 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Welcome back to Think Tech. It's Monday morning. And this is Community Matters on Think Tech. We have a special show today involving Mary Noll. And the title of our show is An All-Star Graduate, An All-State All-Star Graduate. Returns to Mary Noll. Very exciting. It's the story of MJ Mao, who was a student at Mary Noll who came from China and who is now at the University of Wisconsin, swimming and making a future fabulous to have him here. And Perry K. Martin, the president of Mary Noll right here, right now with us here in our studio. We are honored to have you, Perry. Thanks for having us. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you. Oh, great. Okay. So let's talk about how we got here. What is the situation and what is the scope of what's happening at Mary Noll and with MC Mao? We're really proud of MJ and how he got here was Mary Noll has been doing a lot of work in the last four or five years building relationships in a number of countries, one of them being China. And we've kind of believed that the ethos that the Mary Noll sisters left us about going into communities and becoming part of something international and making it better for the people there was really important. So we did forms and relationships with schools in China and one of those is MJ School. MJ came to us from a small school in urban Shanghai. And he's just one of many kids that we're trying to find to come to Mary Noll to kind of not only bring them to America, but also make America a better place for our kids to see what China's like because a lot of them don't get a chance to go to China. So that's really the beautiful thing about MJ is he came to us and at the end of the day I think he gave more to Mary Noll than Mary Noll gave to him. Well MJ, let's talk about you. So there you are in China in the outskirts of Shanghai and one day you decide you want to come to the United States. Talk about it. Yeah, I was originally from Shanghai about two years ago. I had a chance to come to Hawaii for summer swimming training camp and just fall in love with here immediately and kind of decided I want to live and study here. So I asked some of my friends for the information like the school system here in general. Then I also went back home did research on each school. So at the same time I was fortunate to get help and advice from my coach and my friends here. Then ended this time Mary Noll is a perfect fit for me because the school size is not that big is smaller. It offers a lot of individual work and I feel super connects with my classmates and teachers. And I think also with the MX Scholar Program in specific that offers me to learn the knowledge like I'm interested in that prepares me for college events. So overall Mary Noll is just a perfect fit for me. So coming to here was not like specifically planned it but the determination just happened when I was here. So yeah. Okay. Well a couple of questions about that. You mentioned before the show began that you started swimming at six. Yes. Why? I think when I was young I was very energetic. So I was always making a lot of noise at home. So my friends just decided like over the summer time send me to a swim school so I can spend some of some of my energy and be quiet at home. So I just fall in love with such a siphon or for an extra energy. Yes. So I just fall in love with that sport and that also offers me a lot of opportunities to meet great people and also to like travel in China and travel aboard which is one of my biggest. So you were swimming what competitively in the school system in China. Yes. School system also club system. Club system. Yes. Now you also mentioned the MX program and I'd like to flesh that out a little bit. Perry can you tell us what the MX program is? A couple of years ago Mary and I went into a planning phase to find out what kids really are passionate about and try to find some pedagogical science behind when we plan our courses. What could we put in front of them that would be magnets for these kids and they wouldn't think at school because they're so passionate about doing it. So we put in basically four programs that kind of dealt with left brain, right brain research. So we had a medical program we put in there. We had a STEM and aerospace program, a business and diplomacy program and also an art program. So he was a recipient of really the first one of the first students through our art program. This is all breaking new ground. Everything that's happened here is breaking new ground. It's incredible. I mean brain research has popped up on the scene in the last 10 years. You still see a lot of schools are doing all the same things, right. They're following all the same processes and Mary and I all knew that there was another way and we just happened to be a small enough school with an innovative board and a mindset that we can turn the rudder pretty easily. So we're real excited to put this into play and this is our second year. So it's going great. That's great. It's great. It's really now. The whole thing is now. You know the global student body is now. These programs in science are now. So what's the size of the school before I forget to ask? We have about 525 high school kids. We have about 600 lower school kids. That's K to 8. Two campuses, as you know, that work really well and about 150 employees