 Welcome to Pacific Partnerships in Education here on Fink Tech, Hawaii. I'm your host Ethan Allen. Thank you for joining us today. Here in the Fink Tech studios, I have with me three charming young ladies, Arsena Moore and Gloria Lani, and we are going to talk about Marshall's Education Day. All members of the Marshall's Education Day Committee, which is planning this celebration. So, people probably not, everyone probably knows what Marshall's Education Day is. Maybe, Gloria, you want to tell us a little bit about what it is and how it came to being? Right. Thank you. The Marshall's Education Day, Ethan, is an annual event that draws bringing honor students to the event to be recognized for their academic achievement. Students in the middle school to high school students who have achieved 3.0 and above the GPA are to be recognized and given the acknowledge for their academic achievement. It is also an event to bring in families, parents. This is to raise awareness of parent involvement. It is the reason why this event has been out there for how many years? 12 years now since 2008, and we are so excited. We're going to have another one this year. On? Another April 27th. Yes. Thank you. Yes. In that event, it's not just for the honor students award ceremony and the parent involvement, but it's also to bring in service providers. These service providers are to share their program services to the community, the Marshall's community as well. Would these be education service providers or are these social service agencies or mixed? We have both. Yes. The focus of the day is largely educational, but in order to be able to support families in that role, we also feel that there are other social services that can offer services to the Marshall's community and be able to help them so that they can focus and help students on their education. Right. There's a fair number of Marshall's. We've shown up here relatively recently. They may have come from further remote islands. They don't really understand all how the city like Honolulu works and need some assistance in figuring out how to access bank accounts, whatever driver's licenses, all things at least for them living here. Yes, exactly. That's great. I know there's a great deal of interest in this, and it's wonderful to hear that you're trying to eat the parents and family support in that. That's a very valuable part of it. You said it's been going for 12 years now. That's great. About how many people? Are you expecting? Yeah. Usually, in the beginning, we got 200 people, but lately, the number has been increased to 700, 800, the 10 days. That's wonderful. It's a half-day event or all-day event? It starts at 8 a.m. and ends about 3 p.m., so it's most of the day. Excellent. Where is it being held this year? It is being held at the Harris Methodist Church at the corner of New Anu and Vineyard. Oh, okay. There we go. Good job. That's, yeah, 20, about Vineyard. Okay. So, over the years, you've honored these students, and presumably, you have Marshall's young people who have been successful in education, who have gone on, maybe, and gone to college. They give talks. Do you run little breakout sessions? Yes. So, we, as part of the program, we have sessions where we breakout students that are in middle school, high school, from Kiki, for instance, and from parents. We try to focus on the areas that are, you know, specifically in need for those, you know, for those people. And we also, because this is our 12th year having it, we have had students that go on to college, and we try to bring them back, and we try to feature, you know, some of the stuff that you, that's a middle school, a high school student. This is what you have to look forward to as college, in college, so we bring them back, and, you know, share some of their stories, and, you know, help them out. Excellent. This actually sounds a bit like the Micronesian Youth Summit. I had some folks a few weeks ago talking about the Micronesian Youth Summit just after it happened. Do you guys collaborate at all? So, we, yeah, we have, we've all set up booths at the event, but they are, I think, the third or fourth year or in our 12th year, and I think, you know, I would like to think that we inspired some of what happened at the Micronesian Youth Summit, yeah, because they do sort of breakout sessions, they do service providers, and they do a main event as well, so sort of similar program. Theirs is to all Micronesian students, and not just to Marshall East. Ours is focused on Marshall East students, yes. And for those who don't understand, sometimes the term Micronesian is used to encompass the Marshall Islands out through Palau, and other times Micronesia is supposed to be focused just on the Federated States of Micronesia, right? So, but the Marshalls are, of course, their own country, yeah. Part of the larger Micronesian area, yes. And about how many Micronesian migrants are here in Hawaii these days? Do you have a mind of your own? Do you know? I think Micronesian or Marshall East? Marshall East, sorry, I meant. Oh, the Marshall East only focus on Marshall East. I'm assuming, I think in 2006, if I may correct, they were like 8,000. Oh, okay. But the number has doubled, yeah. Yeah, it's grown from that. Yeah. And of course, there is concern given the impending changes in the compacts of free association that there's going to be further migration of a fairly substantial nature after 2023, right? I do think there's a little bit of uncertainty about what the status is going to be, which might result in some people moving out. But I think even bigger than that is economic issues, health issues, educational issues. There's definitely more opportunities here in Hawaii and the states, obviously. So people, I think, are striving for that. And of course, we also have climate change issues. There's just a lot of challenges. Right, so it's going to be a tough thing. You have a culture thousands of years there, or a very rich culture. Different, multiple cultures rely on the multiple different atolls, I'm sure. But yes, as you know, with climate change, increasingly