Evan: Welcome to Greater Good Radio Hawaii, where we develop tomorrow’s leaders by bringing you up close and personal with today’s top business people. Greater Good Radio Hawaii is dedicated to social entrepreneurship. I’m your host, Evan Leong and with me is my co-host, Kari Leong.
Kari: Thank you, Evan. Today’s guest is Joe Rice, President and CEO of Mid-Pacific Institute, a college preparatory school. He has received the Golden Apple Award for Education Excellence, Excellence in Education Administration Award, and the National Golden Acorn Award in the 1990s. Please welcome to Greater Good Radio, Joe Rice. Welcome to our show, Joe.
Joe: Hi.
K: So how did you get into the education field? You’ve been there for about 35 years, right?
J: 35 years now. Seems like a long time. Should retire. I just fell into it really. I was going to be a social worker and came down to my senior year and I was applying to the School of Social Work and found out that my foreign language wasn’t good enough to get in and all of a sudden I started thinking about what could I do? The counselors asked me about why did I want to go into social work and I said I want to give back. I have to do something to kind of give back for all the people that helped me in life and social work was a good avenue. And they said, well, there’s a whole bunch of other things you could consider and one of them was education which was my first thought. Senior year of college… education.
E: So if we could go a little but farther back from that, can we talk a little bit about maybe some of the background things that made you want to go into social work or education? Why would you want to go into something like that?
J: Well, looking back on life, I think a lot of people would say my life growing up was a little different than many children. I’m the oldest of twelve. My family basically worked crops from the time I was about three years old until I started my sophomore year in high school and we basically went from the lower part of California up to Canada doing field crops, living in tents, just going from job to job to job for many years. I think probably out of all those years, about two of them that we actually had a house that we rented and lived in and then something would happen and we would have to move often in the dead of night and so because of our lifestyle
E: Did you just pick up your household and leave?
J: Well we had a Ford station wagon and we basically put our belongings on the lower floor, took out the seats in the back, loaded it up with our stuff, blankets on the top and then the kids would just kind of lie on the top and we’d just go from season to season, farm to farm, working crops. My stepfather wasn’t always the best of fathers, drank a lot. Later in my life my mom also drank a lot. There was a lot of poverty and sorrow in your life it leads a lot of people to do things that maybe other families wouldn’t do, so we ended up with a lot of abuse in our family, a lot of times going hungry, no jobs, looking for a place to stay or food to eat, and it seemed that there was always groups that would step forward to help us when things were the most desolate. Salvation Army helped us a lot, the first church I ever went to partly because I felt good about their mission, Social Services, welfare, all of those folks helped us a lot after really rough times. I think I was in foster care about four times including my brothers and sisters. We’d be taken away and be put in different homes and things, but cared for, and then returned back to our home which was a car and we’d get up and go again. A couple of times we were collected from our foster families by our dad and mom, you know, called outside. I’m not sure how they found out where we were and we’d pack up in a car and off we’d go. But we had plenty of help from lots of people and it just stuck in my mind that if I ever had an opportunity, I was going to give back.
E: Can you share a story of maybe somebody that had helped you and maybe it was a turning point for you?
J: You know there’s so many as I look back on it. And this is growing up through high school. There’s so many things that happen. It’s hard to pick just one. I know there was a time when because I worked in the fields, I actually went to school in a camp tent that was set up by the Department of Education in the farm, and you would go there and meet people. I remember that when I was very young, too young to start school, they would still let me go in there and sit with the younger group, and so actually I learned to read and do some of the academic things earlier than a lot of kids did, but the teacher would let me because she knew that back at my little cabin or whatever we were staying at, sometimes a tent, a good chance the parents weren’t there and I was just alone so I was a three or four-year-old so they just let me sit in on the classes. That was meaningful to me. I remember in high school taking French as my foreign language and starting later than most people do since I hardly ever went to school, that my French wasn’t that good. I practiced the dialogue in my head but nobody else to speak with. I’d go to class and everyone would get up and do their (French speaking) speeches and I couldn’t do it. The teacher actually was from Spain but she spoke fluent Spanish, Japanese, excuse me, Spanish and French, and was from the area between Spain and France and knew about being kind of torn between cultures and a poor life and stuff so she had a lot of sympathy and empathy for me, so she never asked me to get up and give my dialogues. She would always say, “That’s okay, Joe. I know that you didn’t have time to practice and things.” And I got a decent grade, like a C, even though you love them, how can you give them an A or B when they can’t do the dialogue? But what happened was later in college, I took a couple more years of French and I again worked every year of college, full-time job, and went to school. So I very seldom did all of the work and assignments, but I had a very good memory and so I’d do okay on the tests, but when it came time to take the French exams, I couldn’t do it. And partly because of the leniency, if you want to call it, or compassion that people showed me on the way, not allowing me to get up and embarrass myself in front of others. But because of that decision, I couldn’t get into school social work, but because of that decision, I was directed toward consideration of education and it became the love and passion of my life. So all because of somebody’s compassion and help for me, which could be looked at negatively or positively, I made a decision. And I have plenty of those. I have folks in my life that have come forward and taken me away when my father was after me for beatings and things and they’d hide me. How do you ever pay them back when they were risking themselves against my dad because they’d be friends of his, all kinds of examples of that, but anyone I would say it’s’ been a lifetime of people stepping forward for me and my brothers and sisters.
