By Ethan Rose '18

Setting: Castle Lecture Hall. All of the desks are arranged to face the teacher. 21 STUDENTS sit at desks, engaged in murmured conversation. MR. BRAITHWAITE sits at teacher's desk writing in a small notebook. ETHAN enters the classroom stage left.

When I walk into the classroom on my first day of Writing for Performance, a seniors-only English elective where students write, direct, and perform their own plays, I feel lucky to have a spot in the room. As the 22nd addition to an already full class, I am grateful to have been permitted to transfer. Making my acquaintances with everyone I feel a growing excitement about our work ahead. However, it isn't long before the horror of it all hits me. We are 22 students, all of whom want our own part and say in the script. I assess the various personalities and the sheer abundance of contributors in the room and cynically think, "No shot - no way we can do this."

Luckily, soon thereafter, Mr. Braithwaite swoops in to the rescue and assures us that our efforts will not be in vain, and that we will, in fact, be successful in producing four – yes four – student driven plays in the duration of a semester. While my doubt lingers at first, I soon gain some confidence. "Let's do this thing!" I think.

Braithwaite continues addressing the class until some ideas come up and we dissolve inevitably back into murmurs. Not even his signature whistle noise can bring us back to a group. The thought of trying to get all of these voices into the script brings back that feeling of terror, but the prospect of our success fills me with the awe of possibility.

It seemed throughout the making of this first episode none of us quite knew what we were in for. Braithwaite perhaps did in some mischievous way as he left plenty of room for us to crash and burn throughout the creative process - a sort of "hands off" parenting technique. But if it weren't for that pervading sense of possibility, and an immense amount of perseverance, we may have lost hope amidst all our chaos.

For each time we doubted ourselves and said things like "What if it sucks!" there was the opposing possibility of "What if it's great?" - "What if we get the whole school bent over their knees laughing hysterically?" We all sincerely wanted this, but had no clue how to get there.

Getting there required some sort of structure, we soon realized. We had to divide and delegate, each assigning roles and recognizing how we can all help. However, this time around we had no teacher steer the boat. Naturally people assumed authoritative roles and had to begin taking charge. However, with a hierarchy in place some people felt they weren't getting their voices heard. Further adjustments would need to be made. In many ways it became like sustaining a small community, trying to satisfy everyone's needs. This was the pattern until the reality of our impending performance became substantial. A few short rehearsals in Castle Lecture Hall and then one final rehearsal in GPAC and before we knew it we were all under the bright lights bowing to our audience of smiling faces and the show was over.

Even if it turned out nobody laughed throughout the entire performance (oh don't worry, they did) I am beyond proud of what we put together. We gathered a bunch of students, endowed them with this boundless task, and let them shoot for the stars, all without the major crutch of a teacher. My favorite moment throughout the whole performance was seeing Inigo backstage just before he went out to do his solo. He was shaking in his boots, and said to me through chattering teeth "I have never been so afraid in my life!" I tried to comfort him but knew there wasn't much I could do. When he went out there and belted his "How Far I'll Go" parody with twice the enthusiasm as he had used in rehearsal, my heart skipped a beat, beaming with pride at our perfectly imperfect first performance.

HPA's Ka Makani Players present SURF CRAZY, an original musical parody of teenage surf films, a pop culture phenomenon of the 1960's.Surf Crazy runs November 02-05 at the school's Gates Performing Arts Center. Shows begin at 7 p.m. November 02-04 and at 2 p.m. on November 05. Tickets, which only are available at the door, are $10 for adults and $5 for students. For more information, please call 881-4002.

This is the Hawaiian premier of Surf Crazy written and directed by David Bauman, the new drama teacher at Hawaii Preparatory Academy. Set designs by Jared Terpak, musical direction by Barbara Kopra, and choreography by Tani Wright Cordova all come together in this comic romp, where Russian and American cold-war attitudes collide with California surf-slacker philosophy. Can KGB agents, Red Sonja and Nevsky, infiltrate and corrupt the Zuma Beach dwellers? Can Pepper compete with Bonehead, JD and the other surfers? Will Biff and Annette get back together, or does Lulu have other plans?

The Ka Makani Players cast and crew includes: Airi Tomihara, Iyah Serikova, Ethan Goore, Grace Bostock, Hali'a Buchal, Hayley Emmons, Jack Rose, Kaija Cooper, Katherine Gargiulo, Luke Field, Mako Yamamoto, Malia Honda, Matthew Vazquez, Nina Gonzales, Patch Wong, Rachel Siebert, Kaika Painter, Sarah Newcomb, Shauri Wentzel, Soleil Fitz-Gerald, Soli Boo, Violet Stevenson, and Annie Yan.

For more information, please call 881-4002.

By Oliver Grayson '18
Photography Courtesy Oliver Grayson '18

"We go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard," thundered the recording of President John F. Kennedy from the projector screen. Echoing his words on the stage stood the acclaimed astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, giving an impassioned speech driving the audience back to the moon and then on to Mars. "Get Your Ass To Mars", proclaimed the shirt beneath his American flag suspenders, as scientists, CEOs, engineers, and high school students listened with rapt attention to the orbital diagrams he drew with his words.

