TMT launches fund for STEM education
The Thirty Meter Telescope has launched The Hawaii Island New Knowledge, or THINK, Fund to better prepare Hawaii Island students to master science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, and to become the workforce for higher paying science and technology jobs in Hawaii’s 21st century economy. TMT’s founding gift of $1 million marks the beginning of the construction phase of astronomy’s next-generation telescope on Mauna Kea.
The THINK Fund initiative benefits Hawaii Island students pursuing STEM endeavors with an annual contribution of $1 million over its existing 19-year Mauna Kea sublease with the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Two Hawaii foundations were selected by TMT, Hawaii Community Foundation and Pauahi Foundation, to administer THINK Fund distribution in scholarship and grant making platforms.
TMT’s annual $1 million contribution allocates $750,000 to THINK Fund at the Hawaii Community Foundation and $250,000 to THINK Fund at the Pauahi Foundation. The foundations will administer their respective THINK Funds independently and will have autonomy in administering grant funds, determining scholarship recipients and the selection and governance of advisory committees.
Grants were available by application to THINK Fund at Hawaii Community Foundation beginning Nov. 20 and will support a variety of Hawaii Island STEM student activities, internship programs and teacher-generated STEM classroom projects. Scholarships will support current and future STEM teachers on Hawaii Island as well as students pursuing STEM degrees and training. Scholarship applications will be online Monday.
THINK Fund at the Hawaii Community Foundation is open to all Hawaii Island students including Native Hawaiians, teachers with STEM classroom projects and organizations providing STEM and internship programs that directly benefit Hawaii Island. Apply at hawaiicommunityfoundation.org.
Scholarship programs will be the initial focus of THINK Fund at the Pauahi Foundation. Grant making is being considered for the future. THINK Fund at the Pauahi Foundation is open to Hawaii Island students with a preference given to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry to the extent permitted by law. Scholarship applications will be online Feb. 4 at pauahi.org
National Meth Awareness Week activities scheduled
The Hawaii Meth Project kicked off National Meth Awareness Week with student-led prevention programs on Oahu, Kauai, Maui and Hawaii Island, Nov. 30 to Saturday. This year’s theme, “Cherish,” asks Hawaii’s youth to consider what they value most in life that methamphetamine use could irrevocably alter.
Meth Awareness Week is supported by The Meth Project, a large-scale, teen-targeted prevention program of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, which aims to significantly reduce meth use through efforts including public service messaging and community outreach.
Central to the program’s success is the organization’s Teen Advisory Council, a select group of highly motivated students who help to raise awareness about the risks of meth use and provide a teen perspective on the campaign’s strategies and messages.
Advisory Council-led activities include sign waving fronting schools, assemblies with recovery speakers, meth prevention lessons, educational trivia and activities that encourage a meth-free lifestyle at Kohala Middle School on Friday. School-based initiatives are closed to the public.
Parker School students visit Maine
Twelve Parker students recently returned from three weeks in Camden, Maine. Two sophomores, eight juniors and two seniors traveled with Headmaster Carl Sturges to study as part of an exchange program run by Camden Hills Regional High School. The school is known for its exchange programs, particularly those it operates in Europe and Asia. The purpose of this exchange was for students to visit and learn about another part of the country and to meet new friends.
Parker’s itinerary included visits to Bowdoin, Colby and Bates colleges in Maine and Tufts and Northeastern Universities in Boston. Parker college counselor Joanie Brotman joined the group for this portion of the trip.
In addition to their studies in Maine and the college visits, the group enjoyed a day at Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, a lobster dinner for all the participants and their Maine host families, seeing the fall colors, ice skating and apple picking. The students also experienced the big storm that brought 10 inches of snow and caused school to be canceled for three days. Sturges said none of the kids complained, as they got to go sledding and have snowball fights.
Eight of the Parker students are debate team members and while there, they participated in the Bangor High Debate Invitational tournament. Parker took first place in both novice public forum and varsity public forum debate categories.