Rachael Maves: I'm Rachael Maves and you're listening to the Getting Naked with leaders and education podcast, where we strip away the layers and get to the raw, unfiltered stories behind the leaders shaping the future of Education. My guest today is Eugene Park, founder of Parsec Education. Founded in 2018, Parsec education's mission is to improve and transform K-12 education and student outcomes through modernizing, evaluating, improving and standardizing the way schools view, interpret and respond to data. Prior to Parsec, Eugene was a statistician at Madera, Unified data analyst at prior Pioneer Union Elementary School District and a research associate for educational resource Consultants Incorporated Eugene. Thank you for joining me today on the Getting Naked with educational leaders podcast.

Eugene Park: Hey, it's my pleasure. I thought that we moved away from Getting Naked.

Rachael Maves: We did, and then we came back to it.

Eugene Park: Oh my gosh, we could never put that thing to bed.

Rachael Maves: No, we can't. And for everyone who's listening, please go to our podcast session with Babatunde elori, our CEO, to better understand the why behind it. But I'm excited because I feel like it embodies our culture and what you and Babatunde have done so well to create this authentic space. Do you want to just speak to that a little bit?

Eugene Park: I just want to clarify that we're not running a nudist colony. It's not literal, it's all about just trans parency and you know I love the whole thing about truth over.

Rachael Maves: Comfort yeah, Babatunde flagged that for us is something that you used to say all the time, especially Madera. Tell me a little bit. Unpack that for me when. What do you mean when you say truth over Comfort?

Eugene Park: Well, you know, speaking of and before I dive into this, I mean I need to get this off my chest. I woke up this morning and I was really looking forward to a slow Monday morning. And then I see my calendar and I'm like, Oh my gosh, the very the first person I need to talk to this morning is Rachael Maves, and I'm like, great, that just ruined my day. And then I saw, oh gosh, there's a podcast that I am not, was not on my radar for the longest time. So, to run around French my head, put some gel in it and get ready for this podcast, well, I appreciate you looking presentable, thank you. Okay, so truth over comfort, and then we'll get into our other questions.

Well, that was a little example of Truth. You know, for me it's it's not about image or cultivating a personal sort of rap sheet. I could care less about that. For me, it's. It's really about changing lives, changing outcomes. There's a proverb that I hold dear to, and it speaks to this concept of Truth over comfort and how you're supposed to surround yourself with people who will always challenge your own ideas and push you to become a better person.

And, my goodness, this is why you don't schedule a podcast in the morning, because my mind just went blank. Rachael, this is all your fault. Do you know what I'm talking about? Please help me with my recall, because the wounds from a friend can be trusted. Is it that?

Rachael Maves: Yeah, the wounds of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy?

Eugene Park: Yeah, thank you, goodness, gracious, simple do1 recall, and I just failed that test. Okay, and so that's why you're on the team, and I think that's partly the reason why you joined Parsec is because you saw this mly crew of people who deeply care about the singular mission of transforming K-12 education so that our kids have a much brighter future and also better outcome in terms of career and or College and Career. But the people that we've assembled at Parsec Education were really authentic Raw. We'll never skirt around the truth, but even when we speak hard Truth, at the end of the day we can laugh and we can still be friends and we are still very respectful of each other and loving of each other, and that's the culture that I just want to. Perpetuate.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, well, and you and Babatunde model that well, because you're right. I mean that's that is why I joined the Parsec team and I still remember the first time watching the two of you kind of go Toe to Toe and me just I think my eyes were just pretty wide, thinking how's this going to end? And then by the end you guys were laughing and talking and you had moved right on and there was no like f future backlash or anything else. That happened afterwards.

Eugene Park: It was, yeah, we were going to talk this out and we were going to say what we needed to say and we still care about each other and we value and respect one another and we're gonna then move to the next thing. Yeah, it's really important because, I mean, one of the most unhealthy things you can do as an adult is hold a grudge and go to bed with that Grudge and it just eats you up inside and so one. I don't ever want to see that or feel that personally, and I think we've done a really good job of creating culture where you know people can go to bed happy and happy that they're a part of this wonderful crew. You know that we can work towards a common goal even when sometimes we disagree.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, one of the other things, Eugene, that really drew me to Parsec as well and this is wasn't part of our list of questions, but I feel like it deserves space to be highlighted is, I mean, you're the founder of this organization. You sacrificed. Significantly and you can share a little bit about that if you'd like to fund and get Parsec off the ground. Yet you brought in Babatunde as the CEO to run the company, which, I mean, that's not common when you look at Founders in the way that they interact and engage with their organization. So I mean, tell us a little bit about that, like what Vision you had, why did you bring in Babatunde and that decision that you made yeah, back in 2018, sold our home that was our first home that we ever purchased back in 2012 and luckily, that's when the market was dipping, and so when we sold it, you know, six years later, we had some Equity built up and I literally had just a year just to live off of, you know, the proceeds of that sale and it's it's.