I honestly had trouble processing exactly what was happening when I first heard about the inaugural International MoonBase Summit conference. A conference on building a permanent colony on the moon in only the next few years? Pure science fiction. But then I arrived, and signed in, marking my name down on the same sheet of paper that bore the name "Buzz Aldrin". I knew right away: this could really happen.

Buzz Aldrin was always a childhood hero of mine - growing up, I wanted to go to the moon just like him and Neil Armstrong. At the conference, I finally got a chance to meet him and other people of such scientific caliber. Among all those famous, successful, and intelligent people, I felt a little out of place. But that quickly faded, as I and my fellow high schoolers quickly became engaged in planning how to build the moon-base-on-the-moon. Organized by Jim Keravala, the CEO of Offworld, we were able to sit at the very same table and work on the same problems. From debating how to fund the simulation base, to sketching out robotic operations, to choosing the very crater in which the final base should be, we sat at the very heart of the plans for the base. Representatives from schools across the state were there - three HPA students, a student from Hawaii Technology Academy, a group from Makua Lani Christian Academy, another from Punahou School in Honolulu, along with several other high schools.

After the summit was complete, we began working on the mission itself and designing a Hawaiian analogue base that would simulate the surface of the moon, in the same vein as Henk Rogers' HI-SEAS. Situated in the lava fields on Hawai'i Island between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, the base would allow future astronauts to train and be a testing ground for robotics, life support systems, and other essential technology.

As Mr. Rogers said (referring to us!), "these are the people who will actually go" to the moon. We are the perfect age to fulfill that mission; by the time the group graduates college in the mid-2020's, we as a species will be poised to expand on to the moon to make the Earth's dreams - unlimited energy, a low-gravity spaceyard - a reality. Now fast forward a decade: we will be in our 30's, according to Buzz Aldrin, the perfect age for a few pioneers to commit to living on the red planet and leaving the Earth behind forever. We are the generation that can realize the goals that science fiction has dreamed of for the last century. The tech is finally here - it's time for the people to catch up.

The Kohala field at the Village Campus was transformed this Halloween into every child's trick or treating dream! Over twenty HPA families dressed up, transformed their cars and passed out Blue Zone friendly treats to our Lower and Middle School students. There was a tent that had snacks, photo opportunities, and entertainment, including Lower School dance performances and a Middle School costume contest.

Earlier this month, boys from Kristan Tarnas's grade 5 class worked with the Village Campus' Educational Technologist teacher, Shannon Doak, to have some fun while collaborating on a technology-based design solution. While the girls from the class were attending the "GEMS" Girls Exploring Math and Science, a day were women introduce girls to their occupations and show them how math, science, and technology are incorporated into their daily jobs, the student's back at the Lower School utilized a tool called 'MaKey MaKey', which supports "making" in the classroom by allowing students to communicate, collaborate, critically think and be creative while integrating technology and some fun!

The MaKey MaKey creates a unique blend of physical and digital innovation possible by allowing students to interact with their computers through using everyday objects as a replacement for keyboards and mice. Students plugged the MaKey MaKey circuit board into a computer and then plug an alligator clip from the circuit board into an object. The high resistance switching detected a connection in an object that typically isn't conductive; bananas, playdough, leaves and even people. By doing this, it allowed the students to make almost anything into a key.

By Zoe McGinnis '18

The lights flick off. The repurposed dark room is true to its former name: it is completely devoid of light. I am supposed to keep my eyes open to let them adjust to the darkness, but it feels like they are closed, because there are no external stimuli to indicate otherwise. We sit in silence; we speak a little at first about what will happen once our eyes adjust, but it feels like the darkness is too dense to be penetrated by our small talk. After a few moments, Patch Wong '18 a fellow HPA student, shuffles along the ground in front of me and moves a piece of tinfoil into position on the ground. On his signal, Claire opens a tiny hole in the tinfoil covering the wall. A speck of light is cast on the floor, but the tinfoil Patch positioned contains it, so the rest of the room remains almost as dark as it was before. Claire Henderson '18 tells me to look closely at the wall, and as I do, I begin to see it - the image of the trees and the grass and the sky of the area outside the darkroom. At this point Patch leaves the room, and a few seconds later he appears at the top of the projection on the wall. He waves at us and moves around, his image traveling through the hole and onto the wall at the speed of light.

The concept of the camera obscura is practically identical to that of the pinhole camera, just without the film. It was first used in the late 1500s as a tool for painting and drawing, and eventually, the theory gave rise to the invention of the camera (Wikipedia, 2017). I asked Jakob Au, another astronomy student, to explain to me the quirks of the camera obscura demonstration.

"You see the direct sunlight on the floor, and on the wall, you see the projection," he said. "The projection is inverted, so right is left and up is down."

He tells me that the astronomy teacher, Ms. Kassis, suggested it, but that he and his classmates planned it out and executed the idea themselves.

"We used tinfoil to block out the sun. It took us two days to really get it working," Jake tells me. "Once we finished it, we just lied down on the floor and stared at it for like twenty minutes in complete silence... It was crazy to see something we made come to life like this."