the king tides sweep from side to side on some of the atolls. We're making it very hard to grow food there. Yes, and specifically to the Marshall Islands, we are a country of just atolls. So we're low-lying, we're made up of coral. So we have, I think, some of those issues are much more magnified in our situation as opposed to other parts of Micronesia that have fertile soil, have mountains. We, unfortunately, don't have. Right, it's a real challenge for the Marshall Islands, in particular, along with Kurovoss, the Maldives, all are low-lying atolls. Low-lying coral atolls. I know in Kurovoss, apparently, the government is actually buying old oil rigs and anchoring them in some of their lagoons, so that when their lagoons become uninhabitable, they can still keep a population there and lay and claim to the nation. Because it raises an interesting point, when your nation literally goes underwater and no longer exists as a landmass, do you, what is your legal status anymore in the UN? So, yeah, fascinating, and that's why your students need to be educated, right? Yeah, of course. Under new challenges. Of course, and I think also here in Hawaii, we've heard a lot of people talk about the challenges in dealing with Micronesians, and so we wanted to be able to try to be part of the solution. For example, Tuency raises an issue in the Marshallese community, and we wanted to be able to bring parents in and educate them on the importance of being involved in your students' education, making sure they go to school. So yeah, we just wanted to be part of the solution. And that was the main focus on why we decided to create this event to make sure that the parents are involved with the students and understand, of course, that the students are having challenges, so they should understand those and they should understand the US school systems and laws and all of that. They're right there, you know. Great, because there's a huge cultural difference, right? If you're on a small outer island in the Marshalls with a few dozen to a few hundred people who families have known each other for generations, school is sort of less a priority, right? Everyone's sort of understanding that maybe it's not happening today, no biggie, you know? Yeah, and a lot of them survive through subsistence living, so education doesn't bring food to the table. Right, it's much more learning from their parents and their uncles and aunts and cousins about what needs to be done. Exactly, sharing their responsibility. So they don't necessarily understand when they come to the US that school attendance is expected and mandated. And if you don't do it, you actually are causing trouble. One of the resources of providers that are invited to come in are about the college programs, Gear Up Hawaii, or 3Ps program at the UH, where families, parents, and students can not just think that, OK, if I graduate from high school, that's it. But we're saying, OK, this is not it. There's a lot more that you can do. And here are some essential resources for you. These are very great partners that they've been partnering with us from the beginning. And that's what makes the program successful, because then it allows the students and the parents to know that there's these resources out there, and they can always do that's where, I guess, the motivation, the values, and the inspiration comes from. For me, as a volunteer, to keep continuing to do this, partnering with all these. And we did a survey. We asked parents at one of the events, remember, ladies? And we asked on the survey, what was the reason why you came to Hawaii? And it was education. And so that really, like, OK, so this is a priority for our community. Besides coming to see doctors, education is their top priority, that's the way. So your president, Hilda Hainia, is a good example, right? Yes. Yeah. Her PhD at First Women PhD from the Marshalls. And also, former Crell staff member. Mind you, that's one. Wonderful person doing great stuff there. So but it's good, then. You do have some role models of various sorts of people, Marshalls, who have gone on into higher education and can talk about the value of this and what it's meant to them and how it's helped them and their lives and their families. Sorry, these are the kind of people that we make sure that they come back again and again to inspire the students, to talk to the students, to talk to the parents, the community, and of course. Because it must be very discouraging, particularly for some new students come here and they're not understanding the language. They realize they're not academically sort of on a par with their age group of other students here. They don't go English as well. They don't read as well. They don't maybe have science background that's strong. So it's got to be very discouraging. And that can lead, of course, to a bad cycle of bad behavior in school and dropping out. And you don't want that. You want to encourage them and say, you can stay in. You can catch up. You can succeed. Yeah, and so that's why we have the ceremony where we recognize their achievements, because we want students who haven't done as well in school to see it's possible to do so. Even when you've sort of come in as a late bloomer, you're sort of behind. You can catch up. So it's just meant to encourage the students and the parents to really just try to stick in there. And it'll happen. Absolutely. It's a message that's very in line with current thinking about intelligence and what is called a dynamic mindset. Realize that intelligence is not some fixed quantity that you are born with. It's a trait that you cultivate. And if you learn how to learn, you keep learning all your life. You sort of become smarter and smarter of your life. And if you encourage people to continue to stay in school and broaden their horizons, expand their knowledge bases, stay curious, they'll continue to learn and succeed, even if, yes, even if they're starting out a little behind their peers. Well, that's the goal. So hopefully, we are making a difference on it. Absolutely. It's really wonderful you're doing this. I think