WRITTEN BY Jason Lee, Romele Rivera, Angela Yeung

This year has been full of surprises. Kaohsiung American School has welcomed new students, new faculty and staff and most notably, a new Superintendent: Dr. Ben Ploeger. He has earned a PHD and MED from the Teacher’s College at Columbia University, an MA and MAT from the Xavier University of Louisiana, and a BS in Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. He is a certified Math and Science Teacher, Principal, Vice Principal, Head of School and Superintendent in places around the US and Vanuatu, a island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. With his wife Torey, he is here in Kaohsiung American School to serve as our Superintendent, hopefully for many more years to come. Allow us to give you a look on how Dr. Ploeger operates, his plans for the school, his goals, passions and how our new Superintendent is as a person.

Dr. Ploeger and KAS
This isn’t the first time Dr. Ploeger has stepped foot on KAS. His first visit to Kaohsiung American School was on January, 2016. From the first time he met the students, teachers and administrators, he knew right then and there that this was a special school and a special place to be. 

Originally, Dr. Ploeger hadn’t intended to travel overseas, but one day, he and his wife got to a time in their life when it made sense to start looking for more opportunities away from the United States and away from Vanuatu. They started looking for options, which eventually led them to discovering and learning about Kaohsiung American School. It all started with his wife’s dream about going overseas – she wanted to achieve it with her husband. He was hesitant, but finally, he said; “Yeah, I share that dream…Let’s do it!”

This campus has grown remarkably over the course of 10 years, with a brand new campus and a population that had doubled. Dr. Ploeger’s first priority this year is to learn more about Kaohsiung American School as it is. “When you normally talk about changes, you don’t change just for the sake of changing, you change to get better and to make things better.” He intends to gain a better understanding of how things were. He understands that the previous ways of running the school have helped it grow. From that growth and from the way that we’ve built school pride, Dr. Ploeger intends to understand what KAS has been doing right before making changes to improve things.

Background and Education
Due to his passion for tinkering, fixing, and creating at an early age, Dr. Ploeger has always aspired to be an engineer. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. For him, it was very challenging as it was a very rigorous academic environment. He liked the challenge, but his particular university lacked the social element that was essential in a college experience. After that, he earned two Master’s Degrees at the Xavier University in New Orleans, which he loved. He never intended to get two Master’s degrees; in fact, when he moved to New Orleans, he wanted to teach regardless of the fact that his Bachelor’s was in Engineering. However, in order to teach, he had to be certified, so he returned to university to get a Master in Education.

“You always have a plan for your journey, but then things change, and sometimes, you have to be willing to make those changes. As I was doing that, I realized that the experience I had in graduate school was very good where I was and that I had something to contribute to education as a leader and as an administrator.” By staying at Xavier, he earned his second Master’s degree: the first one in teaching and the second one in Education Leadership. It was a good experience, he states. He then went to do his doctorate at Columbia University in New York.

The way that the program was structured was for working principles – Dr. Ploeger finished it when he went to Denver, but it was based in New York. It wasn’t an online course, it was face to face. This meant that Dr. Ploeger would go to New York for five weeks to take classes during the summer, while during the school year, he would go there once a month for the weekends. He flew to New York on Thursdays and had all-day classes on Fridays and Saturdays. Then he would fly back on Sunday. Dr. Ploeger did this every month, which eventually led to him writing his dissertation mostly from Denver.

Dr. Ploeger had a very challenging time, as not only was he a full time student, he was also a full time principal of a school. That didn’t leave a lot of time for sleep or family.

However, the overall experience was positive. He stated, “New York is a phenomenal city, Columbia’s a phenomenal university and I really like pizza! So it was perfect because I was able to spend just enough time in New York to really connect with a lot of really smart people. One of the neat things that happen in university is when you build this network of brilliant people from all over the world. And so, I was able to do that, I was able to have some really good food and I was able to go back to Denver.”

Career and Teaching
With his engineering degree, Dr. Ploeger worked as an engineer for three months before resigning due to the absence of human interaction in his particular field. After moving overseas to teach, he found his passion – to interact with different people and to be part of a culture that was not his own. “There are so many different ways to live life and they’re okay. There are so many different perspectives to look at the same things and I find that fascinating,” said Dr. Ploeger.

Dr. Ploeger had quite a lot of experience working with middle/high school students. He taught math and science in middle school in Vanuatu, then high school Math in New Orleans. Afterwards, he was the vice principal of a high school, then principal at Eagle Ridge Academy in Colorado, and now at KAS. “I have a lot of experience working with middle and high school students; however, I am new to working with elementary school students.”

 

One of Dr. Ploeger’s passions is in improving human systems, thinking about how people work together to accomplish something, and looking for ways to make that better. He said, “I am passionate about leadership and management, about our future, and that’s one of the reasons why I like working in schools. [Children] are our future and my hope is that I can contribute something that will help brighten their path and lead to a better future.” Dr. Ploeger and his wife are also passionate about traveling and immersing themselves in cultures different from their own.

Dr. Ploeger describes his leadership style as focusing on people and results first. “So I think about who are the people involved and what are we trying to do, and what we’re trying to do best to make things happen.” Dr. Ploeger reacts differently towards different circumstances; most of the time, he is really collaborative and seeks a lot of input.

Vision for KAS
According to Dr. Ploeger, an ideal school environment would be one “where we have the right type of instruction for the right level of student.” However, having a feeling of community would also be essential. Here at KAS, some students are 17 or 18 and ready to go off to university, but there are students that are 3 years old who are still learning to listen and work together as a team. Each student is at their own level, and every student has different needs, but they are all Dragons that are part of Kaohsiung American School. Dr. Ploeger believes in “high expectations followed by strong support,” which translates to crafting instructions to best support one’s development. 

As for a word of encouragement? Dr. Ploeger advises the students of KAS to always have a plan. He said,

be very intentional in what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, but always be willing to change the plan because you always have good ideas about what your future will be.”