Jake gained a working knowledge of optics and—more narrowly—the behavior of image projection through the creation of the camera obscura, in addition to his conceptual knowledge.

"The image gets sharper as it gets dimmer," he says. "Logically, the image gets fuzzier as you let in more light, but it is easier to see if your pupils are not fully dilated."

Listening to Jake explain in detail the workings of the camera obscura is invigorating; he enthusiastically answers my "what-ifs," and I can tell that his understanding of optical physics spans beyond the mere surface-level conceptual understanding that tends to be associated with the more traditional rote memorization approach to education. Project-based learning is on the rise in education, and results like these are the driving factors. If meritorious students like Jake, Patch, and Claire are given access to the necessary resources to apply the abstract knowledge they learn in traditional classroom settings to real-life situations, they can become invested in the final product. When you're working to create, the action is in the processing - the learning simply becomes a byproduct.

This year's Holiday Lighting Festival at the Village Campus was a festive success, featuring hot cocoa stations, entertainment and student performances, crafts, the Middle School Art show, and fellowship.

Their student handbell and 'ukulele performances highlighted the wonderful work of our Lower and Middle School performing arts faculty.

By Zoe McGinnis '18

I walk up to Haley Emmons '19. She is sitting at a desk in HPA's Energy Lab, working on her robotics project. As she types something into her computer, a wheel on the contraption she has on the table rotates 180 degrees. She looks up. I smile.

Her eyes light up. She beams at me joyfully. "They placed, the stories placed!"

"I know, I know!" I say.

She does a little victory dance in her seat, being careful not to disturb her robot. I walk away, chuckling to myself. What makes Haley so unique is she so multifaceted, she is just as passionate about robotics and coding as she is about literature. Her enthusiasm is contagious; passionate writers like Haley never cease to inspire me. At HPA, ownership and student-directed learning are not merely supported, but encouraged.

View the Latest Edition of the HPA Zephyr

Shortly after its founding in 1949, HPA began supporting a literary magazine featuring student works. In 2008, it was adopted by Ms. Sarah Hayslip and her senior creative writing class, renaming it Zephyr. For nearly a decade, Ms. Hayslip and the Zephyr staff collected and edited submissions for the magazine, which were published and distributed in paper form at the semi-annual HPA Student Art Show. Ms. Hayslip and a dedicated committee of student volunteers continued to produce Zephyr. In 2013, the Zephyr staff also began hosting point-incentivised writing competitions during class Olympics in three categories: poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

In 2016, Alicia Chow '16 started an independent English initiative in her Digital Journalism course to produce the Zephyr magazine in digital form. Student volunteers edited and reviewed anonymised submissions throughout the fall of 2016, guided by Chow. The team successfully produced the first volume of the digital Zephyr in the Spring of 2017.

After the first 2017 digital production, Chow graduated, passing the role of student facilitator on to me, Zoe McGinnis. As a long-time contributor to the magazine and an avid participant in the Zephyr contests, I found myself very much invested in the production of Zephyr. I now manage the Zephyr website and edit content with the help of the recently re-instated Zephyr class, now taught by Ms. Kiera Horgan. The Zephyr magazine features three visual arts categories (photography, videography, and traditional visual artwork) and two performing arts categories (drama and spoken word) in addition to its three original literature categories: creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry; it is published biannually.

I see myself in students like Haley. In total, she submitted two of the four featured short fiction works, one of which won for the category overall. The ownership and pride that student writers take in their work here at HPA is invigorating; the joy that crosses their faces after hearing that their piece was featured is beautiful to behold.

HPA students, Kira Parker and Karly Noetzel, have committed to their respective college swim programs next year on the mainland to continue their swimming career post-graduation.

Kira, who is currently ranked 4th in Hawai'i, will swim for a Division I program at the University of Vermont. After an extensive search of over 20 programs, she chose the University of Vermont as it is a competitive program in the America East Conference for student-athletes. Kira noted, "I've always been the type of person who works hard at what I do, and without hard work, I don't think goals can be achieved." The University of Vermont also offers Kira the best academic programs that line up with her career goals beyond college.

Karly, signed her commitment papers to swim next year for the Denison University on November 27. Denison is a Division III powerhouse in swimming, and she will fit right in as she is she is currently ranked 7th in the state. Karly, who viewed 26 different schools and felt that Denison would be the best place for her to continue her swimming career while studying film studies.

When asked how it felt to receive an invitation to attend Denison University and to swim for them Karly replied "I was really encouraged by the coaches offering me a position on such a prestigious team. The team has been in the top three on the NCAA level for the past 25 years. To have the coach look me in the eye and tell me he wants me in the program really touched me and made a welcoming impression without a doubt."

HPA's swim teams are a competitive force at both the island and state levels attracting athletes at all levels to the school. Head coach, Mr. Mark Noetzel's, dedication, leadership, and the pursuit of excellence both in and out of the pool has been a key component to both Karly and Kira's success. The importance of being a scholar-athlete, all-around good citizen, and teammate has both inspired and encouraged the students to push themselves to achieve what at one point seemed the unachievable goal. Mr. Noetzel, who earned All-America status at the University of Michigan as a collegiate athlete, also coaches the year-round swim program, the Academy Swim Club.