it's a wonderful event. And we are going to talk more about maybe what's coming up in this year's event. But we're going to take a short break first. Gloria, Joanne, and Arsena are with me here today in the ThinkTech studio. We're talking about Marshall's Education Day, which is April 27th this year. We'll put that down on your calendars, and we'll be back in one minute. Aloha. This is Winston Welch. I am your host of Out and About, where every other week, Mondays at 3, we explore a variety of topics in our city, state, nation, and world, and events, organizations, the people that fuel them. It's a really interesting show. We welcome you to tune in, and we welcome your suggestions for shows. You got a lot of them out there, and we have an awesome studio here, where we can get your ideas out as well. So I look forward to you tuning in every other week, where we've got some great guests and great topics. You're going to learn a lot. You're going to come away inspired like I do. I'll see you every other week here at 3 o'clock on Monday afternoon. Aloha. Hello, my name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of Security Matters Hawaii, airing every Wednesday here on Think Tech Hawaii, live from the studios. I'll bring you guests. I'll bring you information about the things in security that matter to keeping you safe, your co-workers safe, your family safe, to keep our community safe. We want to teach you about those things in our industry that may be a little outside of your experience. So please join me, because security matters. Aloha. Thanks for coming back here to Think Tech Hawaii and joining us for the second half of Pacific Partnerships in Education. And we're talking about Marshallese Education Day with Arsima, Joanne, and Gloria, who are all members of the Marshallese Education Day Committee and are helping to plan this wonderful event this year on April 27th at the church. Paris Methodist Church. Paris Methodist Church and Vineyard and New Honored. All right, excellent. And so let's talk about what's going to be on the program coming up here. Starts early in the morning. Sure, it starts early in the morning, starts at 8 a.m. registration. It starts at 8 a.m. and then we have breakout sessions starting at 9. For the parents' session, we have Gear Up and Pacific Classes in Pipeline. They're going to be talking to the parents about some of the opportunities at UH specifically. And then at the student session, we have Joanne and one of our other volunteers, Tamra, who are going to be talking actually some of our culture and some of these younger students have mostly grown up here. So we wanted to be able to get them to relate to kind of know where they're coming from. We thought that's a very also important thing to know. So part of every ninth and during the sessions, we would make sure that somebody from the culture would come and talk about that, or we would do something like a presentation that would allow the students to understand their role as martiaries, making sure that they don't forget who they are. Exactly. And then after our session, we have our main ceremony where we honor the students. When we first started the program, I think we had about 20 students that we recognized. I think there's over 50. It's been sort of growing. And in terms of speakers, we have someone from our culture, someone representing our culture. So we're still a chief speaking. And then we have a former student who is an honor student coming in to speak. And then we have, I apologize if I mispeak her name, but it's like Louise Pagada, who from KCC. She's a chancellor, vice-chancellor or something. And she did her PhD thesis on martiaries. So she's going to be coming to speak about the importance of being able to speak more than one language. Yeah, so we're very excited about that. No, it sounds like a wonderful program. Excellent, excellent. I mean, that's a tremendous point. It's more and more people recognizing the value of being bilingual. And how it's pretty valuable if you can instill very young childhood bilingualism, learning two languages at once. If she does her brains a lot of good. Yeah, something that we've noticed recently is that this is our 12th year having the event. And more and more students are speaking mostly English and not martial arts. So we really wanted to be able to make sure that we also incorporate some of our culture into the program. Absolutely. Certain language, you lost the cultural knowledge. You have tremendous knowledge. Recently, it's come out that the, for instance, the stick chart is a class of navigational aids. These are based on a very actual curriculum, which we're not recognized for long time. But the Marshallese centuries ago discovered that they could almost by feel really more than anything else pick up these particular currents that would give them a clue as to where they, a good clue, as to where they were actually sailing. Yeah, I mean, we decorate with these things, but these are actually functional. And they're a result of historical knowledge. So we want to help instill a sense of pride in our culture as well. Exactly. I mean, it's actually, if you read the early European explorers, what were marveled at the speed and maneuverability of the Marshallese canoes. And they had nothing like it. Their ships were big and small compared to the Marshallese and the stupid ones were also around them. Yeah, there's definitely resurgence of that as well. I would also like to add to the fact that because on social media, and there's a lot of discrimination against Micronesian and Marshallese, of course, that's part of why we really wanted students to understand that, hey, you don't have anything to be shameful of. You came from your own, your country has also had their own values. And these are very important values that we want to make sure that they can understand and know. So they're not ashamed of being Marshallese. Right. Now, this is something that Hawaii has a rather bad history of. Whoever the latest immigrant group is, Hawaii tends to disparage them, blame them for troubles, call them the cause of