K: So Joe, because you were moving so much with your family, how did you keep a positive outlook in life looking forward what you had in your future?
J: Actually I didn’t have a positive outlook in life. I felt, you know, looking back on it, I felt bad. One thing that kept me going is my mother who protected me. She took beatings so that I didn’t have to. She hid me when she knew that my dad was looking for me. She just cared for me. I would say that first off that I’m the only son of the twelve, I have five brothers, six sisters. I’m the only one that’s not the full brother. I found out later in life that I had another father, but she knew that I was always the brunt of his drunken tirades and stuff. Easy to blame… you’re the oldest… why aren’t you doing your part? Why aren’t you this? Why aren’t you that? So she protected me a lot. I remember that well. I forgot the question.
K: Oh I was just wondering how could you keep the focus on your future? You still went to college which is really great.
J: Yes. Again because people helped me. But there were certain things that happened in my life. A couple key points in time that if you look back, I would say that was the day I made my decision not to be this way. My family would always say I was always different. I didn’t react with violence. I didn’t go out and do mean things. Some of our family members did do that. Others would steal food for the family. I would go ask if they would give it to us. Just different ways of going about the same thing, but I think I was always a little different. I was pretty feeling this was life was like. I didn’t know any others. I didn’t know friends that didn’t have the other side of the life, you know. I didn’t know any better. Our life was make it through the day in mostly hot weather and you’re either cold, hungry or just worried about life and stay away from your dad so you don’t get hurt. Get food, get whatever. Collect things to get money to buy bread for the brothers and sisters. All those things, that was kind of the life and I didn’t see anything better for the longest time. Just came a point, I don’t know if I mentioned this to you before, Evan, but I ran away from home in my senior year about half-way through and I had decided that if my dad came back that night after he had beaten my mom up real bad and I was scared to help her, and I had gone in to comfort her as she lay on the floor and my brothers and sisters were there looking at me, why aren’t you there helping? Why are you hiding in the closet? But he had hurt one of my twin sisters earlier, I have twins right below me. Then hurt my mom real bad and I made my mind up that he was never going to do that again, so I took a knife to bed and I waited. And when he came back about three in the morning, the door was locked, he knocked it off its hinges, came after me, had his belt he usually loved to hit us with that belt, and he started swinging at me while I was under the covers and I just snapped and I went after him with a knife, stabbed him many, many times and never once anywhere that got anything, though he was a bloody mess and my family ran in and jumped him and said, “Run. Run.” I ran away that day and hid in the vineyards close to where we lived for two or three days and I heard that he had gone out looking for me with a shotgun. Finally he got enough courage to go and ask for help and some friends at a local convenience store near our house called Social Services. They came and picked me up and I was put in foster care. My family was barred from coming to the school and I finished high school. I worked in the fields that summer after high school and made money to buy a bus ticket from California to Washington State and away I went. Didn’t come back for about seven years before I saw my family again. But it was a decision that I will not allow this anymore. He won’t do this anymore and I’m not going to be a victim anymore. And so that was the first time I really stood up as a man and made a decision that one, I will never drink, I will never beat a woman, I will never harm anybody that way, and I won’t live this way. And this caused me grief many times because if you’re leaving your brothers and sisters behind, they don’t understand why you’re not there for them. And I just tried not to think about it for the longest time.
K: Thanks for sharing your personal story with us, Joe.
E: So Joe, how did you actually end up in Hawaii?
J: Well that’s an interesting story. I guess I go back clear to my service in the Peace Corps in the early 70s, first in Afghanistan for two years and then Micronesia and Saipan and Mariana Islands for two years, and stayed for another six, so I became familiar with island life, Polynesian people, and it was in retrospect some of the best times I’ve ever had. But I returned to Washington State as a teacher and later as a principal of a school. I was working in North Seattle, head of a public school, pre-K through 8th grade. It was a magnet school program, multi-age, non-graded, and over that 12 years that I was there became fairly well known for educational innovations, showing that a public school can do anything that anybody else can do and that the unions won’t stand in your way and all these things. But one day I just got a call from a colleague that I knew as a consultant. And he called me up out of the blue and he said, “Could we have breakfast?” And I thought, “Okay. Sure.” Went to Denny’s and sat there for two hours while he asked me about teachers and education curriculum, teaching strategies and all this, and I found out he was a new principal at Mid-Pacific Institute in Hawaii. So I put the two-to-two together and said, “Oh. He wants the wisdom of my twelve years as a principal.” And as we were going to the parking lot and getting in the car, he says, “Oh by the way, our President’s retiring. Are you interested?” And I guess I found out then it was actually kind of a mini-interview. I said, “Well I’m not sure what a President does, but I’ll talk to my family.” He says, “If you are interested, I’d be happy to send you the materials.” They did, I applied last of six to interview, and I was offered the job before I got on the plane back to Seattle. That’s kind of how it came about.
