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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, October 23, 2003

Education briefs

Advertiser Staff

Schindler named state librarian

Jo Ann Schindler, who has been acting state librarian since July, has been named state librarian by the Board of Education.

Schindler, who replaces Virginia Lowell, is working out the details of a three-year contract. The state library system has 50 branches.

Libraries have sought to overcome budget cuts that forced branches to reduce hours and other services this year.


Observatory wins education award

Mauna Kea's Gemini Observatory has received the Gabriella Mistral Medal in honor of its outstanding efforts in international astronomy education through the StarTeachers exchange program.

It was the first time the medal, awarded by the Chilean Ministry of Education, has been given outside of Chile. It is named for Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Gabriella Mistral.

The Gemini Observatory is an international collaboration that built two identical telescopes, one located at Mauna Kea and the other at Cerro Pachon in central Chile, providing full coverage of both hemispheres of the sky.

The StarTeachers program offers exchange opportunities between the Gemini host communities of Hilo and La Serena, Chile. It was created by the observatory and is financed in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Last October, three Hilo teachers spent two weeks in Chile and visited more than 4,900 students. Chilean officials said the impact was dramatic, and included a threefold increase in the number of students in astronomy clubs. This month a group of Chilean teachers will spend two weeks in Hawai'i.


Japanese students to visit Moanalua

More than 350 students from Hiroshima Kokutaiji Senior High School will visit Moanalua High School, its sister school, tomorrow in the second year of a cultural exchange program.

The Japanese school's junior class is making the trip, which will include hula and dance workshops and making Spam musubi.