Across the Village Campus children were hunkered down in collaborative groups. Keyboards were clacking, students were laughing, and lines of code were flowing. During the week of December 4, over 160, Kindergarten through Grade 8 students joined the 153,911 Hour of Code events going on across the world. This global movement is designed to demystify "coding" and offer students an introduction to the field of computer science.

Students were introduced to various interactive coding projects and tutorials. Those with basic coding skills joined intermediate coding projects, and continued to build on their technical skills. HPA's K-8 Educational Technologist, Shannon Doak, created a resource website filled with tutorials and activities that students were able to interact with.

Kindergarten students learned the thought processes of coding, by dragging digital blocks into a coding spot, and then using the blocks to solve problems. One teacher remarked on how engaged the students were, and how the coding tutorial taught the students to complete the exercise in as little steps as possible.

In Grade 2 Art, students used coding to draw designs on ice, in the digital world of Elza and Anna from Disney's Frozen. They coded instructions for Elza to draw winter artwork into the ice by skating around a frozen pond. Later in the Grade 2 classroom they controlled an astronaut in space to complete tasks using the Blocky coding language, learning looping, if/then statements, and creating tasks in as little coding lines as possible.

"A couple days after the coding experience a first grade student came up to me in the hallway and said that he had such a great time coding that it's something he's excited to do at home now,' reflected Shannon Doak. This week represented the importance of creating a sense of wonder and boosting student engagement through the use technology in the classroom. Students felt empowered and left the sessions with a better understanding of computer science.

HPA is pleased to announce the Dean's List recipients for semester 1. Congratulations to all of our students who were named to the Dean's List.

"Warmest congratulations to all of HPA's Dean's List recipients for semester 1, 2017." said Alain
Sykes, dean of academics. "These students' academic achievement demonstrates significant effort
and commitment to learning. Furthermore, in the area of citizenship, they have shown HPA's Core
Values of Integrity, Respect, Pursuit of Excellence and Wonder. We recognize and are proud of their
efforts."

In order to be eligible for the Dean's List, students must maintain a GPA of 3.67 or better, have no
grade lower than a B, and they must have passed citizenship for both quarters of the semester. Please find the list for the Middle and Upper School below:

MIDDLE SCHOOL

Grade 6 (Class of 2024)
Gabriela (Molly) Batol, Lauren Berger, Conor Darby, Hannah Dean, Tiffany Golden, Luke Hendricks, Ariana Hudgins, Skylar James, Tor Johnston, Zachery Lieberman, Ken Nordin, Alyssa-Brie Ounyoung, Samuel Puana, Isabella Rodriguez, Brooke (Kahena) Samura, Makayla (Meleana) Warfield.

Grade 7 (Class of 2023)
Gabriel (Gabby) Aiona, Minami Asbjornson, Bianca Brown, Jane-Grace Cootey, Andrew Fung, Emma Gadd, Ryder Garcia, Isabella (Izzy) Hodges, Jakob Honda, Bayla Jefferson, Harlow Johnston, `Anolani Liu, Aleena Madrid, Roxanne (Roxy) McMackin, Malia Mitchell, Nicholas Sebastian, Parker Smith, La`akeaokana`au`ao Sohriakoff, Ali Wawner, Sean Weyrick, Chase Zucker.

Grade 8 (Class of 2022)
Syenna Araki, Tiffany (Ka`iulani) Bento, Ryan Berger, Sydney Chin, Roisin Darby, Kacen Hamada, Briana Harmon, Ruby Helmuth, Emily Houser, Sofia Howard, Lily Kassis, Brenna Kiyota, Ava Koepper, Forest McKinney, Kaisei Mochizuki, Catherine Moynahan, Jordan Perry, Ella Prado, Maile Puckett, Olivia Rose, Grace Tadaki, Emily Thompson, William (Bear) Wawner, Matthew Wiecking.

UPPER SCHOOL

Grade 9 (Class of 2021)
Khaled Atalla, Naia Ayau, Nicholas Barrick, Malia Brost, Pascal Cabuzel, Kaija Cooper, Morgan Davis, Abigail Foster, Julian Fried, Ethan Goore, George Hendrick, Tayson Hirayama, Malia Honda, Megan Jarrell, Jack Jefferson, Ram Rattan Khalsa, Sara Kimura, Katharine Kuyper, Xander Lai, Malia McKendry, Raquel McMackin, Sachiko Myers, Sarah Newcomb, Alexis-Bhea Ounyoung, Dominic Pagano, Isabella Police, Parker Rabinowitz, Nissi Ragland, Jessi Sohriakoff, Violet Stevenson, Kayla Tadaki, Hannah Toavs, Kyle Weyrick, Zhe Yang.

