Four-dimensional education: Delivering 22nd century education today at True North School

Founding team

Samuel and Danny Hwang, two brothers born in South Korea but raised in America, returned to embrace their roots by bringing premium international education to the next generation of leaders in Asia.

The Hwang brothers, founders of NPX Point Avenue and True North School

After graduating from MIT, Samuel returned to Asia in 2009 to start New Pathway Education & Technology Group in China. Danny, a former US Army Ranger, left the military to join Samuel to build their dream side-by-side. They exited to one of the leading private equity firms in the world, CVC Capital Partners, and founded NPX Capital, an alternative investment firm that supports entrepreneurs through all stages of growth. NPX Capital has successfully deployed capital across the US, Korea, and emerging markets in Southeast Asia to back founders who are building the next wave of great companies.

Danny graduated from the US Military Academy, an institution renowned for its instruction in world-class leadership. He founded NPX Point Avenue, an education technology firm headquartered in Singapore, with his brother. NPX Point Avenue offers students across Southeast Asia international-level education at the highest quality and leverages cutting-edge technology in the classroom. Focused on the K12 private bilingual, True North School, and K12 after-school, Point Avenue, the company champions an educational model focused on four pillars of excellence: character, leadership, academics, and physical fitness. NPX Point Avenue has achieved a 97 per cent admission rate for students into their top choice universities ranging from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and more.

K12 school expansion

NPX Point Avenue has continued to accelerate its growth in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Coming in the fall of 2022, True North School opens their doors to international and local students, offering a K12 school under the leadership of Michael Lambert, head of School.

Michael reviewing students' media production

Michael, an expert of innovative technology with 40 years of experience in K12 education, has been presiding chair of the Western Accreditation Schools and Colleges in Asia since 1993. He also founded events such as TED-talks for students, entrepreneurship and debate clubs, and film festivals. Recently, he was awarded Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) by the tech giant Apple for his contribution on utilising technology in the classroom.

World-class educators

Highly skilled teachers at True North School have a collective experience of more than 100+ years operating K12 schools with prestigious degrees globally. Through their Research and Development Institute, TNS equips teachers with pedagogical innovations in subject teaching and educational techniques to advance faculty instructional programmes.

“According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs survey, a wide range of occupations will require a higher degree of cognitive abilities – such as creativity, logical reasoning, and problem sensitivity – as part of a student’s core skill set. At TNS, our faculty is reshaping the facility designs and the new learning journeys for students,” says Michael.

Location and facilities

With two campuses in Hanoi, True North School has a total land area of 15,000 square metres, offering a spacious and imaginative educational environment for around 1,000 students in Ha Dong district of Hanoi. The campus has over 50 classrooms, 13 multi-purpose rooms, and studio rooms for art, music, digital media, drama, culinary arts gallery, and Makerspaces – a TNS signature. True North School is equipped with an indoor sports area, regulation-size football field and swimming pool to meet the needs of students’ desired activities through its 1:8 ratio of teachers and students.

Overview of the True North School’s campus design, European Village Hadong

Do Quan, CEO of TSQ Vietnam Co., Ltd. shares, “Planning for the future, TSQ is proud to partner with True North School to design an innovative learning hub that prepares students for not only the 21^st century but also the 22^nd century. TNS offers an education that fits today's future workforce.”

#1 STEAM school and online high school

Offering Advanced Placement (AP) courses and a hybrid learning platform, K12 True North School offers a bilingual and STEAM-focused programme. Not only will the students learn from teachers based on campus, they also have the option to interact and absorb knowledge through the TNS Online School team, modelled after Stanford Online High School. The TNS hybrid-learning offers training by international online instructors, many of whom hold a Masters or PhD in their academic field, and deliver dynamic lessons to the whole class.

Beginning in kindergarten, students start their educational journey developing their e-portfolio, coding in primary grades, social entrepreneurship skills in secondary, and internships within the community in high school. Coupled with the latest technology, TNS transforms teaching by ushering in new models from hybrid learning to working with scientists, engineers, environmentalists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.

Students embrace STEAM lessons each day which are integrated with the Ministry of Education and Training’s (MoET) science, mathematics, and IT curriculum as well as National University of Singapore’s mathematics and Columbia University Teachers College’s English syllabus.

Beyond academic rigour, TNS prepares students to develop an intrinsic desire for learning through its character-based curriculum and physical fitness programme, leading balanced lives as global citizens.

Core values

True North School is an engagement-driven learning community. The faculty nurtures all perspectives of children’s development and learning – from social-emotional and cognitive skills to literacy, math, and science – through a globally benchmarked curriculum.

Living in accelerated change through new technologies, True North School leads in the creation of a new global learning pathway to prepare students for the future economy through a growth mindset, an active learning ecosystem, and character development.

Danny Hwang concludes, “Modernising our educational system allows TNS to achieve our goals. Our approach to the organisation of people, spaces, time, and technology cultivates a new generation of entrepreneurs, innovators, and global thinkers.”