SAUSD's Amplifying Leadership Podcast

6. Nurturing Century’s Future: A Circle of Leadership with Principal Nata Shin

• Bianca Barquin • Season 1 • Episode 6

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What if you could transform an entire school community with empathy, commitment, and innovative thinking? Our spirited guest, Principal Nata Shin, has done just that, and she's here to share her inspiring story. As a woman with a deep-rooted passion for mathematics and a clear understanding of her cultural background, Nata's journey in education has not been ordinary. She guides us through her experiences, from her early days as a student teacher to her current role as the principal of Century High School, illuminating the challenges she overcame and the successes she achieved.

Century High School isn't just your regular school. There's magic happening within its walls every single day. Under Nata's leadership, unique programs have sprung to life, fostering environments where students not only learn but thrive. In our discussion, we touch on the integration of Villa Intermediate School's eighth graders into Century High School, a monumental shift that has proven to be a key success. Nata also shares stories of how the school encourages students to give back to the community, instilling in them values of empathy and service.

Nata's vision goes beyond the traditional confines of education. She dreams of cultivating compassionate leadership through innovative teaching practices. She firmly believes in creating a nurturing environment where students can explore their passions, learn essential life skills, and become the best versions of themselves. As a principal, her focus is on inspiring and uplifting her students, and her dedication to this cause is indeed laudable. Prepare to be moved by this profound conversation as we join Principal Nata Shin on her incredible leadership journey at Century High School.

Visit us at our Buzzsprout site for more ways to listen, links to our social media sites and any referenced materials, and complete transcripts of our full-length episodes: https://bit.ly/SAUSDAmplifyingLeadership

Bianca Barquin:

Welcome Amplifiers to another episode of SAUSD's Amplifying Leadership. I'm your host, Bianca Barquin, and today we're not just amplifying leadership, we're amplifying a journey that has come full circle. Our guest today is Principal Nata Shin, who leads with zeal at Century High School, a place that's not just an institution to her, but a chapter of her own developmental story. From walking the halls as a student teacher to steering the ship as its principal, Nata has intricately woven threads of dedication, innovation and unwavering belief in the potential of every child she encounters. Her leadership journey has navigated through roles as a math teacher, curriculum specialist, assistant principal and now the principal, where her educational journey was once seated.

Bianca Barquin:

Today we dive into the heart of Nata's why, explore the bedrock of her values and celebrate the multifaceted successes and unique challenges being navigated at Century High School. Nata, thank you for joining us and for being a beacon of passionate, resilient leadership within SAUSD. So, Nata, I'm going to start with questions right away. Having been a student teacher, a teacher and now principal at Century High School, can you share the emotions and reflections you experienced when you stepped into the principal role at a place that saw your own early days in education?

Nata Shin:

First of all, I would like to thank you, Bianca, for this opportunity to sit here and to share with you some of my journey, especially my journey in SAUSD.

Nata Shin:

I consider SAUSD a place that has groomed me professionally. I started out as a student teacher back in 2004 and was placed at Centruy High School. I fell in love with the school, for the people and the culture in that school, the school that wants to embrace the education and, most importantly, the school is where most first generation of immigrants start. It relates to my own story. I started out coming to the US at the age of 14. I did not know a word of English. I started out in a newcomer program back in Missouri where people didn't know exactly what to do with my second language and learning how to do English or speak English, or learn English or writing, reading, let alone all of that.

Nata Shin:

I have found passion in mathematics because that was the only subject that makes a lot more sense to me and it takes less effort to navigate the language and eventually I spent a lot of time learning that and I wanted to be an expert in at least one thing while learning the language and conversations and just navigate through life. Century High School was very new to me at that time. I never interacted or learned anything about the Hispanic culture, but that's a brand new culture to me. When I moved from Missouri to Santa Ana, I resided in Santa Ana, having one bedroom with my family of four, and just kind of started my life there. The only thing that I think that would make a difference for me is to do what I do best, which is learning math, teaching math and I was placed at Century High School. I was given the opportunity to do what I do best while learning a brand new culture. However, there are so many things that I have shared between my own culture and the culture at Century High School, which is making education the mean to make changes and a difference in life.