most of their problems. But these cultures then become a valued part of Hawaii and contribute richness to the rich fabric that we have here. It's great to see that the Marshallese are building their own contributions to that. And I would just like to add that we're all volunteers. We all work full-time jobs. But we do this on the side because we want to be able to make sure our Marshallese community is successful. Even some of the new ones that are just sort of learning the system here, it is a different system. But we want to make sure they know what they're getting themselves into. And they're successful. It's definitely possible. We've seen definitely tons of people going to school, graduating, contributing members of society. So. Excellent. And actually, that brings up a good point because you're all volunteers. This event, putting on this event, obviously takes time, energy, and involves a certain amount of experience. You said I think that people can still contribute to. Yes. So on our flyer. I think on our flyer, yes. We have our Facebook page on there. It also has a link to a GoFundMe page that we've set up. So yeah. And we're certainly taking donations. Yeah. If anything can. We're grateful for anything. Events like this need broad support and are certainly worthy of broad support. So if that's great, we will push that and encourage all of our viewers to support this, literally. Thank you. So where do you see this going, do you think? I mean, is Marshall's Education Day is obviously going to continue. You have plans. If you've done it for 12 years, you're obviously going to keep going in the future. Do you see it growing? Well, from the beginning, I think one of the very highlight of this event is we've always do, we try to raise funds for the event. I mean, there would be only 10, 12 people, but we try to raise funds on our own by doing a lot of sales. And then we would do very little ways, like anything that would donate money, we do that. But we even sell our used handicrafts just to make sure that we get something. And this year, we just got our 501C3, and that's a really good thing. Now we have hopes that there's more that we can do instead of just doing the Marshall's Education Day. We've also talked about other things. Yeah, I mean, it's a one day event. We've held it for 12 years, but we also, throughout the years, we've held other events, like, for example, we've had events where we teach parents just for parents how to read the report card. Just sort of these really small things, but we want to be able to follow the students beyond just the one day event that we do. We want to be able to follow them through college, and make sure they're still continuing on a successful track. Providing information on nail care, for instance, so a very valuable thing. Oh, I hadn't realized, so you have a group now that's a 501C3, a non-profit organization, which gives you a great deal of access. Now you can go out and apply for funds for people and all. Wonderful, wonderful. We're hopeful. Yes. We also have had parents who, in the past, never attended school functions, school events, parent-teacher conferences. After our event, we've seen a lot of our parents attending the events, and we hope that this will continue parent involvement involving in their children's academic achievement and education. That's one of the things that's proven pretty true across the main. All of US is the greater the parent involvement, the more successful their kids are, basically. It can be carried a little too far. College scandals have shown, but you're not putting that level of parents involved. But having parents' support of education, understanding what the education system wants and can bring, they have their responsibility too to help ensure their child does show up, shows up, prepare, ready to study, has a place home to study, to learn, gets the support and backing of their parents when they take on school projects, science fair projects, what happened, what are you, right? Yeah, I mean, we want to be able to provide resources for parents, and we've actually reached out to schools because they've been having difficulties in communicating with parents or reaching out to parents and we've offered our help in that. So just, we believe in the importance of education, so we want to be able to support that in any way, and not just our one-day event. Excellent, excellent. So if you each, I'll give you each about 30 seconds to talk to the viewers and tell those pretty young viewers what's important. Young viewers, hey, young viewers in Marshallese English. Please come and join our coming event. We're taking report cards right now, so make sure you send those report cards, okay? To Marshallese Education Day committee at gmail.com or just call what number again on the flyer, call us. Congratulations on the flyer. And we need one, dear, so please come, come, come. We're always the people. Hey, you stole my thing. That's what I was gonna say. We definitely, there's like a group of, like less than a 10 of us, so we put on this event, definitely use all the help we can get. Oh, well, that's, you guys deserve many commendations for doing that. I know I've done enough special events to understand that it's a huge task and more people will get involved in the better in general. There's a lot to do, it's wonderful that you're doing that. And it's, you're doing a huge service, not only to your community, but to Hawaii as a whole. You're helping raise recognition that Marshallese have a lot to contribute, a lot to bring here, our being contributing members of the culture and our being a positive influence here. Well, excellent, this has been wonderful. I'm very much more enlightened now about Marshallese Education Day, so I very much appreciate our senior memoir, Joan Lyric and Gloria Lani. I appreciate you all coming in here. Thank you. Thank you very much for having us. You're on Pacific Partnerships and Education, and I hope our viewers will come back and join us on our next episodes of the show. Until then, I'm your host, Ethan Allen, signing off from Think Tech, Hawaii.