Eugene Park: It's a running joke now, but at the time when I pushed that email campaign button, I thought I was going to get arrested. The power of just you know people just singing your Praises goes a really long ways, you know, and that's how parac grew is word of mouth, and just a handful of people who answered my spam emails really saw the amazing work that we were doing. And then, from there on, it's just history. And then, Babatunde, what was? It was about a year and a half ago, or a little under two years, I hit a wall. I was having some really severe health issues, chronic anxiety, panic attacks and it's because I was overworking myself.

I didn't really have a lot of support. I mean, I had about two to three employees, but I was still, you know. Carrying a lot of weight on my shoulders, doing all of the speaking engagements, and I just remember, every morning I would wake up and immediately there would be chest tightness. You know, I equated it to a 700 lb gorilla just standing on my chest and it was incredibly hard for me to even get through just simple Zoom meetings. There was one Zoom meeting where I just had to pause and say I'm sorry, I'm actually having a panic attack. There was one time when I flew down to Los Angeles to do a Power standard training and before that 2hour session I was in the restroom just heaving, and so it was not a good.

Season and luckily, by then I the annual revenue was closer to a million dollars and that gave me some wiggle worm to go and recruit some talents. And the very first person that I wanted to bring on board was Babatunde, and I knew from knowing him and he's he's talked about oh, wanting to be a public servant and wanting to run for county superintendent and blah, and I'm like, whatevers, you have an MBA, I know you've always had a niche for, you know going to the private sector and running a business and being an entrepreneur. And so you know I reached out to him and I was just honest with him. You remember just being completely transparent about my health and when he was somewhat on board, we talked about governance and I mean I would say that you know the Lord was speaking to me and through my wife too: just let go of control, because we were talking about like a co-ceo sort of arrangement, yeah, but then you know, going through just a recovery program at my church, it just dawned on me that I just needed to let go and really trust people, and so I just said: Bob aend, you're going to be the CEO, I'm just going to let go. And personally, that was really hard, because one of the struggles that I have with that I have constantly is control. And just to let go was probably one of the best decisions I've made, because, one, there was instant relief and then, two, I can really focus on the things that really bring me a lot of joy, and that's Innovation.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, well, and I that is one thing that I feel like Parsec does really well. It's the where. How are we ensuring that everyone is playing to their strengths? And I think you modeled that, Eugene, in a very profound way to be able to say: I'm handing over the day-to-day operations to babat tundi and really actually trusting him with all of that space and then your focus really being on Innovation. Creation, design work, which you're phenomenal at, and we see people operating in their strengths and I would, and I would say, even with where the company is today, you've seen the blessing that's poured out in that space when you do it that way. Yeah, it's pretty.

I again I know I say this all the time, but it's not common the track that you've taken. And look at where we are today. We just kicked off our first summit: 150 people attending. We're still hearing rave reviews about that. You've, I mean, more than tripled what your annual revenue was prior to Bringing Babatunde day. On our staff: we're still hiring.

We're up to what: 22 now full-time staff. Getting closer to 30, Rachael, we're yeah, actually, with all the brand new people, probably. So I mean, is this part of what you envisioned? Is it exceeding? Where do you hope we continue to go? What does that look like for you?

Eugene Park: Early on, I just thought, boy, it's nice to just run my own operations. I'd never, ever, envisioned this growing to like a corporate size. You know where I mean. Our growth is, to Jam's terms, a J curve, right, we're. We're just seeing exponential growth, not in terms of just Revenue only, but people like. One of the best advices I got was: you know, you go into business not to make money but to create jobs, and I really love that.

And so, no, actually I thought I would just have like a handful of just annual contracts and I just live off of that. But then something did change, like when I did notice that, wow, you know, this is having a an immediate impact and a huge impact on our K-12 systems. That's when I saw, okay, the potential that this could be much bigger, that it's not just limited just to the Central Valley, not just limited to California, not just limited to the United States, that this can be a global Revolution. I use that word again: Revolution. I use these words that I should not use in education. Like what is it?

