The Panther Spotlight for April is Mr. Chung, Glasgow’s devoted director of Student Services. Mr. Chung has been working at Glasgow Middle School since 2019 and has stayed as the director since then. His job is to help support the school’s counseling staff and the World Language teachers. He oversees the entire school’s master schedule, which includes seeing which periods teachers teach and which classes students have. Student grades, student records, student information, and transcripts are also managed by Mr. Chung on StudentVUE (SIS).

Mr. Chung grew up in Virginia and went to FCPS schools from kindergarten to 12th grade. He went to Center Ridge Elementary School, Ormond Stone Middle School, and finally Westfield High School. He played lots of sports like football, spent a lot of time outdoors on his bike, and hung out outside. He would spend his time going to his parents’ businesses, helping them out in the summer, working, and mowing lawns. 

When asked what inspired him to become a teacher, he said, “I knew pretty early on in middle school. I would volunteer at church and work with elementary school kids. When I was in high school, I would help volunteer to work with middle schoolers. When I was in college, I volunteered with high schoolers. When I went to college I knew I wanted to work with youth for the rest of my life. So I selected education as my major during my freshman year. I also majored in history and wanted to become a history teacher. One of the reasons why I wanted to do it was because through history, civics, and social studies, you get to really talk about big ideas, things like conflict, cooperation, and big values that are really important for people to think through.”

Right out of college, Mr. Chung became a history teacher at Poe Middle School. He also taught some other courses to students who were finding it difficult to be successful at school. After a while, Mr. Chung went to graduate school to get a teaching degree and another degree to become an administrator. Later, he started searching for a school in the area and got a position as a director of student services at Glasgow. When asked about why he chose to work at Glasgow he said that he loves “Working in diverse schools, and especially at Glasgow, we have 60 different home languages spoken. We have students who have been here for their whole life, we have students that come from overseas, students who just came from a brand new country, students who represent lots of different cultures, backgrounds and I love that about Glasgow. It’s a large school, but there’s something for everybody.” He loves the fact that he gives students the skills, knowledge, and character that’ll help them grow to be anything they want to be if there are challenges or barriers in life that make it difficult for them to be successful.  “As an educator, you get to help pull people up, to push people, to help overcome those barriers.”

Outside of school, Mr. Chung has many hobbies such as “playing music, and I play the bass guitar and I used to be in a band, traveling and playing shows on the road for some time when I was a bit younger. I also love working on cars and then motorcycles and I take my sport bike to the track.” He’s also back in school and getting his doctorate degree at UVA. Most of all, he loves spending time with his wife, Iris, and his 9 month old daughter, Olivia. “She’s [Olivia] the best thing that’s happened to me since my wife.”

In all honesty, Mr. Chung puts a lot of effort, hard work, and dedication into his job here at Glasgow. He’s the one who does a lot for this school and his job matters, but at the same time, he maintains a balance so he can spend time with his family. He is kind and shows a lot of love to his students and this school everyday. “My hope is that there’s something I can instill whether it’s in the classroom, whether it’s in the hallway, whether it’s in my office having a conversation. Just having a part in shaping the trajectory of their life, that’s the greatest honor that anybody can have.”