| PBA Hosts its 18th Lighting Our Way Banquet at the Kahala Hotel and Resort
Dear readers of the What's New,
Pacific Buddhist Academy and the Kahala Hotel and Resort hosted the 18th Lighting Our Way Banquet on Friday, November 14, an unforgettable culmination to months of planning, imagination, rehearsals and interviews and writing and revising and printing and sprinting and, deep breath, a 90-minute show with supper, gratitude, entertainment, and kinship. It’s almost hard to believe the event’s behind us. I only barely managed to drag myself out of bed the next day so I could get to the school and take the U-Haul back three minutes before deadline. What struck me this year, though, is that the Lighting Our Way program never really leaves us. In attendance to celebrate the important community contributions of Women Speaking Out, Dr. Amy Agbayani, Dr. Glenn Miyataki and the late Dr. Ko Miyataki, and Leigh-Ann Miyasato and Hoyt Zia were 21 previous honorees.
| The legacy of past honorees weaves into the future. In addition to the PBA alumni and alumni parents in attendance, 24 PBA seniors met with the honorees to learn more about what motivated them in their lives and careers and work. The stories of the honorees and the work that they do in the community will persist with the seniors long into the future. Much as the teachers might | | hope that their classroom lessons influence their students, we know from long experience that PBA students best remember the experiences that go beyond the classroom, the field trips, sports teams, taiko festivals, Soran Bushi training, and the time they spent with the honorees and tributes prepared for them at the banquet.
I am mindful of the Buddhist principle of impermanence. I value its lesson, that we must work to treasure each unrepeatable moment. But no single moment exists in isolation. Just as this year’s honorees were joined by an assembly of previous honorees, and the nearly 400 other guests, students, and staff who gathered together in the Maile Ballroom, so too were we joined by the achievements and efforts and energies of those we honored. Present at the Lighting Our Way Banquet was the many young people Juliet Lighter-Kamm and the staff of Women Speaking Out have benefited through their work to prevent dating violence. There that night was the countless Filipino and many other immigrant students and families touched by the advocacy work of Dr. Amy Agbayani. Called forth during Dr. Glenn Miyataki’s acceptance speech was the spirit of his wife Ko and their decades of work to build the business and healing networks from the Japan-America Institute of Management Science and Rehab Hospital of the Pacific. And Leigh-Ann Miyasato and Hoyt Zia, in their speeches, recognized the founders of PBA, including Leigh-Ann’s late father Dr. Albert Miyasato, and the civil rights work that she and Hoyt did in their amazing legal careers. There is an interdependent chain of being connecting us in the present – you and me, dear reader – and it also connects us, in powerful moments of ritualized togetherness, to our past actions and future possibilities. | | | As an educational institution, part of our job is to teach our students how to attend to specific moments. At PBA, we teach students principles of mindfulness and reflection, we teach them the value and kinds of relationships, we teach them to communicate effectively and to listen deeply. We educate them in the academic disciplines | | also, of course, and we do it very well. But I am fond of the learning that takes place in the moment seniors Ilan Ampudia and Maya Kamaura take the stage to introduce Leigh-Ann and Hoyt, or when senior Maya Galvez sings the lyrics to “Kiss the Rain” in tribute to the relationship between Ko and her husband Glenn. Those signal moments weave us in their spells, as it were, and call us back to our purpose of making our communities more harmonious and peaceful. As we are in the midst of the season of gratitude, I am grateful to all of you, the students and families, the faculty and staff, past and present, of PBA, the temple community, the educators, the vast assemblage making our work possible and our lives meaningful. As you gather together in the coming weeks with family and friends, I hope you take time to pause a beat, or take a breath, or raise a glass, or ring a bell, and thank all those past and present, making your moments possible as you have elevated ours. Have a great Thanksgiving holiday. | Warmly,
Josh Hernandez Morse
Head of School | PBA Dragon Spotlight 
Congratulations to the Dragon Mechs for taking home the Create Award for their innovative robot design and organizational skills.
Congratulations to freshman Raiden H. for taking first place in the Honua Scholars Pitch Competition, High School Persuasive Advocacy in STEM category.
Congratulations to freshman Aleigha J. in her Superior Performance award in the Novice Lincoln-Douglas Debate. | Karma Chronicle The Karma Chronicle is a student-led literary magazine focused on uplifting the voices of PBA students in a collaborative, creative environment. We publish a wide range of submission types, from research papers to visual art pieces. Students have the opportunity to write about whatever interests them, resulting in a publication that is diverse as it is informative. We hope you enjoy last trimester's issues! Click the images to read the newsletter. Thank you,
Maddie Wright
Editor & Head Writer 
| | OFFICE HOURS
7:30 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.
OFFICE CLOSED
November 27-28 - Thanksgiving Holiday | | |
