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| PBA’s Louisville Adventure – An Exploration of National Talent With Riho Umitani
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| Dear Readers of the What's New, |
| Though our fourth airport in fourteen hours – HNL to LAX to DTT to SDF – we knew we had made Louisville, Kentucky as we walked to baggage claim by the endless banners promoting Bourbon Row. We had flown there, rising sophomore Riho Umitani, her father Rev. Toshiyuki Umitani, and I – for the National Speech and Debate Championships of the National Speech and Debate Association. Queuing at the car rental line, we met students and debate coaches from all over – Connecticut, Texas, Oregon – with their various debate team hoodies, excitement, and nerves. |
| We would spend the next five days in Louisville. Riho, who had placed second in the Informative Speaking category in the Hawaii Speech League’s state championship tournament with her speech entitled, "Episode 18: the True Crime Dilemma,” would perform it eight times. Though Riho did not make the first cut – after crunching the numbers from the tournament, competitors from across the country – we learned quite a lot about what it takes to rise to the top at the national level: Competitors
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| must bring their best performance to each and every round. Winning requires ranking in the top three in over 14 rounds of competition and three cuts. But there were many lessons to take away from an experience like that other than examining exceptionalism. I will let Riho speak for herself: “Being able to attend the National Speech and Debate Tournament held in Kentucky was one that I will be forever grateful for,” she said. “Through this wonderful experience, I had the chance to observe and learn from each of my competitors about what makes a good speech and debater. I also got to experience the joys of traveling and making new friends! Also, thank you so much to all the supporters who helped in donating and making this trip possible. It was thanks to your help that I was able to experience this incredible opportunity.” |
| Riho, Rev. Umitani and I loved the food (we enjoyed barbecue, Cuban, mussels from the Gulf and burgers from the grill). We loved watching the finalists compete in a grand arena filled with more than 5,000 spectators. I also enjoyed judging eight rounds of competition in two full days of work. And most of all, we enjoyed, after more than two years of lockdown, being able to travel again, and being with all of those youth with bright minds and passionate points of view. Like Riho said, our travel was made possible by PBA families, supporters, temple members |
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| from around the state of Hawaii, not to mention the airline professionals that brought us to Kentucky, and the Kentuckians that fed us and took care of us in 98 degree heat at their convention center and elementary schools and middle schools. The journey was a grand education in the beauty of language and discourse. The competitors represented the great diversity of our nation and the promise of future leaders that will guide our world’s progress. The journey filled me with hope. I pledge that, this year, the Dragons Speech and Debate Club will double our efforts to qualify even more students for nationals in future years. Warmly, Josh Hernandez Morse |
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| PBA Welcomes Teacher Ryan Curry From Meriden, Connecticut |
| Mr. Ryan teaches physics and math core classes as well as an intro to computer programing elective. “A little further down the line, I hope to offer an astronomy elective as well,” said Mr. Ryan, who studied the topic while majoring in physics and minoring in mathematics and computer science at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Additionally, Mr. Ryan’s achievements include co-writing an article titled Recognizing and |
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| Realizing Inductively Pierced Codes along with authors R. Amzi Jeffs, Nora Youngs, and Ziyu Zhou. The article is in the process of being published and focuses on spatial awareness and memory in the brain and the geometries of how different regions of space stored in the brain can overlap. Mr. Ryan explained some of the connections he’s made between Hawaii and the east coast saying, “Colby College is a liberal arts school and my experience there has inspired me to emphasize the interconnectedness of all different subjects in my classes here at PBA. I have a passion for seeing how different disciplines are related and want students to make connections for themselves as well. For example, geometry shows up in art, physics concepts connect to biology and chemistry, and computer programing can even be used to make music.” |
| Some other experiences that Mr. Ryan is excited for include watching the students develop throughout the year and enjoying the culture of Hawaii through events such as the student taiko festival. “It’s been an amazing experience traveling to the state of Hawaii,” said Mr. Ryan. “Meriden is known for its Daffodil Festival every April, where we have 600,001 daffodils. I don’t know who counts them all! Because I love nature so much, I’m excited to hike the beautiful trails here and continue to explore more areas of the island.” Senior Chase Sukekane said, “Mr. Ryan makes a lot of funny jokes in class and has |
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| a great personality, which makes a subject like math more bearable! All jokes aside, I’ve really enjoyed learning from him and his passion for knowledge is infectious.” PBA looks forward to having Mr. Ryan on-board and all of the expertise he has to offer. |
| Student Activity
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Japanese 2 class celebrated summer by playing Suikawari (or watermelon smashing)
PBA's first temple service of the new school year| Shop on Amazon? |
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| Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible AmazonSmile purchases to PBA at no cost or fees to the shopper! AmazonSmile is available at smile.amazon.com on your web browser and can be activated in the Amazon Shopping app for iOS and Android phones. It's a great way to make your online purchases count for more! |
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1754 Lusitana Street, Honolulu, HI 96813
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