Bianca Barquin:

Thank you, Nata. So, Nata, what you talked about in terms of the content area that was easiest for you being mathematics is so compelling. Knowing that in Santa Ana we have so many newcomers that come to us right? Super helpful. I did want to ask you a follow-up, though though: what made you decide to go from mathematics teacher and secondary Secondary mathematics Mathematics curriculum Curriculum specialist Specialist into a leadership role? What made you decide to jump into administration?

Nata Shin:

I remember in 2011, 12, 13, that's when our district was trying to roll out Common Core Standards. I loved that role that I had at that time as a secondary math curriculum specialist, where I worked closely with all the writers of Common Core Standards; there were still Pharaoh and many more people at that time. I enjoyed the time working with them and learning so many things about teaching, learning, assessments and instruction. I was, at that time, offered a job to work with SBAC because of the knowledge and the ability to provide PD in multiple sessions.

Nata Shin:

At that time it was a very key moment for me when I wanted to say, "What do I want to do? Do I want to keep on writing or do I want to lead? I decided to be a leader and stay in Santa Ana and took on a job as an assistant principal at Lathrop Intermediate. I was able to lead multiple sessions from instruction in general into MAP testing assessment, bring back to the instruction and use math as a standard in the content instead of the only content to teach. So it's a means of teaching instruction in general. That was the key moment for me when I had so many offers and I just wanted to stay in Santa Ana and just follow my heart as a leader.

Bianca Barquin:

We are so happy you did and you stayed in SAUSD. Okay, now let's dive into your why, which you've talked to us a little bit about. What has fueled your transition from impactful teacher to curriculum specialist and, ultimately, administrative leadership? I know you talked to a little bit about that, but tell me a little bit more about the transition that you made from Lathrop into high school and now how it feels to be a high school principal.

Nata Shin:

I love the role of being an administrator. I started out as Lathrop Intermediate. I did a lot of things, from working with the students social-emotional to working with staff and teachers and other peers to instill instruction, assessments and curriculum together. I just love that role. However, when I was doing that same job for about three, four years, I felt like I needed a little opportunity to grow into something more.

Nata Shin:

High school has always been my passion, maybe because I came to the United States as a high school student and the only place I know and most comfortable learning and exploring. And I finally found an opportunity to go into a high school job as an assistant principal and work at Segerstrom High School for another four years. I love this experience at Segerstr om High School for two reasons. I was able to do something that I was not too comfortable with, such as student services, discipline, and then I was given, for two years, and also traffic safety, active shooter drills, all of this work, and I was doing that for two years and then my principal at that time told me maybe you need to transition because you do so much data in your discipline work, because I remember doing some discipline and I was like let's take a look at the past semester. What is our trends and patterns? And I would also overseen safety on the school campus. I'm like let's take a look at what's going on on our campus based on our data, and I would tally the traffic and find out what gate I would open or close. So my principal at that time said you're just such a mathy and you like data, you like tallies, so we'll put you in counseling so you can do master schedule and you can use all of these things to work on students' academics instead.

Nata Shin:

And I was moved from doing discipline into counseling world. And again, I love this world because we talk about academics, we talk about instruction, we talk about what courses and we build a master schedule based on the teacher's credentials and also the students' needs. I got to see the student side, I got to see the master schedule thing and I just feel like I think it's time for me to do something special about all these skills, like I want to lead in a different capacity, not only just run a school campus, but also how can I use my knowledge to help build another person, another assistant principal, another leader on campus, so one of these days they can achieve their dreams on running a school, just like how I was given the opportunity and I see myself in this role right now as a principal at Century High School. I love working with students. I check in, I talk to the students on a daily basis, I talk to them about their grades, but I am also using all the skills and knowledge that I have, from curriculum instruction to building programs to looking at student discipline, to look at the traffic, working with the school police, working with the community partners and I felt all of these opportunities that were given to me by Santa Ana Unified has given me all of this opportunity to do what I'm doing right now.

