Waialua teacher among finalists in contest for $1 million

Waialua High School’s Glenn Lee, who helped kick off Hawaii’s robotics movement, is the only American to reach the top 10 as a finalist out of 30,000 entries in the $1 million Global Teacher Prize competition.

The London-based Varkey Foundation created the award four years ago to elevate the role of teachers in society with the kind of purse that typically goes to movie stars and top athletes. Philanthropist Bill Gates announced the 10 finalists Tuesday.

Lee was thrilled to see the spotlight turn to rural Waialua High & Intermediate School on Oahu’s North Shore, where he helped launch the state’s first organized robotics program in 1999. That was just a few years after the Waialua sugar plantation shut down, throwing the town’s future in doubt.

“It puts us on the forefront,” Lee said in an interview Tuesday. “It would be different if we were in the paper because one of our kids won a surfing contest or a paddling contest, things related to what our community is known for. But to be celebrating an accomplishment based on STEM and robotics, I think that says something.” STEM refers to science, technology, engineering and math studies.

Lee, 47, graduated with an electrical engineering degree from the University of Hawaii and began teaching part time at Waialua while earning his M.B.A. He later got his teaching credentials through an expedited process.

Since Waialua pioneered robotics with its first club, the movement has mushroomed into 750 robotics programs statewide, involving students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Along the way it has reshaped the futures for thousands of kids — students like Malcolm Menor, a 2006 Waialua High graduate who started robotics as a freshman and went on to become a nuclear engineer at Pearl Harbor.

Now 30, Menor has been coming back ever since graduation to help “Mr. Lee,” as he still calls his former teacher, and the younger students in the Waialua program.

“He has had a major impact on students like myself,” Menor said. “He gives students confidence that they can set out to do more than what they think they can. Engineering seemed like such a big idea when I was in school. He made it seem realistic for me to go after an engineering degree.”

The robotics crew was planning to be on campus until 10 p.m. Tuesday working on their robot for an upcoming competition in Montreal. This latest recognition comes after a string of more than 200 awards for Waialua over the years in the VEX Robotics and FIRST Robotics competitions.

“This particular award, because there is a million attached to it, catches people’s attention,” Lee said. “This is a validation of all the people that have helped contribute to our program, our mentors, our former students, our school and our community.”

Robotics programs incorporate a wide range of skills — not just engineering, science and math, but also public speaking, graphic design, interview skills and teamwork.

“I run it like a business,” Lee said. “Everyone has their own differentiated roles, and they are forced to collaborate and integrate what they are doing with everyone else. The success of the project is highly dependent on everyone working together.”

The winner of the Global Teacher Prize will be announced March 18 in Dubai at the Global Education and Skills Forum. All the finalists are invited by the Varkey Foundation to the ceremony.

The other finalists are from Turkey, South Africa, Colombia, the Philippines, Brazil, Belgium, Australia, the United Kingdom and Norway.

Finalists are chosen based on their academic effectiveness and ability to help their students become global citizens. The award honors teachers who affected their students, their peers and the broader community, modeling excellence for their profession.

“I want to congratulate Glenn Lee for being selected as a top 10 finalist from such a huge number of talented and dedicated teachers,” said educational entrepreneur Sunny Varkey, founder of the prize. “I hope his story will inspire those looking to enter the teaching profession and also shine a powerful spotlight on the incredible work teachers do all over Hawaii and throughout the world every day.”

The 30,000 nominations and applications this year came from 173 countries. Lee, who won a Milken Educator Award in 2011, applied for the Global Teacher Prize after learning about the competition in an email from the Milken Foundation.

The prize will be paid in $100,000 installments over 10 years. The winner is expected to serve as an ambassador for the teaching profession and must remain as a classroom teacher for at least five years.

“When you think about what drives progress and improvement in the world, education is like a master switch — one that opens up all sorts of opportunities for individuals and societies,” Gates said Tuesday in announcing the list of finalists.

A Varkey Foundation video of Lee and his students in Waialua is available at globalteacherprize.org/2018-finalists.