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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.
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Writer Profile
Jay-R Patron
Jay-R Patron, 24 years old, currently works as content provider for a multinational IT consultancy firm, under its interactive marketing department.
He was a writer for Hawaii-based Greater Good Inc., a media company behind the much-acclaimed Greater Good Radio. The show promotes social entrepreneurship and servant leadership.
Jay-r is a Journalism and Communication and Media Studies graduate from the University of Southern Queensland.
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Comments
meddahi | Sep 8th, 2007
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم والصلاة والسلام على أشرف المرسلين وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين أما بعد .. ببعد التحية والسلام على أهل المحبة والإكرام
لقد أضفت إلى القصيدة 16بيت من الشعر أرجو أن تنال إعجابكم وبجانبي
صديقي الحميم
وهو طالب نجيب ذو قريحة قوية تعتمد على الحفظ والإستذكار
أتمنى له كل التوفيق ولكل الدارسين والدارسات آمبن
والله ولي التوفيق
الشاعر العصامي مداحي العيد هذه القصيدة من بحر الطويل 28/08/2007
قد انحــدر الدمــع من الأحـــداق ..... فـما أصـعـب الوجــد بعـد الفـراق...
لقد أرقــتـني بهـــواها في ليال قد....... عــوى الذئــبُ فيها من الإشتياق ...
فـما أعــــذب الحــبَّ إذا كان وافيا ....... تُـتـــمّهُ مكــــــــــارم الخـــلاق....
فذبت كما الشمع يذوب على ثوب......... العشيق ولـم يـدر من الإرهاق....
ولولا المحـــــبة التي ليَّـنت قلبا ........... فصارت عواطفه مثل البراق....
لكان الفؤاد كصوان الجـمادات .......... على النار يرمـــونه للإحتراق....
فأصبح من هوى الحبيبة عاطلا ......... كطــير أصـيبَ في جناح الأفاق....
فزالت عزائم الحــياة من القلب .......... تفـتَّتَ جــسم الفـتى كـالأوراق....
وما أهون الحبََّ الذي كان مبنيا ......... على النــــفع هيـّنٌ كمثل النفاق....
وما الحبُّ إلا نخلةٌ سمقت تُعطي......... لكُلّ مــن الأجــــــيال تمر المذاق.
وحر الهوى أذاب قطب المشاعر ........ كنـهـر جرت مياهه في السواقي
نمت به أشجار تــــدلت ثمارها ......... من الغصـن تـُقطـف من الإلتصاق ...
فكــيف سنشـعــر بقيمتـنا إن لم ......... نُـفـعــّلْ مــحـــــــبةً نأت بالطلاق ...
وهل ينفع العــناق إن كان قلبكَ ......... بعـــيدٌ كبعــد المشـــرقين واقي ...
إذا كان حبهم من القــلب يمكث .......... إذا بقيت أرواحــهم في الرماق ...
ونحن نحبذ المحـــبة إن كانت ........... مصـــادرها منــــابع الأشـواق...
إذا ما صفا القـــاعُ رأيتَ لآلئا ........... بريـقٌ صفــاؤها مع الماء راقي ....
لقد حيّرت بحسنها أعيُنا راغت......... إليــها بـــــــــلا رويــة كالبُــراق...
ولولا الغرام ما عرفتُ المحبة ........ التي شغــلت قــلـبا يريد التـلاقي...
فتى ً قد أصيبَ قلبُهُ من كدر الهوى...... هُمومٌ تراكمت على الأعناق...
لقد أرّقــــته أحـــــــــلامٌ تركّـبت........ من العشق إستحسانُه كالمذاق...
أتت تشتكي من شغف الحبّ قد أذى ..... مشاعرها من لوعةِ الإشتياق..
فقلتُ لها إصبري على العشق صبرا قد.....تنالين منه عـــزّةَ الأخلاق...
بكت من حرارة الجوى أدمُعا كوت ...... فؤادي ووجداني من الأعماق...
وقالت فكــيف يصبرُ القلبُ قبل أن ....... يرى القلبَ راض أمام الرفاق..
تحسرتُ باكــــيا علـيها وكـيف لا ...... تســيل دُمـــوعُنا مـن الأحداق
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