The PilotEd Podcast Kyra Kellawan

Armen Melkonian is PilotEd’s first guest in over a year, due to a busy schedule in a new role for me, and also a time of renewed commitment and focus on making a concerted effort to speak to guests who are not content to do things the way they have always been done, and who are not content to sit quietly in the face of discrimination. Armen embodies both of these things, and many more qualities besides. I was delighted to meet him on a recent visit he made to my school, the British School of Barcelona, and I knew he was an extremely intelligent activist from the start.

A displaced person originally from Syria, he is Student Recruiter and Account Manager for the Dutch market, plus Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador at HotelSchool the Hague. Speaking to him was a breath of fresh air as his story is a unique one. From initially working in Syria as an interior designer, Armen’s seven years of experience working in hospitality, from front desk, food and beverage, housekeeping and management, have given him an open-minded and positive approach. Also a TED X motivational speaker and UNHCR volunteer, his is the voice of a new generation of international recruitment professionals in our industry who truly understand the choices students have,and their decision making process, and his experiences as a former student of Hotel School have shaped his entire approach to the work. I was glad to meet him some weeks ago to learn about his fascinating story.

Some of the points that stick with me from hearing Armen’s story are:

Despite suffering multiple layers of discrimination (his Syrian Bachelors degree unrecognised by the system in Europe, intolerance of his accent in his third language, anti-refugee and homophobic sentiment),  he refused to accept less and was not prepared to take any roles that did not allow him to live his truth.


He reminds us, and was reminded himself, that you don’t have to “check all the boxes” to be a worthy candidate for a role. Luckily for HotelSchool the Hague, they understood this and their selection process allowed his talents to shine through.
He has made DEI work a part integral to every step he takes. In any new situation his question is, “how am I thinking about inclusivity?”
Armen reminds us that in situations where students do not feel comfortable to be themselves, we are failing them. It is not enough to be equal and treat everyone equally. We must support each individual’s needs in order to reach EQUITY.
Finally, and crucially, young people, and young employees of this generation, are being highly selective, asking, “is this university/ company diverse? How our schools, organisations, universities and companies show up to ensuring and enabling diversity is key to success, retention of talent and growth.

Armen is nominated for an award with UAF, a body providing support to refugee students and professionals in their studies and in finding suitable employment on the Dutch labour market since 1948:  you can vote for him here in October 2022: https://www.uaf.nl/uaf-award/armen/?utm_source=armen&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=uafaward

(Stem op Armen means "vote for Armen")

Armen can also be found on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/armen-melkonian-597099154/)and Instagram. (www.instagram.com/armenco25)


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Welcome back listeners! Series 2, Ep1 opens with Moustafa Ezz, Director of International Recruitment & Strategy at Huron at Western University in Ontario, Canada.

I met Moustafa a little in pre-COVID times at the 2019 CIS Conference in Bilbao, when PilotEd was a nascent idea that had not been fully formed yet. In Moustafa’s conference session he spoke passionately about access to international education for those without the means to attend elite universities, and the need for this to be an institutional priority for other colleges like his own. I was impressed back then by the financial support that Huron were offering to their successful high -achieving, low -income students. A recent piece of amazing news about his work to extend opportunity to the brightest and best can be found here: https://vimeo.com/548966471

Moustafa’s perspective is one that has been informed by both his own international school experience and his first hand understanding of inequality and deep injustices he witnessed growing up in the Gulf. Knowing more about his past and what it means for the non-traditional students recruited by his team, we can ensure that in lesser-seen, or lesser-visited parts of their world, innovation and adaptation in a post-COVID world can continue. Admissions conversations can and must remain global despite flights being largely grounded, because talent is still evenly distributed even if opportunities are not. We may however have to re-imagine what college looks like, at least in the short term. Leaders like Moustafa help to lay down the gauntlet for colleagues in international recruitment. Huron’s website says that their liberal arts and ethics curriculum aims to give personalized learning experiences to students while also developing their character, and that the result is students who are formidable Leaders with Heart who care about the people and world around them. With Leaders like Moustafa at the helm, they are sure to fulfill that mission.

