Lieve Perera serves as Head of Operations on the Second Chance team. An experienced counselor with a MA in counseling, has been working in education for over 19 years, including four years on the international admissions team at KU Leuven in Belgium. Previously, she was a university counselor at the British International School HCMC (Vietnam) as well as Bangkok Patana School (Thailand). During her time at BIS and BPS, Lieve represented the school at regional, national, and international conferences. Lieve draws upon these experiences to better support her students in their own journey beyond secondary school. Beyond her qualifications and experience, Lieve is known for her fairness, kindness, teamwork, bravery and perseverance. She feels these qualities were nurtured, developed and fortified by her own international school experience and she, in turn, now endeavors to nurture these qualities in her students.

Lieve has a strong interest in working in education and students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Since 2017, she has supported Amala’s education partnerships team as a volunteer counselor supporting young refugees. She is also a volunteer mentor in the International ACAC Mentor Year Program. She believes strongly in the idea of education being a force for positive change. For the past five years, Lieve has been based in Singapore, working at Tanglin Trust School as a university counselor. In this role, she believes in the education and support of the whole person – academically, ethically, physically, and emotionally. In a world where students need to be aware of the ever-changing challenges they will have to face, a world where workplace demands are changing and families need to rethink what 21st century careers look like, she hopes to encourage in the students a sense of personal responsibility and challenge and get them to also embrace international and intercultural understanding.