Nata Shin:

One of the things that Steve Jobs talked about was when you look back you can move forward and know what's exactly happening, but when you look backward you're going to start connecting all these dots and I felt that being a curriculum specialist, learning about leadership, PD, was one dot. Going and leading some curriculum instruction assessments at Lathrop for four years, was another dot. Doing discipline at Segerstrom, doing master schedule. Learning about high school Inc. at Valley, that was my short one semester, and learning different academies and how college and career work, that's another dot. And I felt if I connect all those dots, I feel I am ready to lead and also to serve my community at Century High School and that's where I started for everything. I started to love teaching, to learn how to teach and now learn how to lead and also teaching at the same time. But now I'm teaching different groups of audience and I'm loving it.

Bianca Barquin:

I love it. So your learner is different and you've come full circle. Super exciting. So next question for you: as you lead with a deep-seated belief in the resilience of all children, could you walk us through the core values that anchor your leadership, especially in shaping an environment that nurtures both academic and emotional growth?

Nata Shin:

My core values in leadership is to provide the conditions where the students, or anyone, can grow to their fullest potential. One of the quotes I really like from Sir Ken Robinson said, "You cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do is, like a farmer, create the conditions under which it will begin to flourish. I carry that quote with me all the time because I reflect on my own journey as a learner, as a new immigrant, as a professional. If I wasn't given the condition to learn and the opportunity to practice, then I won't be reaching my fullest potential. With that in mind, I aspire to create a condition in my school where the students are given the condition, the opportunity, so that they can reach their potential, specifically at the high school campus. I think I say this many times with my staff, what makes a high school campus different from a K–8 or TK–8? Two things in high school that are different. Number one is activities and the second one is athletics. Those are not everything for the students in high school, but it is a motivation to get them to come to the school and to enjoy the high school life. With all these activities the students will be given a chance to do leadership, to learn about some activities that they can explore to reach their potential. Many other things that we do on the high school campus and other campuses also do is exploring college and career. However, with the high school, college and career is going along with the interests of athletics and activities and with all of this work together as we work together, that's the condition that we create for the students to get up early in the morning to do some service. While doing these services in the school, they would learn a career and a job and explore the college options for themselves. So those are the conditions that I would like to create and me as a leader, I would like all my leaders on our campus, from athletics director to activities, to counselors, to higher ed to know that I would do anything to create conditions for them so that they can also rise to that fullest potential, to provide our students the fullest potential condition that they have.

Bianca Barquin:

You really are doing that. You are creating the conditions for success. You're creating the conditions for students to actualize the graduate profile. Amazing. So Century High School boasts a myriad of vibrant programs, from the Teach Academy, E-Business Academy, Building Trades to the cutting edge eSports Lab. Can you describe those programs for our listeners and how do you ensure each program not only thrives independently but also cohesively enriches the holistic Century High School experience?

Nata Shin:

Thank you so much for highlighting the best programs we have at Century High School. Indeed, each of those programs have their own potential and the finished line for their program. So, for example, let's talk about the Teach Academy. Teach Academy has been at Century High School for almost three decades, almost since the beginning when the school was open. Similarly with e-business program, those academies provide the students opportunity to not only just explore the beginning but also go to the finish line on saying three years later, what have they accomplished? The newer programs, such as Building Trades, just helping the students to start on exploring different trades in this academy, from carpentry to electricity to plumbing and many more. So some of the work still have to be done with Building Trades by providing more opportunities for the outside partners to come in, provide the finish line pathway for our students and also the mentorship. Our goal is to get our Building Trade students a license, something that they can start out and get a job. And you know, in many of these trades a student at 18 years old with the license they can start a career and they can get paid at the starting rate at $100,000 just by 18 years old. Last year we had one student started with the plumbing and he got a job right away and he's making it in life with a good salary of $100,000 without any student loan.

Nata Shin:

The other program that we have is the eSports program. It's a beautiful facility. We are still on the early age because eSports Lab just opened three days and then the pandemic hit, so we never had a chance to actually see it in the way that was intended to be. And then, three years later now, after the pandemic, we have to find out what we really want to do with this eSports Lab. Recently we have a teacher who is awesome in his online profile on gaming, amazing in coding. So we know exactly where we are heading with eSports program and our goal is to get the students inspired into programming, gaming industry. And there's many things that we can do with it. And you're right.