You can follow Moustafa on Twitter @MoustafaHuronUC and on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/moustafaezz/


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In this final episode of the first season, I met former international school students Clara Reynolds and Xoài David, two twenty-one year olds on a mission to decolonise the curriculum in the world of international education. Their movement began as “decolonise the IB” and is now the Organisation to Decolonise International Schools. It has taken hold and empowered other international school alumni, teachers and students. In this episode they explain their aims to eradicate racism and encourage a more globally ethical outlook in teaching and learning: from learning about native histories and cultures to diversifying hiring and recruitment practices. They’re two impressive young women on a mission to do right, and I’m delighted to finish the season with their voices. As IB-educated students they have taken up a huge piece of much-needed work on accountability & amplification of diverse voices in our world of international education. They have also taken swift action in a way that should make us as educators sit up and take notice. This generation are not going to accept the glossy brochure version of international school life if diversity at schools is just paying lip-service. Students, educators and parents are beginning to ask hard questions of their leadership committees and boards. It’s an uncomfortable, pressing issue that erupted again and again this year in our news media and reminded us all of the hard truths: there are still gender, disability and racial inequalities in terms of senior international school leadership and our practices and policies. We saw conversations and public statements on Black Lives Matter and anti-racist policies posted in international school fora from the Council of International Schools and the International Association of College Admissions Counselors, and witnessed allyship groups such as the Association of International Educators and Leaders of Color and BAMEed doubling down on prejudice and inequality in international school systems, making vocal calls for change heard. What Clara and Xoài remind me is that schools are community organisations whose reach is felt long after students leave the gates. The most future-ready and respected leaders are currently putting resources into ensuring that they not only retain, but champion and listen to the diverse voices of their staff and students. If there aren’t any: then it’s some hard questions need to be asked.

ENDNOTE The first season of PilotEd has had a strong focus on educators doing thoughtful and intentional work to create happy, fulfilled students: who are ready for the complex future that awaits them, and who are mentally and emotionally equipped to deal with the slings and arrows of life. From meeting educators in Green Schools to those planning new schools, picking the brains of education futurists to meeting social innovators working to provide education to refugees, there are themes that emerged from speaking to these innovative leaders in education.
1. An academic year without exams was for many, a relief. School leaders were forced to look at other kinds of success. 2. Our learning paradigm is changing: and staff have to be ready for it. Online learning for this generation is not an adjustment: it’s a continual way of being. 3. Values- based education is more important than ever in our increasingly volatile and complex world. 4. Conversations that address all forms of diversity within your school communities are needed with urgency. 5. Listen to your students - and learn from them.In an online context, that becomes even more important: our virtual classrooms have further broken down the barriers between our “at home” and “at work” selves, and we can show up for our students differently, just as they can show up differently to school, in this new normal.
Thanks for being a listener to PIlotEd’s inaugural season. If you like what you’ve heard in S1, then please like us or follow @thepilotedpodcast on

Meet Hannah Wilson, an independent consultant and facilitator who specialises in leadership development and training. Hannah was one of the founding members of the Women in Education Leadership movement WomenEd in the UK. She is a DfE coach for the Women Leading in Education initiative and an advocate for flexible working. She specialises in: Diversity, Inclusion and Equality, Professional Learning, Early Career Teachers, Mental Health and Wellbeing.

I met Hannah through my work with WomenEd, but she is a twitter superstar in her own right and I had seen her posts long before I connected with her. As a vocal champion of serving under-represented voices in leadership, she leads by example, taking decisions led by strong core values and modeling what it means to be an ethical leader: coincidentally, that’s also her twitter handle. After speaking to both Lawrence and Hannah I have been struck by a strong similarity in their outlooks: We need to think about the umbrella of all the diversities, and the need for the majority to consider our individual power and privilege as well as that of the groups we identify with. We need to think about all of the "protected characteristics". These refer to the 2010 The Equality Act passed in the UK, and identify groups protected by equality legislation – age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion,sexual orientation, or civil status. Being able to understand the terminology and the fact that discrimination exists in many forms helps us all to recognise our own privileges and unexamined advantages at work and in the world at large, and it shows that the fight to eradicate discrimination is a bigger one than many of us initially think. But it also binds us in that fight in different, powerful ways.