Grade 10 (Class of 2020)
Malachi Acdal, Lily Ameika, Makana Blake, Ry Bleckel, Malachi Bram, Kirra Brown, Hali`a Buchal, Morgan Dean, Dillon DuPont, Lily Eastman, Charlotte Head, Ana Henderson, Chloe Hughes, Michael Hughes, Conor Hunt, Kassadie Hurney, Ami Ibaramoto, Brock Imonen, Ivanni Jamin, Elena San Jose, Umikoa Kealoha, Harley Kell, Alyssa Klett, Natalie Klett, Maia Mills, Gabriella Nakamaru, Jenna Perry, Gabriella Pike, Bess Arielle Rowland, Brianna Ryan, Mark Schiller, Anna Schroedel, Anna Sorensen, Hikari Shaver, Sara Thiel, Pikoi Krempl Tinglin, Kahelelani Walsh, Zane Willman, Olivia Wills.

Grade 11 (Class of 2019)
Sheldon Aribal, Leilani Barnes, Annika Berezney, Tage Boyette, Yann-Hsiang Chen, Matthew Ching, Christopher Chock, Mikaela Chong, Yui Chu, Hayley Emmons, Yong Jae Ha, Devyn Harmon, Julieta Hernandez, Riley Hiatt, Emalia Higgins, Sihkea Jim, Maiki Kawakami, Ted Kim, Maile Lawson, Daniel Mark, Brendan Moynahan, Luke Myers, Gemma Palleschi, Jacqueline Payne, Alexandra Peskova, Sophia de Reus, Keaton Riley, Jacob Rouse, Kekahikolemaikalani Scheffler, Jacob Schneider, Jacqueline Stark, Ridge Strange, Tyrie Tanaka, Xiaoli Tang, Kiawehokua Tarnas, Airi Tomihara, Zachary Vermeulen, Hayden Virtue, Mako Yamamoto, Zixin Yan, Zhichun Zhao.

Grade 12 (Class of 2018)
Jakob Au, Payton Au, Ada Benson, Teah Van Bergen, Soli Boo, Sienna Byrne, Zachary Chaikin, Tessa Christensen, Ryan Cohen, Malcolm Davis, Thierry Devost, Iñigo Fernandez Alaman, Soleil Fitz-Gerald, Emily Fong, Tove Fostvedt, Sora Frysinger, Katherine Gargiulo, Oliver Grayson, Daniel Groves, Sara Heymann, Sarah Houser, Ethan James, Jody Jamin, Ruby Johnson, Alice Kirkham, Isaac Koepper, Kento Komatsu, Pan-Pan Lin, Sameer Maragh, Ilan Naibryf, Sneha Nair, Karly Noetzel, Kristina Novotna, Matthew Ostrem, Nathaniel Padrnos, Kira Parker, Julia Perry, Silas Rhyneer, Dylan Riley, Ethan Rose, Emma Saito, Sarah Schulman, Coco Shafer, Bianca Shropshire, Amelia Snyder, Samantha Sponer, Yerden Suraganov, Alexandra Thomas, Minh Truong, Laney Van Tassell, Matthew Vazquez, Gillian Winston, Zichun Xia, Maria Yamada, Sanghyup Yoon, Keanu Young, Jordan Zarate.

"It's 2 a.m. and we're waiting for the resin to dry on our second turtle, when all of a sudden, three tiny baby hawksbill sea turtles crawl past us. That moment made the whole purpose of our trip come full circle for me; seeing those three little guys, I realized that by tagging these adult nesting turtles, we could possibly influence their future." - Tess Savage

In early January, HPA students Holly Hoffbauer ('19), Sara Thiel ('21), Tess Savage ('19), as well as HPA Sea Turtle Research Program Director Marc Rice, and Associate Director Laura Jim '91 completed a successful 10 day research project to Moso Island in the Republic of Vanuatu, an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. This research project is vital in investigating the declining hawksbill sea turtle population in the South Pacific. The team attached satellite tags to three post nesting hawksbill sea turtles in order to map their migration from their nesting beach to their home forage grounds, which may be in another country, in an effort to improve and promote international sea turtle conservation.

The three HPA students were given the opportunity to apply their learning in a real world setting, gaining skills in global citizenship and scientific research. They worked with Rice, Jim and several Moso Islanders during four nights on the nesting beaches. Two teams were assigned different sectors of the nesting beaches to monitor and find nesting female hawksbill sea turtles.

Holly states, "This trip was important to my growth as a student and human being because I had the opportunity to see another culture and way of life different than my own."

Learn More About HPA's Sea Turtle Program

In the four nights that monitoring was conducted, three nesting turtles were found and satellite tags were attached. The turtles were safely restrained while Rice and the team fiberglassed a satellite tag to the highest point on the carapace. The process takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to complete. After a fiberglass resin had solidified, all three turtles were safely released back into the ocean to resume their normal behavior. The tags are programed to transmit to satellites overhead when the turtle is out of the water. The HPA team will now monitor the data and movements of the tagged turtles over the next few months in order to trace their migration to their forage grounds.


Moso Island, the location of the campsite, and the location of the three nesting hawksbill turtles that were captured and outfitted with satellite tags.

This is the first of three planned trips and Rice hopes to deploy more tags over the next couple of years. All of the data will be analyzed and shared with co-investigator, Francis Hickey, and Vanuatu's Department of Fisheries, and once completed the results will be published. By tracking their migration routes, researchers can identify which countries to focus their conservation efforts on.