Nata Shin:

How do we make all of these programs cohesively work together? How do we create the conditions where the students can work together and use all of their skills to enhance the programs that we have? To be truthful, that is the work that yet to come. Some of them are in earlier age than the other. The teacher academy, the eBusiness, are in full potential, now how do we bring the other ones up to speed, but my number one goal is that the students, once they enter a program, an academy, they will get out of that program with a license and with something tangible for them to start in life either it's a career or a college. And how do we use one skillset to with another in order to make this work? That's going to be our work to come. I would like to be invited back in two years later and I will share with you some of the outcome that we have.

Bianca Barquin:

I am excited. Consider that a formal invitation. We'd love to have you back. Now, I know this is a unique year for Century High School because there is construction happening at Villa Intermediate School, right, Villa Fundamental. You now have eighth grade students on campus. So my question for you is with the integration of eighth grade students from Villa Fundamental Intermediate School this year, how are you and your team ensuring that this unique blend of educational stages is both harmonious and mutually enriching for all students involved?

Nata Shin:

First of all, thank you, Cabinet and the District, for this approval for eighth graders from Villa Intermediate to be on our campus. It's an opportunity for Century High School to show the community, other than ourselves, of how amazing the school is, how we have different facilities and also programs that are unique in Santa Ana to offer to our students. I am a professional in Santa Ana Unified for almost 20 years, so to me, the students at Villa, the students at Valley, the students at Carr, none of those students are anyone's students. They are all my students and having them on our campus is an opportunity for us. We invite them and their parents many of our events on campus and remember I shared, like the only, what's the only difference between K-8 and high school? It's activities and it's athletics. All of our students, eighth graders, their parents, their teachers, are always welcome to all of our activities. We invited them to our assembly, we invited them to our back-to-school night, to our football games, to every single event that we have. Eventually, I would say around early January, we're going to be working with their counselors and our counselors to make the smooth transition from the eighth grade to ninth grade, with master schedule, with enrollment and registration. I love working with our students and parents, especially in that neighborhood. Now the Villa students and parents don't see us as another high school. They feel us, this is our community.

Nata Shin:

I remember when the principal, John Bennett, at Villa, invited their parents to meet me and I shared with them:

Nata Shin:

If I were you, I would be extremely happy for the fact that eighth graders are on Century campus.

Nata Shin:

The reason is not only you have one amazing principal to watch out for your kid, you have two, and in a way I was kind of complimenting myself as a principal of Century, but I think it's just a fact that they don't recognize. And I said instead of having two counselors for your eighth grade students, we have six counselors here. We're all one big family. Instead of having just one assistant principal, we have four more, and so we are a big one family. And many of us Villla students have their older siblings already on campus, already an alumni at Century. So it's just one year earlier and I wanted them to meet me. Not only they have one wellness center at their school, now they have another one at my campus as well, and now it's really nice to see how eighth graders and also the teachers are using our state of the art library on a daily basis, when they have meetings, when they have collaborations or anything like that. We open our campus to all of them because we all want big SAUSD family.

Bianca Barquin:

I love the inclusivity, I love the collaboration, and the fact that you have future Centurions on your campus is pretty amazing. Can you share a recent success story from Century High School that embodies the spirit and objectives of your leadership in the school's mission?

Nata Shin:

I would say one of the things that I enjoy the most is building capacity on our campus. The pandemic has allowed some of our teachers and experts on our campus, leaders on our campus, retired in the past few years. It's been a challenge in many capacities, but I have worked very closely with almost every single aspect in the school to build up people, provide people the conditions and also the opportunity to be the leader that they didn't think they were, for example, master schedule. That is something that I really love, clearly, and when I was at Century High School, not everyone knew how to build a master schedule. Now we have about five counselors who know exactly what's going on and we can talk master schedule all day because we do have the capacity in the school.

Nata Shin:

As a principal, at some point you get to spend more time with the leaders on campus than building up the students because you don't get to see the student on a daily basis of one hour a day with their schedule. So at this moment, I would say one of my biggest success is to build capacity in our school from the student services aspect to athletics, to activities and the last one is counseling, and I'm super proud of the work that we have done up to this point, but we also have a lot of work to do, because one of these days I want everyone in Santa Ana to say Century is the best school, the best high school we have in Santa Ana and everyone would flock over and say let's go to Century instead.