Hannah’s conviction in what she does is absolutely rock-solid. I love her quote about leaving a job because she’d rather step aside than be compromised and then get ill. Important, system-changing work has come to her because of that sense of purpose and desire to improve things. By amplifying what you stand for, and following what you believe in, work comes and people gravitate towards you because it’s authentic. She is exactly the type of leader PilotEd seeks out: one of a breed of highly networked, disruptive leaders: COVID seems like the moment that we will see an important surge of collective agency to change school and educator cultures from toxic ones. Lines in the sand are being drawn by courageous leaders like Hannah, and finding your tribe means you don’t have to be the one person in your school, or multi-academy trust (MAT) banging your drum about change, now you can connect. 

WomenED is just one of those tribes, but there are many others, with different focal points: BAMEed, AIELOC, Daily Writing Challenge group on twitter, seeking out empowering conferences online to be part of, peer support circles and educator coaching sessions.

Further sources & notes:
https://www.hannah-wilson.co.uk //@ethical_leader
BAMEed: https://www.bameednetwork.com/team-view/allana-gay/
Rebel Ideas by Matthew Said:https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52326253-rebel-ideas
Chiltern Learning Alliance https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQjl49issw_Atd7WXH0DDhw
Values Based Education: @vbezone on twitter Rachel Thomas @math_rachel on twitter
https://leanin.org/book
Jill Berry Making the Leap https://www.leadershipmatters.org.uk/ambassadors/jill-berry/
Diana Osagi: https://www.leadershipmatters.org.uk/ambassadors/diana-osagie/
Viv Grant: https://www.leadershipmatters.org.uk/ambassadors/viv-grant/
Karen Giles:https://twitter.com/mskarengiles?lang=en
Evelyn Forde: https://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/columnists/cortez-ford/
Lana Gay: https://www.bameednetwork.com/team-view/allana-gay/
Kiran Gill: https://www.the-difference.com/media-coverage-listing/2018/1/26/kiran-gill-profile-schools-week


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Kevin Simpson founded The Association of International Educators and Leaders of Color (AIELOC) - an org devoted to amplifying the work of international educators and leaders of color with a focus on advocacy, learning, and research. Kevin is an entrepreneur and educator whose work came into my frame of reference earlier this year when I was introduced to the AIELOC group by a colleague and friend. Since 2008, Simpson has been focused on education in the MENA region, assisted numerous schools with accreditation, training, development, and served as a thought partner to investors on school start-up projects. Simpson is co-founder of the UAE Learning Network, has co-authored papers on American curriculum in the MENA region with a focus on Common Core State Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, social studies, the arts, and the history of American Education in the UAE.  His company, KDSL Global is an education consulting company based in the USA and in the UAE. Simpson and his team have served thousands of schools, organizations, educators, and leaders worldwide in over 20 countries.

One of the biggest takeaways from speaking to Kevin for me was his tireless commitment to the various communities he serves. Starting with the community of his 4th grade classroom, and ensuring their exposure to global reference points, and then broadening out to his AIELOC work to elevate and amplify voices of educators of colour - specifically certain groups such as female leaders of colour. AIELOC’s work is in many ways just beginning to be seen by those educators who were not already a part of the affinity group, and that is also part of the issue. If as an educator I was not taking the time to understand that this group needed to exist back in 2017, then I was also not paying attention to my own privileges. As a person of mixed heritage who “can pass” for white, has a British passport and has never been knowingly overlooked in the international school system for my ethnicity, I am aware that I have lived an entirely privileged experience within the sector. Knowing that more visible minorities experience the gamut from microagressions about well-spokeness, all the way through to blatant discrimination, I am acutely aware that those of us who don’t experience this have a duty to call it out, and support our colleagues who do have to live it. As Kevin says, it is everyone’s work to do, and it starts with the individual first.