Tess notes, "This trip gave me the opportunity and possibility to actually make an impact on our planet using scientific research. Looking at the direction our planet is headed, any positive impact is helpful, even if it's something as small as putting satellite tags on three hawksbill sea turtles, because a small impact can become more important and eventually cause a substantial influence."

View more research and photos from the trip.

The Hawai'i Preparatory Academy (HPA) swim program has come a long way from the days where students would travel to a makeshift pool in a corner of Kawaihae Harbor, a short 15 minute drive from the campus, to practice, hold swim meets, and even play water polo.
Today, our students train and compete year-round in the Herbert M. and Laura Dowsett Pool, an outdoor, solar-heated 25-meter venue with two one-meter diving boards. Swimming has become one of HPA's most successful sports, attracting athletes from around the world to train and compete at the school's facility.

Situated on an island, it is no wonder that HPA produces top swimmers and divers, and that our swim teams are a consistently competitive force at both the island and state levels. HPA offers two programs: the Academy Swim Club (ASC) provides an opportunity for students from kindergarten to high school to train and compete year-round, and the high school varsity team that competes seasonally. This year alone, the ASC varsity team is made up of HPA students from 13 countries. It's not all about swimming either as ASC swimmers have gone on to receive the prestigious USA Swimming Scholar-Athlete Awards, including one current team member.

"As the head coach, my philosophy is to develop teammates who support each other yet are passionately competitive. We work on the mental game of competition to pair with the physical training," said Coach Mark Noetzel (also the Dean of Campus), a master swim coach who has been training athletes at HPA since 1992. He also is a former All-America swimmer and assistant coach at the University of Michigan.
HPA swimmers are known at the competitive league level, twice winning the State Championships, the girls team come in second for the past two years at the state meet and they make up an impressive list of athletes who have earned National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association (NISCA) All - America Awards, ranking our swimmers with the best in the country. HPA swimmers have also gone on to compete and excel in NCAA Division I, II and III Championships. "Simply put," says Coach Noetzel, "we train our students to be their very best in mind and skill so that they can reach their goals and advance to the next level in competition."

In January 2018, the HPA swim program invited three-time Olympic competitor and four-time Olympic medalist, Anthony Ervin to speak and train with members of the ASC ranging in age from 7 – 18 years. Ervin, who competed and won gold and silver medals in the 2000 Olympics, and won two gold medals at the 2016 Olympics, spoke to students about his passion for the sport and his journey to becoming an Olympic athlete. Ervin encouraged the student-athletes to constantly be evolving as a swimmer and as a person. Even after competing in two Olympics, Ervin was willing to break down and study his dive, and through that process discovered a more efficient diving technique that helped propel him onto the podium again in 2016. So in a quest to evolve, Ervin learned from scratch how to dive again.
"To get to better than 100% of what you have ever been, you have to take apart the things that you know work and the things that don't work and put it back together again."

He attributes his success at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, where he was named the fastest swimmer on the planet at the age of 35, to his open mindedness and willingness to look at things from different perspectives. "We can always do better. There is always more potential, and when the best of us can recognize that, that means everybody has so much further we can go. You should never be down on yourself or give up, because no matter where you are, or where you have come from, there is always so much more you can go to, it's a great thing."

This is not the first time that HPA has welcomed an Olympian or a highly accomplished swimmer to our campus to assist with training with our students. "Our goal," states Coach Noetzel "in bringing in elite champion athletes, is to expose as many of our athletes to a higher element of competitive swimming and help them hone their skill and technique."

Olympics involves the entire Upper School participating in over 100 competitive events including the Hawaii Food Bank food drive, sidewalk chalk art, THE Wall, makahiki games, Red Cross Penny Wars, tree planting, sand sculpture, Zephyr writing competition, paintball, zumba, kendama, whiffle ball, lei making, archery, etc. culminating in a raucous LipSync and stunning Talent Show.

View highlights from the first two days thus far below:

Join us for the 3rd annual Alu Mai gala, an Evening in Celebration of the Arts at HPA on Saturday, April 21! This year's event will be held at the school's historic art gallery - Isaacs Art Center, located at Hawai'i Preparatory Academy's Village Campus in Kamuela.

Register Today!

Register today!

There are many opportunities for alumni to reconnect with each other and HPA:

Friday, June 1 - Hawai'i Island adventures,

Saturday, June 2 - There several on-campus activities including: a hike to Laelae, the big waterslide, and the annual Luau at 5 p.m.

Sunday, June 3 - Talk-story at Davies Chapel at 9 a.m. and enjoy a continental brunch at 11 a.m.

Check out the entire schedule!

In February, HPA students learned and worked directly with entrepreneur and CEO of Skubana and Crucial Vacuum, Chad Rubin, via video conference. The class began with Chad recounting his journey from college student to creating and growing his businesses that now yield millions of dollars in revenue annually. Then, sharing his screen, he showcased how he utilized storytelling, inbound marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media to create/maintain his brand. Students instantly began asking questions about how to produce written content, create social movements, and make multimedia go viral.

