We recently had the chance to connect with Pan Leung and have shared our conversation below.
Pan, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
I most proud of building my own skills and confidence as a leader. It’s a silent journey sometimes because what you’re working on is internal. But I think externally the people around me have noticed improved communication and confidence. I’ve been better at establishing and maintaining boundaries which adds to the health of myself and my business.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Pan Leung and I’m the executive Director of World Builders Academy. We are a Reggio- inspired school for early education from infant to eight years old. We thrive on our mission to develop resourceful, resilient individuals that are connected to their sense of self and add adding value to their community.
In addition we are launching a workforce development program for adults who want to activate into new career.
My passion for developing a person through education, to their full potential is the bridge that connects all of my work from infants all the way to adulthood
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
The earliest memory I had was as a four-year-old I would use clay to build a small scenes of the world. Even at that age, I was building worlds where the people in it were activated and an active part of their community. This led me to a passion for teacher at career day when I was six years old. At eight years old, I was given a profound vision of a school that allowed people to explore their diverse passions.
In particular, I wanted to serve underserved populations by providing them opportunities through education. Since then it’s been a lifelong endeavor of collecting experiences in order to bring back to World Builders Academy.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
When you sit out to build a dream, there’s not a lot of support from society. Certainly, the hardest critic is yourself. I’ve experienced devastating attacks from clients, colleagues who worked their power to remove me from positions, and then just the simple boundary crossing from day-to-day office interactions. All of the suffering I carry with me, but as you speak to me today, it has helped me build strong walls of self understanding and most importantly, respecting my boundaries and knowing myself more so that I can be effective.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
The important truth that comes to the mind for me ,particularly because I work in the field of early education, is the belief that people who work in childcare and early education, do not deserve the same compensation as any other professional or teacher. When we ask for fair pay or fair wages, we get pushed back to the point of advocating for wage abuse. Particularly because this affects mostly women I find that I’ve gotten very passionate about advocating for all of us who work in this field to respect ourselves in our time . Our expertise is not worth less just because society doesn’t want to pay what it cost. Childcare and early education is expensive, but the solution is not found in continued wage abuse of its workforce, in particular women.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
I find myself very fortunate in this regard. Because I’m already doing what I would do given this kind of hypothetical scenario. I am engaged in the work that aligns my passion and talent.The only thing I would change is sheading any unhelpful self-doubt. If I were Given 10 years left, I would be doing what I’m doing right now which is dedicating my life to positive development of others, and to be in service to my community to the best of my extent.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.worldbuildersacadmey.com
- Instagram: @worldbuilderskc
