An anonymous donor has given $10 million to Mid-
Pacific Institute, the largest gift in the Manoa private school’s history. And while officials say the money is crucial for improving the school’s sustainability and student financial aid, ripple effects of a growing teacher-
training program there will reach far beyond the campus to benefit students in public schools, charter schools and other private schools.
Previously the largest gift the school had ever received was just over $2 million. The $10 million donor asked to remain unnamed so that the focus remains on education, Mid-Pacific President Paul Turnbull said in an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Turnbull declined to say whether the donor was an alumnus.
Mid-Pacific in the past has not made fundraising a high priority, Turnbull said. The gift came as school officials have been talking with potential donors about supporting Mid-Pacific’s focus on “what the future looks like” in education and industry, he said, and it will help Mid-Pacific’s endowment respond to rising costs and rapid changes in education and society.
The gift also helps the school move closer to a goal of providing tuition financial aid to every family who needs it.
“I would love to have a need-blind environment … where any student from any walk of life could come here to Mid-Pacific and not have to worry about any finances at all,” Turnbull said.
Currently about 30% of Mid-Pacific’s 1,350 students receive financial aid. For
students in all grades, preschool through 12th grade, Mid-Pacific’s tuition next year is $28,611.
The gift also will enable some capital improvements to the 43-acre campus, including an upgrade of middle school facilities and the addition of a track and field complex.
Some of the money also will help expand the Center for Advancing Education, an umbrella term for a set of Mid-Pacific programs focused on education innovation.
The center includes the teacher-training program known as Kupu Hou, where teachers learn how to deliver instruction using Mid-
Pacific’s “deeper learning” model.
Mid-Pacific has left behind the traditional 20th century “memorize and forget” model of schooling, Turnbull explained. Instead, the deeper learning approach contends that students learn best when they’re allowed to inquire about the world around them and let their emotion and curiosity lead, thus making learning personal and lifelong.
Mid-Pacific has been training teachers from outside the school since 2016. It was reaching 200 teachers per year before the pandemic, exceeded 300 teachers annually as of January, and is on track to reach 400 per year by May 2023, Turnbull said.
So far the program has trained enough teachers
to positively affect nearly 100,000 Hawaii students,
he said. Turnbull has nicknamed it “the million child project” and estimates that many students can be reached if the program can grow enough to train about 500 teachers per year over five or six years.
Meanwhile, the center’s Global Exchange Academy is piloting innovative ways to deliver instruction in topics that enhance regular coursework.
This summer, students can choose from online or partly online courses; fully in-person courses; and shorter “stackable micro-
courses” that add up for credit. The wide-ranging subjects include the science behind fishing lures, anxiety reduction, college preparedness and cryptocurrency.
