Sen. Mazie Hirono tours Molokai Middle School today

In her only scheduled stop on Molokai, U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono visited Molokai Middle School today as part of her continuing effort to champion Hawaii’s voice in Washington, D.C.

Sen. Hirono arrived at MMS shortly after 1 p.m. with the intent of seeing the school’s gardening program and its accomplishments in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), according to school Principal Gary Davidson.

“We put all our best people on this,” said Davidson. Student council representatives led Hirono on a guided tour of the school, including several STEM presentations.

During the tour, Hirono asked about the various garden beds and greenhouses throughout the campus. The garden beds and greenhouse, as well as the recently-built school halau, were established through many partnerships that MMS has formed with the larger community, according to Kelly Kawa’a Richardson, the school’s registrar and student activities coordinator, who helped organize the Hirono visit.

One of those partnerships that has just taken shape this year at MMS is with Sust’ainable Molokai, a local non-profit that created the Molokai School Garden Network. This network, supported by the Foodcorps program, now includes Molokai High School and Maunaloa Elementary School as well as MMS.

Also playing an important role in the development of the student gardens and STEM programs are the many teachers who have written grants, added Richardson. She also mentioned that teachers at the school have exposed students to STEM career opportunities during field trips.

Read the entire piece here: http://themolokainews.com/2013/12/02/sen-mazie-hirono-tours-molokai-middle-school-today/