roughly. Including faculty. Yeah. Yeah. So we're a mid-sized school and that's kind of our strength because being that size we're able to do things like the MX program. A lot of schools can't do it because you're too small or too large. We're in that perfect little mix right in the middle that allow us to be able to change. Who's Marino established and who established it? We're 90 years old this year. So thank you very much. The Marino sisters established our school. There was about 11 nuns that came in and started our school and we just kind of followed what they did and we've come to where we have our own little niche. And part of that is just no bless or please and the Marino sisters wanted us to give back and they did it back in the day and we're doing it now. No bless or bleach. I love the phrase and I love the notion of it. Good. Great that you're doing that. We love it too. So MJ, so let's talk about you know you swam in China and then you swam at Marino too. And then you went into this MX program in aerospace as I remember. And so this was all going pretty well and then you graduated. How where were you in the class? Were you at the top? Yes. I should be on the top. Yeah, kind of top. Yeah, above average. I got to tell you, he's a very modest guy. So you know we have to deal with that. Okay, top of the class, you graduate, you have lots of options for colleges. What were your options? I took a couple of visits to different universities that includes Texas. Of course the University of Wisconsin, I also went to Northwestern. I went to Harvard and I went to Brown. I loved all these schools. Did they all love you? I think they loved me as well. Yeah, so I ended up deciding between Brown and Wisconsin. So I picked Wisconsin at the end because I think I wanted to balance swimming and academic while I was in college. And also Madison is the city I liked. And it's also different than Shanghai at Honolulu. So that's a new big challenge for me. A new view of things from Madison, Wisconsin. Yeah, to living in a different type of city, then of course that surely teach me what does winter mean right now. All right, well, of course, we can all learn that too, don't you? Even in the middle of climate change. So you go to Wisconsin and you have swimming and you are on the team right now. So tell us about the team, tell us about how you're doing and tell us about what it teaches you to be on the team at Wisconsin. I think to be in a college team, you definitely have a lot of responsibility because your mission is to not competing for yourself, but also more for the school. That's also what I learned from Merino because when I was in China, like swimming is more like an individual sport, basic competing for yourself, but here it's all about teamwork. Because winning yourself doesn't mean anything. You wanted to help your teammates and work with your coaches to... This is in Merino, or is this both Merino and Wisconsin? This is in both, but I started with Merino. So you want to work with them to reach out for the team success, not only like individual success. So then I learned this in Merino that helped me to adapt into the college system in Wisconsin for sure. Perfect match. So how are you doing in the team in swimming in Wisconsin now this year? This is your first year at Wisconsin, yeah? Yes, this is my first semester in Wisconsin. It's a big change coming out from high school this step into college training. It's much more intense than what I used to have. I'm trying to get into it, trying to adapt as fast as I can. So far, I think me and my team and me are doing well. And we are looking forward to... We are here for a training trip. That's why I came home. We are here for... Yeah, as a matter of fact, in about an hour you have a training session at UH today right now. So we have to get you out the door so you can get back there in time, yeah? We don't want to upset your training schedule, yeah? It's very important. Yeah, so we are here for about eight days for the training trip, then getting ready for our conference, then hopefully MCA meets. Okay. You've been traveling around the country doing competitive swimming this year? Yes. I've actually been to a lot of new places, some like Georgia, went to Illinois, then Minnesota, then we are going to LA competing after this training camp, then head back to Madison. I've been to a lot of places because of swimming. So Perry, you're following MJ, you're following his success, you're following his experience. What makes it so interesting for you? Why do you follow it this closely? MJ is an exceptional kid because he integrated so well with the other kids at Mary and all. He didn't stick out like a foreign student. He didn't stick out because of how he looked at his talent. He really was a Mary no-ler. And of course, watching him turn down, you know, Brown and Harvard, that's a very impressive story, right? But you can understand that because of his talents, he wanted a school with a great swimming program and great facilities and all that kind of stuff. But the one that sticks out to me is I've been working with his coach and making sure I follow him. He just finished his first semester with a 3.8 GPA. So he's one of the top GPA students on Wisconsin swimming. So we're very, very proud of that. Those are the kind of things that when kids come back and you hear these stories, and