Infiltrate? And you know, it's like these trigger words. And it's funny because I have someone, Kathleen, over at Springs Charter. I call her the, my mom in education, and anytime I get up to U speak at a conference she's always coaching me things not to say. And now I've got another mom in: Rachael. And she's like: you can't say that, Eugene, yeah, but again, just going back to the growth of our company, now I do have, I see, a bigger Vision where I think our mission is attainable.

I truly do.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, excuse me, I agree, and I think everybody's behind you with that, which is exciting. We're all. We're all going in the same direction. So tell me a little bit about why education. What brought you into education, why that career pathway that you wanted to serve.

Eugene Park: Well, after you, UC San Diego, I was offer offered a job at educational resource Consultants, which is based here at of Fresno, and it's funny because the founders of ERC it was Stevens's or Steve Price's son, null. Who was that one person who changed my life right in high school or in K-12. He was my world history teacher in 9th grade and then he was my AP gev teacher and as a junior I had I was a teacher's aid. I had literally like eight months of lunch detention with him because I would come to school late, tardy, and I had racked up so much lunch detention. But he was so gracious because he had like these little. He had fruit gummies, he had like can tuna, he had like little sausages and he literally fed me, you know, every day.

And so, anyways, after college he talked to his dad and brother and like, hey, you should, you know, look into Eugene. I think he'd be a good fed. And so I got started working as a research associate at a private Grant and evaluation firm and they had contracts with like freso County Office of EDS after school program, La usds beyond the bell, and so I was more on the evaluation side. I didn't really write any of the grants and I did that for two years and so that was my way into the education, and then the reason why I stayed in education is it's it's, I think, honestly the biggest lever to change society.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, that's right period. Yeah, I agree, and you want to do that through data? I. Yeah, when you think about education and where it's at in its current state, what keeps you up at night?

Eugene Park: Oh, that's a question that's going to get me in trouble. Rachael, you're not supposed to ask that. May need to watch what I say. It's not perfect. I would go as far to say that it broken. There's an incredible amount of inefficiencies in education.

There's this problem of working in isolation. I know that when we talk about the Improvement science framework, you know solution itis is a big problem, especially with lcff. You know, when these school districts got all this additional funding in snc dollars here in California, literally they would just throw money at the problem and that just drove me up a wall. I just couldn't stand that, because those are tax generated funds and I just felt that they were just being misused and it wasn't, wasn't, wasn't really benefiting our kids. Again, you know, for me I look at just the ones and zeros and I did not see any results. Yeah, and so how could you just maintain a system that just doesn't see any?

Improvement. You know, yeah, you might have some bright spots here and there, but that's really because of personnel. It's not a system, right, we don't have a system, a Statewide system or a nationwide system, that cons, consistently, produces High results. And then, and when you look at the variance between, like, low performing and high- Performing schools that share similar demographics, it's just way, it's just too wide. So, again, and that points back to it's it's, it's a broken. System.

Rachael Maves: So when you think about how to move forward and you've alluded to this a little bit what do you see as that Vision?

Eugene Park: We really have to unlock the issue. You and I think one of the platforms that we've been working on, 247 Academy, Park Academy really helps teachers to get outside those four walls. You know we talk about. You know how people, especially in educ ation, work in isolation and it's just. It's not just School Sy, individual school systems or administrators, it's, it's teachers. You know they might have their little PLC time, but that's it, and a lot of times those PLC plcs aren't really working right.

So I want to completely. Revamp that entire Model. Call It The Parsec Hour of Power.

Rachael Maves: Okay, that's the first time I'm hearing this new name.

Eugene Park: No, I know, I know and really have teachers you know, bought into our framework and where you know, it's not just working collectively and being responsible collectively for student outcomes, but leveraging the most, latest and greatest Technologies. I mean with the Advent of generative AI, I mean there's so much potential on the horizon. And a lot of the work that they did, like the manual, like tedious, monotonous work is shouldn't be a reality for teachers anymore, right, but they're still doing it, yeah, and so we just need to get out in front and really help them to, and I think it is a paradigm shift for a lot of teachers. So we'll be the Catalyst and I, you know, you bring up a good point, because right now and we've talked about this even internally AI is pretty controversial within education and there's a lot of discussion around. Is this the next fat? Is it going to eventually disappear in taper?

Is it going to completely remove? Educators alog together like: how do we use this in an effective way?