Bianca Barquin:

I love it. So, speaking of building capacity, the mentorship pathway at Century High School is a notable aspect. How has this been crafted to ensure students not only receive guidance but also learn the intrinsic values of being positive mentors themselves?

Nata Shin:

One of the things that I love from the very beginning of my days at Century is we have the greatest parents who are our students' first teachers, who show the students the beauty of hard work, the beauty of service, and I think many of our students came in with that innate ability that we're going to be working hard. And the lessons that we provide through the classrooms, through math, through English, the activities that we do through ASB and the Teach Academy, is all around service. Working hard is one of the aspects that our students do the best. We want to transform that, the working hard part from the physical hard into mentally hard, physically hard, of course, and academically hard. Through multiple programs that we have, such as the eSports, the Building Trades, the eBusiness Academy, the Teach Academy, you can see that we are surfacing and building on the students' intrinsic motivation already with hard work. You can find it super challenging when you learn how to do programming and doesn't get that bug to go away in eSports lab. You can work super hard and try to make sure all these numbers add up in eBusiness and, of course, when you want to build a toolbox, Building Trades will give you some physical hard work challenge right there. And another hard work is how do we build the next capacity, which is teaching and our students, especially in the Teach

Nata Shin:

Academy, they would go every day to the local elementary to provide the tutoring for our students in elementary, and one of the things that I love the most is the service in Century High School.

Nata Shin:

I want to share with you one cool story.

Nata Shin:

At Century we have this thing called the Giving Tree, and many of our students wanted to collect some gift from our teachers or friends and bring it back to some of the elementary, such as Kennedy, Jefferson and Madison, and to provide a gift to the students who are in need the most during Christmas time, and to me it's just a regular story.

Nata Shin:

However, if you think closely, our students don't have a lot, but they give everything they have and more to someone who they deem more needed, and that is the kindness and the intrinsic motivation that they have just to give more, to be of a service to people. And let's just work hard, use our labor to help another family, help another kid have a happier moment or have a happier Christmas, and I think that is a great motivation and that's a lesson that I'm sure they learn very well from their own parents and we just have to build on it by providing different academies, different academic programs, so that they can use that intrinsic motivation into something that can deem into the GPA and that will get them to go further in life, such as college, and be more successful in that area, so they can give more and provide more, because that's what they want to do for our community.

Bianca Barquin:

So there's a couple of things that you've said that are super compelling for me. One is recognizing parents as the primary educators of their children. That is a beautiful partnership. Two, you talked about service and being of service and giving back to the community and those lessons that are learned for our students. That's actually one of the characteristics of the graduate profile, and those examples that you shared actually exemplify actualization of our Graduate Profile. Beautiful. Nata, as you gaze into the future, what aspirations do you hold for Century High and how do you envision navigating the journey towards these goals alongside your dedicated team?

Nata Shin:

Like, I am a professional product of SAUSD. I have heard stories about different schools. I have gone to about seven different campuses in Santa Ana Unified. Each campus has something that the community really loves and I would like to build Century High School as a campus that everyone wants to send their children to. It's a campus where we produce students as a whole, the students who intrinsically already care for others with empathy, and we want to provide them the pathway so they can build their academic and college and career success.

Nata Shin:

The one thing that I want to work with my team is to have them have the same ambition as me, so that we, with that ambition, we can work, we have patience for one another, we teach each other and we build capacity for one another so each one of us can achieve that vision.

Nata Shin:

And my hope is one of these days our parents say look at Century High School. I like to send my kids there because this is a school that not only provides opportunities but also the environment where my students will grow academically, physically and mentally, and they have the most beautiful hearts because of the school. With all of that, I'd like to invite all of our parents and the community of Santa Ana Unified and beyond, to come and share some of those moments with us. We are at the early age where we are building, we are working on all of those capacities. We want to share our programs. We are working to fine tune our craft every day. It's still a work in progress, but we have a tremendous group of people who are there every day, working tirelessly, trying to build it the way we would like to see it one day.