you know, swimming D1, that's a tough thing to jump into as a kid, so I'm real proud of him. It's very intimidating. I've been thinking about doing it myself, but I'm not ready for it yet. We're going to take a short break, MJ and Perry, and we'll be right back. We'll talk about the future, your plans for the rest of this year, next year, and career wise. And Perry, we'll talk about how this affects Mary Knoll, what are the sea changes that this represents. We'll be right back. Thank you. Aloha. I'm Keeley Ikeena, and I'm here every other week on Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii's Hawaii Together. In Hawaii Together, we talk with some of the most fascinating people in the islands about working together, working together for a better economy, government, and society. So I invite you into our conversation every other Monday at 2 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. Join us for Hawaii Together. I'm Keeley Ikeena, Aloha. It's RB Kelly. I'm your host of Out of the Comfort Zone, where I find cool people with cool solutions to problems that all of us face. Now, the thing is, we're really cool. I only invite really cool people, but the thing is, I think you're kind of cool too, so I think you should come and watch. That Thursdays at 11 a.m. here on OC16 Television with Think Tech Hawaii. I'm RB Kelly, host of Out of the Comfort Zone, and I will see you next Thursday. Okay. We're back. We're live. I'm Jay Fidel. This is Think Tech. This is Community Matters on Think Tech. And the title of our show today is an all-star, all-state graduate who returns to Mary Knoll. Swimming, technology, globalism, all those things working hand in hand. So we wanted to talk to you, MJ, about your plan and how it's evolving for you. Because you've been in the country for what, two, three, four years? Two years. Two years, okay? And you've seen so much. I mean, it's really terrific. I admire that. You've gotten around. You've integrated. You've learned from everything, and you're doing well in everything you've touched. This is fabulous. 3.8, did you say? 3.8 is modest, yeah. Okay. So here we are. We're going into your second semester at University of Wisconsin. How is that going to be? And how is the rest of your college experience going to be? Do you have a view of it? Yes. I'm trying to apply for the international business as my major in college, but I'm also very interested in interior design. So I'm working with my advisors to try to see like how would these two major fit together and at the same time also explore other options because everything is possible. Sure. Yes. People study one thing. They do another. It happens all the time. But they gain some sort of, you know, internal view of the world in studying one thing and they can use that. Yes. I think your advisor is going to be challenged to try to connect international relations with interior design. One is outside, but it's outside as you can possibly be except for space. Right. Maybe that's why you like the space. And the other is inside. So how do you connect them? What is he going to do? It's not easy. I think surely like these two majors are very different. That's what a lot of people told me. But interior design is my own interest. And international business I think because I speak dual language right now, my first language Chinese. So that's like a nature advantage for me to do things like international business. So it's maybe it's international interior design. However, that plays out. That sounds good. That can potentially happen actually. Well, so don't lose the Chinese part. Mandarin is going to be more and more helpful in the world today, don't you think? Yeah, it is getting more popular. I heard like more people speaking Chinese now, not only in Honolulu, but also when I went to Madison, I heard Mandarin a lot of people speak it. So as a Chinese, I'm very proud of it. Yeah. Well, you should be. I would be too. In fact, I've been thinking about converting to Chinese. It's an idea. So Perry, you have Chinese immersion school at Mary Knoll. Can you talk about it? Yeah. We've had for the past eight years, we've had Chinese programs in our school. And we found that the two or three periods a week wasn't enough. They weren't really enough characters to really be proficient in Chinese. So this was the first year where two thirds of my kindergarten now, the kids get every day Chinese for one half day. It's pretty phenomenal. And it's very exciting to watch it too. And I think MJ's story, the Mary Knoll sister story, and the programs that we're putting into Mary Knoll, especially with immersion, takes us to a place where kids are learning on both sides of their brain. They're becoming bilingual. So you can just imagine the difference between someone learning one language and someone learning two or three languages and what, you know, the calisthenics your brain is going through at that time. So we think that that process will develop our students in ways that other schools can't develop those kids. Yeah. You should see the five-year-olds talking Chinese. I walk in there and every day I'm just amazed, very thankful that we took this choice. And we know that as those kids go up the chain, that bilingualism will open all kinds of doors and opportunities as they graduate. Sure. It's more than the language. It's a way of thinking. It's a way