Talking to Kevin and engaging with AIELOC has broadened my perspective and re-affirmed my commitment to the self-enquiry, learning and unlearning he spoke about. If you have been undertaking similar work, I encourage you to follow AIELOC on twitter, @globalKDSL and the AIELOC group on facebook if you identify as an educator of color. And even if you are not, then there is a fantastic list of ways in which you can lead for change in your own organisations, starting with the investigation of school or university policies, the use of mentoring and investment in professional development of staff as well as the creation of leadership pipelines

Resources: AIELOC: http://aieloc.org Black in International Schools Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/black.in.international.schools
Sign Joel LLaban’s Anti-Racism in International School Accreditation petition on Change.org: https://www.change.org/p/explicit-inclusion-of-anti-racism-in-international-accreditation-standards/u/27081824?recruiter=1113515413&utm_source=share_update&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=facebook
Decolonise the IB Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/decolonise_ib/
Liberate Meditation https://liberatemeditation.com
Ayana https://www.ayanatherapy.com


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Welcome back to Episode 10 of PilotEd. Series one is drawing to a close, but this week’s guest was something of a surprise appearance. She’s an education heroine of mine. Rebecca Zeigler Mano is the founder of EdMatters Africa, the USAP Community School in Zimbabwe, and she co-founded the HALI Access Network.  HALI stands for High Acheiving Low Income, and its 20+ organizations work in more than 30 countries across Africa, supporting thousands of students on their journeys to find post-secondary options with funding.

Rebecca’s own teaching career spans over two decades and has seen her in classrooms in Coastal Kenya, Northern California and Zimbabwe. Rebecca has devoted her professional life to college equity and access for talented, low-income students. She founded the United States Achievers Program, or USAP in 2000 whilst working as the Country Coordinator for EducationUSA in Zimbabwe. Primarily, the program's goal was to encourage and assist highly talented but economically disadvantaged high school graduates access scholarships and full-funding at top US colleges and universities. Starting off with 13 students, USAP has since grown into an international program. Rebecca's vision of educating the underprivileged has broken borders and through a dedicated network of Educational Advisors in countries like Mongolia, Brazil, Ecuador and the UK, USAP has significantly impacted the lives of its young people.

Rebecca is active as a presenter, trainer and leader in international education organisations such as NAFSA, IACAC, and CIS where I saw a moving keynote from her on USAP’s work last November. That speech led me to reach out directly to Rebecca. I was, as you can imagine, delighted to discover that she listens to PilotED on her morning walks, and that she could make time to be a guest.

Speaking to Rebecca was an inspiring experience in so many ways.  She  understands that she cannot be a voice for the whole continent, nor even for the direct experience of her Zimbabwean students, but as with any great champion or ally, she is intentional about how and where she uses her influence. She is a powerful advocate for access and inclusion in her communities in Zimbabwe, the USA and across international higher education. The HALI network’s goals are to share ideas, resources and experiences to improve their work with high-achieving, low-income students, to provide relevant and insightful information to the wider college admissions and international education community, to advocate on issues affecting high-achieving low-income international students and to increase scholarship opportunities and support for high-achieving low-income students.

If you are listening and you work for a university that strives for diversity and inclusion, there is a clear call to action here if you’re not already seeking out opportunities to work alongside organisations like HALI and USAP. There are so many others out there. To any other educator who has been profoundly moved, as I am, by what Rebecca and her team of alumni, supporters, and friends do: then you can support their work directly. 


Donations for the USAP community school are gratefully received at https://usapschool.org/donate/ and http://goto.gg/47507

Education Matters - www.edmattersafrica.org

Facebook Pages - Education Matters Africa,  USAP Community School

Instagram - edmatters_africa

Twitter - @edmattersafrica 



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