Meet Harmony Plus’ new staff member
Please welcome Jing Xiao, a vastly experienced designer and committed educator. Jing received both her Bachelors’ degree in Architecture and Masters’ degree in Urban Planning & Design from Harbin Institute of Technology. In the past, Jing contributed greatly to Architectural Design and Urban Design in both U.S. and China, along with other companies such as UPDIS, SMWM, Perkins+Will and Caterpillar Design Studio. However, after she became a parent of two boys, she gradually attributed her design thinking and planning skills toward education.
“I might have never found my calling if I hadn’t met the book, ‘Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life,’ written by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, professors in Design School of Stanford University. It inspired me to design and organize a series of six workshops — Life Design Team — and invite six parents, who were just as bewildered with their careers and future, to work together and redesign our lives. We learned through our personal experiences and I came up with my own Odyssey Plan by becoming an Education Consultant in 5 years.”
Throughout her career development and public welfare, Jing has proven to successfully intertwine lessons from architecture and education. Her creative thought process has led her to partner with other parents and establish the NPO — Eirya Foundation, an organization that focuses on enriching children’s Chinese reading with great books. She was also the director of Community Outreach where she facilitated Chinese story time events and parent workshops for local communities. In the past 5 years, she has hosted 50+ storytime events in person and supported 100+ events run by other volunteers in four local communities that serve thousands of families.
“In my opinion, it is crucial to provide an inclusive learning environment for [students] to integrate creative thinking with their inherent intelligence in order to explore the elements of humanity and their lives. When I took the role of a language teacher in a summer program at Yew Chung International School, I innovatively transferred the knowledge and techniques from a professional designer into experiential learning through picture books, celebrities’ stories, hand-on experiments, group games, master-piece paintings, artistic crafts, daily sketches and so on.”
Jing earned her Certificate in College Admissions and Career Planning Program from UC Berkeley Extension and became a professional Education Consultant. She values education and is enthusiastic in both supporting children to pursue their interests and helping them develop their strengths for long-term success. She believes success in life starts with not just passion but also a plan. A tailor-made plan would effectively support students to embrace their true passions and build up connections between academia and future careers. These ideals are among the reasons why Jing joined Harmony Plus.
“The impressive core values, SMILE, deeply resonate with my passion about innovative education and public welfare. I believe the educator is a fiddly job full of love, patience, empathy and responsibility. Also, I believe the core competency of personalized future planning services and innovative learning ecosystems will efficiently support students to identify and develop their needs.”
We are extremely grateful to have Jing join our team and look forward to seeing her creativity blossom in our programs!
Harmony Plus International Education Institute is an official partner of well-known universities and institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford International Research Institute, San Jose State University, etc. We are committed to bringing top instructors, elite courses, and high-quality educational resources from top schools in the US to students in the Bay Area.
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