Return As Dean
By Karen Tan, Staff Writer
After spending a year as a counselor at an East Bay high school that was closer to her home, Ms. Liana Wong has come back to Galileo and taken a job as dean. Wong first worked here as an academic counselor in 2004 to 2008, and decided to come back because she missed working here.
Wong, who studied at UC Davis and Columbia Teachers College, found that there were no positions open as a counselor but one for a dean, which she took with support from friends and staff at Galileo. Working as a dean and counselor are very different, according to Ms. Wong, because as a counselor, she dealt with academics and grades, but similar because they both involve students, which she says is the “best part”
Being a dean is always a constant challenge and part of Ms. Wong’s job description as dean is to deal with discipline and she also talks to parents. So far, Ms. Wong is enjoying her new job saying, “It’s helping me grow as an educator.”
Many of the staff members at Galileo are happy to see Ms. Wong here again. Mr. Paul Robertson, the other dean, works with Ms. Wong, who he’s known for a long time and says he shares an “excellent working relationship” with her. Ms. Cecilia Chan, the senior counselor, is glad to have Wong back but she said, “We are sad that she’s not coming back in the counseling office” and predicts that Ms. Wong will “make an excellent dean.”