Michael Hanano '17 recounts, "It was crazy to see that views, shares, and audience growth are centered around this much strategy and science."

Before class ended, Chad worked with each student on their specific storytelling product. One example was his work with Dylan Riley '17, on the HPA Soundcloud page (music and podcast streaming site), he built out to share many of the incredible podcasts HPA students are creating over the past two years. Students learned what websites, tools, and techniques would optimize their work and gain greater audiences.

It was evident throughout this experience, that when students interact with classroom guests who are industry professionals, the real world job market becomes demystified. Events like these are what make an HPA education so unique and valuable. Access to top industry professionals inside the classroom creates a hands-on learning experience that allows the student to own their education.


Learn More About Academics at HPA

The morning sun broke over Mauna Kea, beams of light illuminating the first massive swell of the season at Hāpuna Beach State Park. Little did Bennett '21 know, this was about to be one of the greatest days of his life.

Among the many distinguished advantages of attending HPA is being perfectly positioned between all the breaks from the Kohala Coast to Waipiʻo Valley on the island of Hawai'i, particularly during the wintertime, when big swells grace the North and West Shores. Yep, one step out of your dorm, and you are just 15 minutes from dipping your toes in the Pacific at Hāpuna.

On Bennett's fateful day, Patrick O'Leary, long-time teacher, passionate photographer, and lifelong bodysurfer was looking to catch some waves with long-time digital media teacher and filmmaker, Ari Bernstein. "Looks way too big to go out, backbreakers!". After watching the massive wave after massive wave rolling in, we decided to relocate and see if we could hunt down even larger ones.

As we four-wheeled along the rocky coast, bouncing through the kiawe trees, the coast opens up in front of us. "THIS is what we have been looking for!" Monster waves were breaking off a point of lava jutting out into the deep ocean, and not one person in sight. Then O'Leary gets a call from a local lifeguard who reports, "Mike Stewart, is paddling out!." Mike is a nine-time bodyboarding champion, and a real legend, and we knew then that we were about to get the treat of a lifetime: the greatest surfer on the greatest waves.

Patrick is cheering like he's watching his favorite team at the Super Bowl, when he turns and declares, "Dude! There's Bennett!"

Bennett, a new 15-year-old freshman at HPA, is part of a family that has spent its entire life in and around the ocean. 5' 7" with a medium build, he comes rambling out of the dense kiawe trees on foot, bodyboard under one arm, red fins in the other, and a ho-hum look etched on his face as he approaches the cliff above the break. He watches the swells crash against the rocks below, timing the waves and waiting for a lull between sets. Knowingly, he takes the plunge at just the right moment, diving into the sea foam boiling along the jagged cliffs and then safely paddling out into a current. He knows he has to make each duck dive count, as he slowly works his way out to Mike.

There they sit, like two old pros just bobbing in the dark blue water, waiting for the next set to come in. Patrick is stunned. "Can you imagine being a basketball player and one day walking into the HPA gym to find Michael Jordan there shooting alone? Bennett must be freaking out!" If he was, it didn't show one bit.

Patrick points to the slab of a wave starting to break, and says, "He's going!" Bennett pulls in, taking a nice high line as the barrel formed, the foam ball just behind him. Momentum perfectly built, he skips down the 10-foot face of the wave. "OH YEAH!!!" Patrick explodes. Completing the perfect ride, the barrel breaks over him, and we hold our breaths until he emerges. Within moments, out he pops, earning him louder cheers from a shoreline of spectators.

Anyone who surfs or paddles knows that you spend your whole life chasing waves, waking up at the crack of dawn, and rambling down rocky roads, all in the search of that next ride. All for days like this.

Our students get once in a lifetime opportunities like Bennett's all the time. Quelling stress by finding ways to be your true self within this nurturing Big Island environment. Having experiences that uniquely develop you and at the same time provide balance to a rigorous academic curriculum. That's what being at HPA is all about: Work hard. Seize opportunities. Discover purpose.

The recent volcanic activity on the Island of Hawai'i has been splashed all over the news lately and HPA would like to offer some helpful information.

On the other side of the Island of Hawai'i from Hawai'i Preparatory Academy (HPA), Hawai'i's long-active Kīlauea volcano has seen increased activity in the last week or so. Volcanic activity has caused the evacuation of those living immediately adjacent to Kīlauea. While some tremors were felt on campus due to after shocks from the volcanic eruptions, one must drive almost 100 miles to reach Kīlauea from HPA. Our Waimea campus is located in the safest region of the island, Kohala, in a very low danger zone for volcanic activity and lava flow.

Locations of Hawai'i Preparatory Academy and Kīlauea

Image courtesy of Google Maps.

Lava-flow Hazard Zones Map, Island of Hawai'i

As you can see form the diagram below, Hawai'i Preparatory Academy is located between lava-flow zones 8 and 9, where the last volcanic activity took place between 10,000-60,000 years ago. To of view a high resolution version of this image on the USGS website, go here.