of global expansion. So, you know, let's talk about global. I mean, when you stay in the United States for a graduate school, you go outside the United States for graduate. Would you go to graduate school? I think I will, because I think graduate school now is very important. Before you have a job, you probably want to have a grad school degree. So I think I will take grad school after undergrad, but I have no clue yet, like, if I want to go out of the country. It's really six months into the program, so it's okay. But you think graduate school in the United States, is that what your direction would be? Yes. Okay. Now, I would love to stay here, but if I would have a chance to go outside of the United States and China, I would also love to do that, because I always love to explore new places and facing new challenges. That's one of my passions. Yeah. Wow. And what about swimming? I mean, you are going to swim this year. Are you going to continue to swim through your University of Wisconsin experience? Yeah. Definitely swim for four years, then let's see what's going to happen. I mean, everything is possible. I might keep swimming, but that can also be some good memories for me after swimming in college. Yeah. Yeah. So what's more important? I know this is a hard question, the swimming or the career? That's a really good question. I think I'm trying to balance as much as possible. So overall, I think my first purpose is, I would say, study is probably more important because that helps more after I graduate, after I finish my swimming career. Yeah. Yes. Would you ever consider the Olympics? Actually, I would love to, but I'm a Chinese citizen. So that's kind of for me to do that because the China national team only selects the swimmers from, you have to train with the national team in order to compete for them while I'm living in the United States, swim with the University of Wisconsin. So it's hard to happen. So could you be on the American team? I have to have a citizenship. Well, we all work together and try to help you get that, all right? Although these are times when things aren't as certain as they used to be for sure. So how do you see the world unfolding? I mean, you've been following it, and you're from China, you're interested in the development of China. And Xi Jinping is certainly doing sort of incredible things with the one belt, one road, one road, one belt as the case may be. How do you see China developing and how do you see relations with China developing? I think China is developing very well right now, especially in some big cities like where I'm from. So I came here for like one and a half years, then went back, it's even like more incredible than before. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I think that's a big step for China. I mean, I'm sure they're going to continue to step forward and the economics just grows crazy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think hopefully China can have a, I'm sure we do, China can have a better relationship with the United States and when you work together, that's going to be a win-win for both. Yeah. And you can be right there. You can be right there at that juncture's great opportunity. I would love to do anything I can to help, like start from my high school in China connects to Merino. That's something I'm helping right now. Yeah, yeah. And I wanted to ask you about how do you feel about Merino now that you've been graduated and you've left Hawaii, at least for now, how do you feel about Merino? I think Merino is definitely great. It propelled me so well in so many ways. So first of all, it definitely propelled me well to adapt into the lifestyle, the new culture, and a new system of learning. I think academic-wise, it offers me some not unnecessary skill and knowledge to help me step into the college level. And beyond that, I think it is how Merino further developed me with my personal perspectives to be passionate about learning, sharing, and giving back and to be willing and excited about learning new things and facing new challenges and also to be able to show your care to someone else when they need it. So overall, I think Merino just prepared me so well in the transition into a bigger world and a higher level of learning. Yeah. Perry, you know, he could come back someday and take your job. What do you think? Well, I'll tell you, if you just think about this, if you think about this, he has just said what we want all of our great athletes to be like, right, is really to get back. And what's number one is academics, and number two is swimming. So he can have my job anytime he wants. It's on tape, you know. Yeah, it's good to go. It's a lot of responsibility. So Perry, talk about Merino and his view of the world, his view of globalism, his view of the role of education in Hawaii and now in this country to sort of get on the wave of internationalism of globalism. I think education is moving really fast, Jay. I mean, it's not only education itself, but how kids learn. And we're trying to keep up with just how kids learn, right? And in order to keep up with how kids learn, you have to understand what they want and how they want it. And a lot of schools aren't set up to do that, right? They're set up to do it the way they've always done it. So all of our energy is right now set up on how they learn and how they want it and put