companies in China, Vietnam, Thailand, and South Korea.

Danny Hwang and Thanh Bui. Photo by True North School.

To achieve his dream, Hwang commenced his journey searching for new education frameworks for future generations and joined hands with Global Embassy - a network of leading institutions, educators, researchers and designers with a shared ethos on learning. Global Embassy serves as the official representative of Reggio Children in Vietnam with a hands-on mission to implement and advocate the Reggio Emilia Approach®, symbolized as one of the world’s leading early childhood pedagogical systems.

True North School and Global Embassy both believe the child, teacher, and environment, rather than content alone, are the instruments required for learning through a myriad of opportunities in community service, extracurricular activities, technology, and innovation.

Vietnamese society will look toward a future curriculum, moving away from the delivery of textbook material by a teacher to a student-centered classroom that invites the students’ questions, listens to the child’s language and builds curiosity.

Through professional international development, True North School teachers collaborate with parents and a diverse group of educators to invest into the next global Vietnamese generation with a strong national identity.

With the shared vision to inspire future generations by changing the world through the scope of Early Childhood education, True North School and Global Embassy officially formed a partnership to bring Reggio Emilia Approach to True North School - Kindergarten.

True North School and Global Embassy at Little Em’s Pre-School in HCMC. Photo by True North School.

Operating a K-12 school system requires hiring world-class educators. Hwang has spent years recruiting a group of highly experienced and passionate global and Vietnamese teachers. Currently, the True North School team has a collective experience of 60-years operating K-12 international schools and education businesses, ranging from the United States, the United Kingdom, China, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Through ongoing action-research and development, True North School pioneers and refines educational techniques like strong language immersion classes, advanced faculty instructional programs, and innovative facility design by Van Aelst | Nguyen & Partners.

Through programs from Columbia University Teachers College, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and various internationally accredited courses, True North School teachers keep abreast of the latest trends, technologies and teaching strategies.

True North School Leadership Team celebrates their grand opening in Hanoi. Photo by True North School.

Beginning September 2021, True North School – Kindergarten officially opens its first campus as a member of REP (Reggio Emilia Approach® Excellence Preschools Program), a partner of Global Embassy - at Sun Grand City Ancora in Luong Yen, Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi for ages 18 months to five years old.

Apart from the expansion initiatives in Vietnam, True North School plans to extend its current K12 school network in other Southeast Asian countries to provide access for all students in the region to transformational education.

Living in accelerated change through new technologies, True North School leads in the creation of a new global learning pathway to prepare students for the future economy through a growth mindset, active learning ecosystem, and character development – resilience, empathy and flexibility.

"At True North School, our collaboration between international and Vietnamese educators develops the pathway necessary to embrace global citizenry while shaping the global student mindset prepares their passport for global citizenship," Hwang commented.

"Our mission is to spread the magical Reggio Emilia Approach across Vietnam with authenticity, quality and within the Vietnamese context, so we can protect the rights of our children and our parents. Our children are our countries’ future," Thanh Bui, founder of Global Embassy, shared.