Education briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Ma'ema'e stages holiday food drive
The Ma'ema'e Elementary School student council is holding a holiday food drive, "Rebuilding our Country with Aloha," to benefit the Salvation Army.
The donations also will serve as a monument to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as part of scale models of the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon being set up in the school library.
Residents are asked to bring canned goods and other food items to the school, 319 Wyllie St., through Monday.
For more information, call counselor Matt Nakamura at 595-5400, Ext. 108.
Mid-Pacific breaks ground on complex
Mid-Pacific Institute will break ground on an $11 million state-of-the-art math, science and technology complex on Jan. 17 that will be completed in fall 2003.
The complex will be one of just six integrated technology education centers in secondary schools in the country and the first in Hawai'i.
The school has raised $10.2 million of the $12 million goal. About $1 million of the money raised will go into an endowment to help maintain the new building.
Students work with artist on sculpture
The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts will dedicate a new white granite sculpture representing the life-giving water of a watershed at 9 a.m. today at 'Aikahi Elementary School in Kailua, 281 Ilihau St.
The sculpture, called Ke Ahupua'a, is inscribed with graphics representing various phonetic alphabets, mathematical and scientific signs, and modern and ancient symbols from all over the world.
Students and teachers from the school worked with the artist, Nicholas Bleecker, to create the design. The effort is part of the Art in Public Places-Artists in Residence programs, which is a collaboration between the state Department of Education and the foundation.
The public is invited to the dedication.
Symphony program raises $20,000
The Honolulu Symphony's Youth Music Education Program received more than $20,000 in donations last week from a fund-raiser held as part of the grand opening of the new Morton's of Chicago restaurant.
The Symphony's Youth Music Education Program will give more than 50,000 students exposure to classical music this year. All proceeds from the fund-raising event will support the youth program.
"There's evidence in studies that students do better in all kinds of areas, and even have higher SAT scores, as a result of studying classic music," said Donna Bebber, director of development for the symphony. "Most public elementary schools don't have any kind of music education offered. They're covering everything else, but so many times people look at arts programs and see them as unimportant."
As part of the education program, students are invited monthly to the symphony's concert hall to listen. The symphony also has more than 10 ensembles that travel to local schools to perform. The bottom line is to expose students to classical music and teach them about the instruments.
The symphony believes music should be part of every student's learning experience and that music should be as important as reading and writing, because the exposure builds character and promotes self worth, Bebber said.
UH professors give more to food banks
The University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly, the union representing UH professors, has donated $50,000 to the Neighbor Island food banks. In October the group gave $100,000 to the Hawai'i Foodbank for needs on O'ahu. The union has vowed to raise enough in additional money to feed all of Hawai'i's needy during the holidays.
"Through a combination of ways we hope to give the various food banks as close to $200,000 as we can by Christmas," said UH professor Alexander Malahoff, president of the union. "That will come to something like 2 million pounds of necessary foodstuffs for Hawai'i's people in most direct need of help."
UH nursing school dean resigns
Rosanne Harrigan, dean of the School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene at the University of Hawai'i, has resigned to pursue other options after nine years that saw important growth and development in the school.
During her tenure, extramural financing increased 76 percent, a doctoral program was implemented and the school gained a state-of-the-art information technology system for distance learning. There also has been an increase in the breadth, quality and diversity of programs.
"Dean Harrigan has been a significant asset to the University of Hawai'i School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene over the past nine years, contributing to the growth of the school in research and academic reach," said UH-Manoa's interim chancellor, Deane Neubauer.
The university plans to appoint a search committee in January to recruit a new dean.
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Correction: Mid-Pacific Institute will break ground on an $11 million math, science and technology complex on Jan. 17. A story item Thursday based on earlier information from the school had an incorrect date. Weather conditions forced a rescheduling.