E: So what’s been going on at Mid-Pac? I know that there’s a lot of things happening and maybe you can share some of the highlights of what’s been going on.
J: I think I found when I first came that it was one of the best-kept secrets in Hawaii. A wonderful place with a long history of service to not only Hawaii but the people of the South Pacific, and I just love the place. But you look at all the things you’re doing and of course you know that there is nothing that’s perfect. I don’t care what the school is or business or anything. There’s always things you can do to improve. One of the things I spent time on is looking at the educational process, what our teachers were doing, what they had for support and resources, and try to do something about that. We also looked at some of the structural things. I’ve been there now, this is my tenth year, about four years in, we decided to add sixth grade. We were a seven through twelve college preparatory school. We added sixth and then proceeded on to make the sixth, seventh and eighth a middle school, following the best educational research in how to educate young adults, young adolescents in a middle school grouping. A couple of years ago, I convinced the board that it would be in our best interest to have an elementary, that if you take a look at some of the best schools in Hawaii, private I’m talking a bout, you will see that they’re K-12. I also made a strong case for very early childhood education and so we added a pre-school, so we decided we would build our own from grade by grade which some schools are doing, we would go out and buy one or we would go out and affiliate ourselves closer with a school. We ended up merging with Epiphany as our elementary. They were small, about 140 some kids and they were K through 6. Today they’re pre-K with three and four-year-olds through fifth grade and they have 250 kids. So that has been added to the program. We’ve emphasized that the school, our belief in our importance of the arts for every child, and it was always a big thing at Mid-Pacific. It’s even more of a core to what we do and then certainly not finally, but on a bigger scene, our commitment to math, science and technology has moved ahead in a big way in programs that we offer and also in facilities.
K: So Joe, you’re on the Board for the Queen’s Health Systems. Could you tell us how you’re involved and what exactly you do?
J: Well that’s good. What do I do? Since I’m not a health care professional, I don’t know if I should say this, but I did have a serious kidney problem and I went in because I was throwing up constantly and I went to emergency and I had never seen such care given to a person. And through that finding out that I had an intestinal problem, I found out that I had a big tumor on my kidney too. But they took care of me and I was so pleased that the in-depth diagnosis they had done to check out everything about me and find this that I felt I would forever owe them. Now that was kind of the background, but Robert Osharo who was head of the Queen’s Board at that time, was moving off the Board, and he happens to be a graduate of Mid-Pacific Institute, and he knew a lot about me and the school and he said I think Joe would be a good person to bring a different perspective to the Board. And so he asked me if elected, would I serve? And so he put forth my name and I accepted because I believe, one, in the mission of Queen’s, but also that I owe them for my life and I would do anything for them and this is one way I can give back.
K: And the Rotary of Honolulu Sunrise.
J: Well you know I knew nothing about Rotary. I have to give credit to my Board of Directors that they wanted me to get out into the community as a new President of the school and they knew that you will see many of the people that make a difference in Hawaii, business leaders of Hawaii in Rotary. And that will also give you an opportunity to do things in the community to provide service to others so they recommended I check it out, so one of our Board Members, Don Kim, took me around and I found a Rotary Club of Honolulu Sunrise which was like coming home. Wonderful group of all ages doing wonderful things and so I joined and it’s been one of the more organized ways to provide service to your community that I’ve been in with caring people that are dedicated to service above self.
K: Are you able to give us an example of some of the service things that you folks have done together?
J: Well for the longest time, we had a reading program. We actually started an oral reading program, “Read to Me” program that has now gone on to other states. It started with our Rotary Club, but we provided reading people to the kindergarteners, first and second graders at Royal School, every Monday, faithfully. We did that for years. And that took a lot of time for business leaders and CEOs to do that but we loved it. We have helped paint the streets, cleaned schools, other service organizations, non-profits have very little money, we will go in there and help paint or repair, clean up, always looking for good projects. We are right now supporting an orphanage of about 250 children in Cambodia and most of the Rotary members of our club, there’s about close to 70, I’d say the greater majority of them have taken on a foster kid in Cambodia. I have one named “Hooch,” 14-year-old boy, that’s parents have, you know, all things in Cambodia haven’t always been nice and so many of these kids have lost their family, but our club has stepped up with other Rotarians to act as foster parents to these kids, so that’s an example.
E: Thank you so much, Joe, for joining us today on Greater Good Radio Hawaii. This is your host, Evan Leong and Kari Leong, saying please join us next time for another episode of Greater Good Radio Hawaii.
« return.