Rachael Maves: And what I appreciate about Academy and even real and some of these other tools that Parsec has developed, is that it's looking at the space that are, I mean, time sucks, with a very limited amount of time for teachers and principals and administrators, and saying how can we leverage technology and AI to accelerate processes that don't require that deep thinking from the teacher? And I think a great example is within Academy. Instead of everything living in a document that then requires that you make all of these minute changes year-to year, it's tedious to update. Being able to put that into a platform that, at a click of a button, can shift into change, it can adapt to the calendar I mean all of those tools that save so much time for our Educators. It just it makes so much. Sense.

Eugene Park: Yeah, so it's always natural and it's expected to have a segment of society that is hesitant to adopt emerging Technologies. I mean you, we can go back in history and talk about the internet and, like people were like, oh my goodness, it's mean again, I'm going to get in trouble, so I'm not. You know what. You know I'm, I'm going to scrap, I'm not going say it, but they think it's. It's, it's the end of the world, you know, or like to your point, it's something that's just going to fade away. You know it's, it's just a fad, right?

Rachael Maves: Yeah, and I just remember, just listening to the story, I think it was Elon Musk and this was when he was first, you know, venturing out and creating software for the internet, and I don't know if this is a true story, but he went to one of the executives over at yellow book and was trying to get that published on an online platform and the executive threw the book at him and said that nothing would ever replace. It, and so generative AI is like the internet: there's no way of avoiding it.

Eugene Park: [speaker uncertain] That's right. It is here to stay. That's right. It's not a fat. It is not a fat. I'm sorry if you're drinking that Kool-Aid.

You're drinking that Kool-Aid, you know it's, it's, I'm sorry. There's no way of just getting around it. And so you know, we're going to experience these tremendous leaps in the tech sector, and these are one of. Generative AI is one of the big leaps, and I just hope that people would just embrace it, because it is going to make life lives a lot easier and better, and it's it's. You shouldn't see it as a. Threat.

It's there to assist you, not replace you. Now, but I will say that statement isn't completely true. Our mission at Parsec Education is to use gener of AI to assist teachers, but I know that in other Industries it's it's going to be it's going to be a little different, you know. Yeah, there is going to be some replacement. That is happening terms of human Workforce. I think that fear is trickling into the education sector.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, I agree, and you know you're right. We saw the same thing when technology was coming into K-12, just in general, using computers in the classroom, building those skills and I think I have the same fear as you, at least from my perspective in education. We were so resistant to that it I mean, it literally took a global pandemic for us to get computers in the hands of almost every kid and still we haven't accomplished that. And that seems like such a travesty to me, knowing how many other sectors have embraced that and made Leaps and Bounds in the work that they're doing. And my hope is that we would learn in education that we can't, if we are going to train and raise up and really provide the best chance possible for this next Generation that comes up underneath us, we have to be able to give them access to all of these tools so that they can then come in and contribute to society in that meaningful way, to launch it into whatever this next sector is going to look like, and I don't think we know that yet.

Eugene Park: Yeah, isn't it funny that kids probably learn about emerging? Technologies, not during the seven hours they're at school, but outside of that, when they get home and you know, they're on their computers or hanging out with their friends and sharing things on their cell phones. No, you know, school is the place to learn about those emerging Technologies. I mean, I think, fundamentally, with all of this sort of breakthroughs right, whether it's generative AI, blockchain technology, you know, or other things that are happening in school systems, you know, we talk about the importance of concept ual understanding. I think that's that's where kids, you know, really need help is like, for goodness sakes, like you know, you talk about generative AI as if you're an expert, but you're not really an expert. Like I talk about generative Ai and, for goodness sakes, I don't even know where to start.

You know, when it comes to building a language model, and so it would be really cool. Like I don't even know any public school systems that are venturing into that space of like, hey, kids, this is how you can build your own language model. Have you heard of anything like that?

Rachael Maves: No, I have not.

Eugene Park: That's only you know available. You know at the Collegiate level or maybe even outside. College, it might be even just at tech companies, right like that's, that's, that's the only place where you can learn about how to create this like amazing language model. And so, again, we school systems, publicly funded school systems need to embrace emerging Technologies. They need to be a little more Forward Thinking and they need to take big. Risks.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, I agree, that's a perfect note for us to wrap up, Eugene. So my guest today has been Eugene Park founder of Parsec Education. Thank you, Eugene, for joining me today on the Getting Naked with leaders in education podcast.

---

This transcript was created from the episode's captions and lightly edited for readability. It may contain small errors; please refer to the audio for exact wording.