Bianca Barquin:

I think you're well on your way to doing that, and you do have a beautiful community, and I'm sure folks are going to take you up on your offer. So, Nata, what's a personal story or perhaps a little-known fact that you'd like to share with our listeners today, so they know how much you love and believe in what you're doing at Century High School?

Nata Shin:

Thank you for this question. I think one of the fun facts that our Century community knows is that I have only one child and I do send my own child to my own school. I have many other principles from elsewhere and say, hey, send your kid to my school because I know she can achieve, but I'm like, no, that's not the reason I would like to bring my own daughter to school, to my own school, because I do believe in the work that I do, I do trust the work that our teachers and the staff do in our school and I love this community. One other thing that I really like about Century High School and I don't think you can find it in any books or academics is the empathy.

Nata Shin:

One of the quotes that I learned from Brené Brown in a book Dare to Lead is she said something around the line of in the past jobs were about muscles, now they are about brains, but in the future they are about the heart.

Nata Shin:

And as the heart is the empathy, the ability to love, to empathize and use that empathy and the heart that you have to lead in any capacity that you have, and of course the skills come with it, but the empathy is the root of the motivation and the inspiration to for one person to achieve more. One of the things that I like from that book is for every Christmas, I post this one on my social media all the time and I know my my Century families know that I'm always on social media every night at the end of the day. One of the quotes that I like is Brené Brown said, "wishing you a heart open enough to stay curious, strong enough to face pain and brave enough to feel joy, and it's all about empathy. So I hope everyone have a nice evening if you listen to this end of the evening and wish you with a heart that is open for every emotion and empathy and love toward one another and in your community and your family.

Bianca Barquin:

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing that story with us, Nata. Before we sign off, it's time for our Amplifier Acknowledgement segment. Nata, if you could amplify the message or lesson of one educator or leader who's made a significant impact in your journey, who would it be and what is that resonating message?

Nata Shin:

That's a tough question to narrow it down to one person. I have grown up here in Santa Ana Unified as a professional for 19 years. Each stage of life that I have gone through in different school sites, I am so blessed and very lucky to have one person that always there to help me grow and to identify some areas that I'm very strong in and how to work on my strength. I would start out with the first teacher that I had, who now is also an athletics director at Godinez. His name is Bill Snyder. He taught me how to teach math. I taught myself and I never taught students, but he was the first one.

Nata Shin:

The one that opened the door for me into leadership is Ed Winch ester. He's retired by now. The one that taught me so much about curriculum instruction, how to be a strong woman, was Michelle Rodriguez. The one that took a chance on me as a leader, as an assistant principal, was Adrian Ayala. The one that say you use too much math in discipline and traffic and active shooter drills, let's move you into counseling. Now you get both. That was Duncan McCulloch.

Nata Shin:

And finally, my latest promotion is to become a principal and I would like to thank Jerry and Lorraine for trusting me with this very big job and for giving me the opportunity and the conditions where I can explore, where I can use my expertise and passion and put it into work for the community that I love dearly. So thank you to all of those leaders and mentors in my life. I know I have a lot more people to be thankful for, but those are the ones that have helped me, open the door and just trust me with their heart, with the positions that I held. So thank you so much for you and for the opportunities that you have given me.

Bianca Barquin:

What powerful acknowledgments. Nata, your journey is a testament to the extraordinary impact one can carve through dedication, empathy and a resilient belief in the potential of every student. To our devoted listeners, we hope that the stories and insights shared today resonate with you, igniting sparks of inspiration and painting a rich tapestry of what compassionate leadership coupled with innovative approaches in education can truly unfold. Nata's commitment not to just lead but to uplift, inspire and forge pathways of possibilities not only illuminates the halls of Century High School but also lightens the path for leaders in every capacity to think beyond the conventional and to act with heart, wisdom and unwavering faith in the capacities of those they lead. I'm Bianca Barquin, and this is SAUSD's Amplifying Leadership, where every voice, story and passionate heart finds a stage to inspire. Thank you for joining us and until next time, keep amplifying.