| PBA Go Club Participates in Kisei-sen Tournament Experience
Dear readers of the What's New,
When the idea of starting a “Go Club” at PBA was first pitched to me last year by Advancement Director Megan Lee, I can’t say I was very familiar with the complexities of the game. I knew of its long history in the East and its ties to Buddhism, but had never tried playing it. However, accepting a recent invitation from the Japanese Consulate to attend the Kisei pre-match reception opened my eyes to the strong cultural ties Go fosters between our students and the broader Japanese community.
| Go is a strategic board game in which two players compete to control and defend territory. While it is played around the world, the Kisei-sen Go Tournament is considered Japan’s most prestigious Go competition. At the reception, Governor Josh Green greeted this year’s competitors, Ryo Ichiriki and Toramaru Shibano. The next day, I was off to the Sheraton to bring the PBA Go Club students to participate in Kisei activities alongside professional players. Students first joined players from across the island for live commentary and a play-by-play viewing of the multi-day tournament. They then moved into a separate room, where professionals Michael Redmond and Yi-Min Hsieh led simulation games, challenging students to sharpen their strategies. | | | PBA's Go Club members were joined by members of the Honolulu Go Club, including Sid Kobashigawa, PBA’s dedicated Go Club volunteer teacher. Even after absorbing so much of the language and strategy of Go, I can’t win a match against our students, but I will keep trying. What I did gain, however, was a deeper appreciation for the intellectual discipline the game demands, the community it builds, and the broader connections it sustains. One such connection is how the Go Club supported PBA’s film class by serving as the focus of its most recent HIKI NŌ video, which aired on PBA Hawai‘i at the end of last year. The idea was pitched by Go Club member and film student Takumi Darby and features fellow students Jonah Edelman and Kodi WuChang. Though it is just a one-minute video, I hope you will take a moment to watch the video, celebrate the many talents of our PBA students, and perhaps learn something new about the game of Go. |
Warmly,
Josh Hernandez Morse
Head of School
| | Peace in Motion at the PBA Walk/Run January marked the conclusion of PBA’s annual Walk/Run for Peace campaign, held in support of families in need of tuition assistance. This year, the school community raised $19,547, helping ensure that PBA can continue supporting the high percentage of | | 
| families who request financial aid each year. The student with the highest fundraising totals, both in dollars raised and number of individual donors, was senior Ilan Ampudia. Ilan also earned this distinction last year and has participated in every Walk/Run since joining PBA. “The Walk/Run for Peace takes place on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so I think of it as living out the values of nonviolence, peace, and unconditional love,” said Ilan. Other top fundraisers in their respective grade-level categories included Donovann Browne (11th grade), Puana Thompson (10th grade), Millona Kim (9th grade), and Kumu Taite (staff). | This school year, the school awarded $184,667 in tuition assistance. As both requests for aid and financial need continue to rise, PBA is deeply grateful to everyone who participated in the Walk, donated in support of a student or faculty member, or helped spread the word about the event. Your generosity allows us to continue building practitioners of peace and ensuring that a PBA education remains accessible to families who need it most. 
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