into perspective what they have to learn and try to put together. And that's why the MX program became so important because it's designed on how they want to learn and how they want it. And these courses were set up so they could actually work hand in hand with the course that were required for graduation. So as an example, you go into STEM and arrow and you take care of all your physics. You go into the medical program, you get some of your biology is not to mention we have a program right now where a dual program where kids can actually do all their junior and senior work at HPU, right? And they get credit there and they get credit at Merino. And they end up with an AA degree before they get out of high school. So that's another example of things moving so fast and kids smart enough and able enough to do college work. So I guess the big thing is challenge, right? How do we challenge these kids that are moving so fast, they're being bombarded with technology and social media and everything else in the world and how do you get that filtered so they can actually focus on an MX program, right? At the same time. I think our challenge in the world is how do we do it the way they want it and be able to perform in a way where it's challenging and rigorous and try to step out of the old school mode of we're going to herd kids along in groups and we're going to do the same thing for everybody. That's not us. I mean, we're there to personalize it in some way, some form, so that's important to us. And it's keeping up. It's keeping up with the changes that are moving faster and faster in the world. I used to say, plus a challenge for them. Now I say plus a challenge, plus a challenge, even the changes change. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. We have some photographs coming on. These are photographs of things that are taking place at Marinal. You want to make comment about them? Yeah, these are all alums that are mentors for us. So you see different alums in there from the medical fields, from the biology fields to this is the picture of a young kid in our Chinese Immersion Program. We understand how to write characters. That kindergarten class basically needs to learn 80 characters this year as five-year-olds and it'll double every year. So next year it'll be 160 and so forth. That's incredible. It's pretty incredible. This is our high school principal and our vice president as they're kind of outlining the curriculum for MX. And by the way, you've got to remember too, the curriculum never stays the same because the MX program is designed of what kids want to do. So if kids don't want to be in a certain image program, we have to build more into the others. Stay in touch. Stay in touch. I think you also love to mention the three pilots the MX program produced. That's very incredible. Like, high school students already have their license too. So it's really advanced. This is a picture of one of our kids and Marinal has a huge presence with Civil Air Patrol and like MJ was saying. You are a serious officer and you're a captain in the Civil Air Patrol. I'm a captain in the Civil Air Patrol so I'm very proud to work in that field. And so we do have three kids. We have one student that's already finished his flight. So he's actually got a license. We have two kids that we finished in six months. And so during the school day they're out flying. So that's another thing the MX program brings is we're able to make time for kids to follow their passions and get their schoolwork done all in the same day. So very exciting. Well Perry, can you take a minute or less and tell our audience what they should be thinking of Marinal? I think what Perry should really be thinking is Marinal is a school it's small enough to be personalized and big enough to be able to offer a lot of great programs. So we're in the middle, we're that school in the middle that challenges schools above us and really supports the schools below us too. I think the Catholic presence is a big thing because you have this intense value situation within the school where kids form decisions and form ways of thinking about the world that is not about themselves first. It's about God first and them second and everything else comes after that. And I think that's a big thing too is that just the value system is huge. And MJ I'd like to offer you the opportunity to talk to your classmates at Marinal and also talk to your classmates at University of Wisconsin. What do you have to say to them? Well keep up the good work. I think don't be afraid of making mistakes because we all learn from there and that's how it become better. And also I think I would encourage everyone to think about giving back because what we do, our willingness to help and to share does make an impact. That's like our Marinal model says noblesse oblige, which means to whom much is given, much is expected. So I would love to encourage everyone to give back. And lastly to have fun because you only go through college once, you only go through high school once and that's very short four years. So enjoy and learn as much as you can. You're having fun, aren't you? Yeah, of course I'm having fun. That's MJ Ma, we're having fun. Harry, you are a perfect example of no-place oblige. Thank you. Thank you so much. How about Ghost Bartons on three? Right. One, two, three. Ghost Bartons. Yeah, there we go.