Hawai'i's Kīlauea Volcano Has Been Actively Erupting Since 1983

Many people don't realize that Kīlauea has been in a state of active eruption for the last 35 years. A major tourist attraction, visitors come from around the world to witness active lava flows on land and pouring dramatically into the ocean. Every year this volcano is literally increasing the size of our island, inch by inch.

Living in Hawai'i's Unique Ecosystem

The Big Island of Hawai'i where HPA is located is one of the most diverse and exciting ecosystems on earth. We have the greatest concentration of climate zones in the world - 4 out of the 5 major climate zones and 8 out of the 13 sub-zones - supporting a wide array of plants, animals, and ecological conditions for exploration and study. Occasionally the amazing natural forces at play on the island make it necessary for residents of the Island of Hawai'i to be on alert, take precautions, or even move out of the path of harm. At any time, you may visit the County of Hawai'i's site for Civil Defense messages and alerts that pertain to those who live specifically on the Island of Hawai'i. This site is a good source of unbiased information on the recent volcanic activity.

Help Those Affected By the Volcanic Activity

KHON2 news has put together a great article outlining what you can do to help the people displaced by the recent lava activity near Leilani Estates on the Island of Hawai'i. On this page you can find information on how to make donations of goods and funds to help, as well as additional information on the regions affected and how to prepare for an evacuation if you're living adjacent to Kīlauea.

By Kate Sensenig '16

In 1939, Lise Meitner calculated the energy released in a reaction she later named "nuclear fission." In 1944, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to her male partner, Otto Hahn. In 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell's discovery of pulsars (remnants of massive supernova stars) resulted in a Nobel Prize in Physics -- awarded to her supervisor, Anthony Hewish.

It is well known that a glass ceiling exists for women in science and technology. For centuries, women working in this field have had to endure double standards, discrimination and a general lack of appreciation for their work, simply because they are female.

In recent years, cracks have started to show in the glass ceiling as women have increasingly been recognized for achievements in STEM. HPA is no exception: in the last five years, the National Center for Women and Informational Technology (NCWIT) has given the Award for Aspirations in Computing to a female student at HPA. This success is the result of our students' curiosity and grit combined with the support and enthusiasm of our faculty.

In 2018 Zoe McGinnis '18 was awarded the NCWIT honor along with Nissi Ragland '21, Brianna Ryan '20, and Jacqueline Payne '19. A two-time award winner (she also won the award in 2017), Zoe credits her physics teacher, Mr. Bleckel. "His class completely changed my outlook on math and science; he sparked in me a fascination ... showing me how seemingly abstract mathematical concepts could be applied to the world around me. More importantly, he helped me to realize that I could excel." Two years later, McGinnis is thriving in AP Calculus, AP Statistics, Independent Science Research, and AP Physics C. She plans to pursue a career in computer engineering at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in the fall.

Another NCWIT award winner, Erin Evans '16, worked with Alice Patig '16, Sydney Cooper '16, and Savannah Cochran '16, partnering with the NASA habitat, a live Mars simulation on the slopes of Mauna Loa. They helped to organize the Mars habitat's sensors, creating dashboards that both the researchers in the habitat and NASA can use for simulating life on Mars, and working with scientists to study solar flares and develop habitat simulations.

"One of the things you are going to notice about the projects here is that the youth are basically fearless," says Energy Lab Director, Dr. Bill Wiecking. "They don't know they can't do something so they just persist and make it work."

Remarkably for HPA , McGinnis and another HPA student, Janelle Laros '17 were the 2017 NCWIT award recipients, they joined Evans '16, along with Erina Baudat '15, Hannah Twigg-Smith '14, and Mariko Thorbecke '13.

So what is it about HPA that fosters this kind of success among women in science and technology? The answer is, overwhelmingly, the HPA community and the incredible resources it provides.

One of these resources is HPA's newest, most innovative, and net energy positive sustainable building -- the Energy Lab. For many students, the Energy Lab is one of the most interesting and exciting places to be on campus. But for the students who spend a majority of their school day learning and working there, it's almost like a second home.

"It was the go-to place for me," says Baudat. "It was just like my house.

Discover Opportunities at the Energy Lab

But the Energy Lab is not the only place on campus where exciting things are happening for young women in science and technology. Hana Haitsuka '16, and Keanna Lundy '16 were hard at work in their independent biotechnology research courses. Haitsuka had worked on a project where she had isolated the DNA of the coqui frog in order to quantify a certain gene within its sequence. Lundy had been doing a similar project where she worked to sequence the DNA of a sweet potato.

And that glass ceiling everyone keeps talking about? At HPA, it just does not seem to be on people's minds. "We're not looking for it, so we're not creating it," says Stephanie McDowell, a biology teacher, and Haitsuka and Lundy's supervisor. "There never was one here and then...collaborating prevents a glass ceiling from ever being constructed in the first place."

Unfortunately, as Twigg-Smith has discovered as an Engineering and Computing major navigating Boston's computer programming hackathons, while there are some cracks, the glass ceiling is very much a reality outside of HPA.

"It's great that HPA and the school that I go to [Olin College], don't have this horrible gender ratio [in the sciences] that most places do, but it's not how the real world is, and I want that to change so much.