HCPSS Partners with South Korean School District to Facilitate Cultural and Educational Exchange

March 18th, 2026

Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) partners with more than 1,000 community groups and organizations to support its schools and its students, and recently added a new international partner to the mix: the Gyeonggido Gimpo District Office of Education in South Korea.

Under the terms of the partnership agreement, HCPSS and Gyeonggido Gimpo District Office of Education staff will have the opportunity to share professional learning and cultural experiences as well as instructional resources. In addition, the two districts will establish and maintain relationships between several HCPSS and Gimpo “sister schools,” with the goal of facilitating the exchange of educational and cultural experiences and helping to strengthen mutual understanding and appreciation of each school’s cultures, communities and traditions.

HCPSS’ Chief Schools Officer Jennifer Robinson and Multilingual Family Services Supervisor Min Woo traveled to Gimpo in December to formalize the partnership.

“It was an absolutely beautiful trip,” recalls Robinson. “In addition to meeting with the superintendent of Gyeonggido Province and the Gimpo District superintendent, we had the opportunity to visit several Gimpo schools. It was amazing to see their classrooms, interact with their teachers and students, and compare and contrast with our experience at HCPSS.”

“Just as an example, there are no custodians at the schools we visited. Students take off their shoes when they arrive at school and they all have brushes and dust bins at their desks to keep their space clean,” adds Woo. “Students also serve their teachers lunch before they themselves eat and are responsible for cleaning up their area.”

Robinson and Woo also observed several similarities between Gimpo and HCPSS schools.

“As is the case in our schools, they use a standardized curriculum and teach a lot of the same subjects we do. And, like us, they have many very talented educators,” says Robinson. “Also, kids are kids. No matter where they are from, they love to play, laugh, and discover new things.”

While they were in Gimpo, Robinson and Woo also had the opportunity to represent HCPSS and the United States at a two-day international educational symposium, organized by the South Korean government’s division of international education. Titled “Unlearn to Learn,” the symposium brought together representatives from educational institutions around the world to discuss the current state of education, as well as its future.

“There was definitely a big focus on artificial intelligence,” recalls Robinson. “We talked about how we are all in this together, trying to figure out what AI means for education in our own countries and as members of a global community.”

Both Robinson and Woo came away from their experience feeling grateful to their South Korean hosts, and in particular to Mr. Sung Hwa Jung, a former Korean Assembly staffperson who has helped facilitate meetings between HCPSS and South Korean officials over the years.

“From the beginning through the end of our trip, Mr. Jung was there, ensuring everything went smoothly and helping us to feel welcome. He truly made us feel like VIPs,” says Robinson.

HCPSS initially established a relationship with South Korea in the early 2000s, when South Korean Assemblywoman Cho Bae Sook contacted the Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C., and asked the education consulate to arrange a meeting with HCPSS. HCPSS leadership then visited Korea and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Iksan District of Education.

In the years that followed, groups of Korean students traveled to Howard County as part of a summer cultural exchange program, where they stayed with Korean families living in Howard County and took classes designed to immerse them in the English language and expose them to American schools and culture. Korean gifted and talented science teachers also came to visit HCPSS schools and meet with staff. HCPSS renewed its partnership with Iksan in 2017, and Korean students visited every summer until 2023, with the exception of two years around COVID.

With the strong history that exists between HCPSS and South Korean educational institutions and the positive experience they had meeting with South Korean education officials in December, Robinson and Woo are excited about the future.

“The Korean government has shown us that they are truly invested in their partnership with us. We are inspired to do our part to make this a successful partnership,” Woo says.

“This is such an awesome opportunity to build connections with educators who share our priorities, and for our students to gain exposure to, awareness of and appreciation for international cultures. In the future, I hope we can expand our work together to include sharing educational standards and enabling our students to spend time in each other’s countries,” adds Robinson.