Glen A. Wilson High School science teacher Jungsoo Han has a knack for getting the best out of his students. As coach of the school’s successful Science Olympiad and Future Health Professionals (HOSA) teams, Han has established each unit as perennial tournament favorites, while inspiring his students to challenge themselves and work towards careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

Among the many students Han has inspired is Wilson High Class of 2024 graduate and current Yale University freshman Emily Chang. As Science Olympiad captain during her senior year, Chang led the team to its third consecutive Southern California Science Olympiad regional championship at Río Hondo College in March 2023. 

Han’s influence has not gone unnoticed by his former students. Han, who is a Wilson High Class of 2000 graduate, was recently named as a recipient of the Yale Educator Award, presented to teachers who have deeply impacted their students’ lives. Han was nominated for the award by Chang, then selected as a winner by a committee in Yale’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions. 

Han is one of just 90 teachers and counselors in the United States and beyond to receive the honor in 2024, including international educators from Mexico, South America, Asia, Europe, and Africa.

“I am very honored to receive this prestigious award,” Han said. “I received tremendous inspiration from my science teachers at Wilson and it’s a great feeling to give back to your community. I think the keys to a student’s success in STEM are to be willing to go as far as you can, give 110%, don’t be afraid to fail and, if you do, then pick yourself up. Wilson’s Olympiad and HOSA students have really taken this advice to heart.”

Now in his 13th year at Wilson High, Han established the Science Olympiad team in 2014 and HOSA in 2019. Both groups have seen considerable success in regional, state, and international competitions. Whereas the Olympiad is a team competition that uses cumulative scores, HOSA, with its mission to promote career opportunities in the healthcare industry, stages competitions where individual members are quizzed and ranked.

With four titles in five years, Wilson’s Science Olympiad team has dominated the regional competitions, and done well at state, with a fourth-place finish in this year’s Division C competition. Wilson’s HOSA squad, led by Chang, took several individual awards at both state and international competitions during the 2023-24 school year.
 
“Our labs and lab prep are very thorough, and our students learn very quickly to manage the progression of difficulty from year to year,” Han said. “By the time they are seniors they have mostly perfected those skills and come to class fully focused on task for the entire 55 minutes. We have seen our students go on to medical school or get hired at Google and Tesla. Really, my students motivate me. We teach each other.”

Wilson’s HOSA club has been so successful that Han and Wilson principal Dr. Danielle Kenfield worked together to establish a second HOSA club at Mesa Robles Middle School. Mesa Robles HOSA meetings are led by Wilson HOSA students, whose passion and rigor have inspired the middle school students to score well at their own competitions, winning several medals at the most recent state competition. Mesa Robles, which is a Wilson High feeder school, also has its own Science Olympiad team.

Han also serves as an advisor for Wilson’s National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) club, as well as the school’s Red Cross club, which hosts campus blood drives and teaches first aid and emergency preparations. 

“Mr. Han brings passion and enthusiasm to his classrooms and is very much admired by his students, and we couldn’t be prouder that a former student has taken the initiative to have his great work honored by an elite university,” Kenfield said. “Thank you to Emily Chang for recognizing that teachers make a difference and can spur their students to reach academic heights they may have thought were unattainable. This is true Wildcat spirit.”

 

Glen A. Wilson High Principal Awarded Prestigious National Blue Ribbon Terrell H. Bell Award for Outstanding School Leadership

Dr. Danielle Kenfield is committed to a shared vision of academic excellence, social responsibility, creative expression, and athletic development. As a collaborator and capacity builder, she actively seeks those with the vision, initiative, and tenacity to develop and implement programs that respond to the needs and/or interests of Wilson students.

Principal Kenfield organized an Academic Senate, where all department leaders worked together toward the shared vision and mission of the school. With this collaborative community, Dr. Kenfield developed the school’s core values of Respect, Ownership, Adaptability, and Resilience (ROAR).

Dr. Kenfield engages students through the Student Senate – a student platform that provides students a space to share their visions and wishes for Wilson. For example, the Student Senate expressed concern about the lack of clarity and expectations for students from teachers during distant learning. Dr. Kenfield asked the Student Senate to focus on specific issues and propose solutions for that concern. The Senate proposed that all teachers incorporate into lessons three questions: 1) What are we learning? 2) Why is this learning important? and 3) How will we show that we learned it?

Collaboratively, the school community created a definition of what it means to “own” learning. This means that students not only will state the what and the why of what they are learning, but also will articulate how they learn best; will explain with evidence when they are struggling; will apply these skills in authentic settings; and will transfer these skills into future situations.

Dr. Kenfield led the school’s implementation of a comprehensive school improvement plan. She worked closely with teachers, parents, and students to develop and integrate project-based learning. She also established an after-school tutoring program to provide additional academic support to struggling students. The program includes teacher-led study groups and access to online resources.  Through targeted interventions, academic support programs, and collaboration with teachers and staff, her leadership positively impacted student achievement and success.

Principal Kenfield advocates for and encourages students in the Dual Enrollment program with Mount San Antonio College. She has worked diligently to develop multiple course pathways including Career Technical Education, Biomedical, Engineering, and Computer Science. She has improved and opened course offerings for the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme, providing opportunities for students on the IB Diploma track as well as course certificates.

When Principal Kenfield arrived eight years ago, Wilson had two sections each of Business and Biomedical Science, and one section each of Engineering and Computer Science. Today, Wilson boasts six sections of Business, ten sections of Biomedical Science, nine sections of Computer Science, and five sections of Engineering. In the past five years, the school implemented Culinary Arts, Child Development, and Visual Commercial Art career pathways.

Dr. Danielle Kenfield is a devoted, dedicated, caring, tenacious, and resilient leader. She has positively impacted Wilson High School, including school improvement, organizational structures, programs, and services.