Hawai'i Preparatory Academy Lower School students presented Ho'ailona Ho'omaika'i E Na Paniolo (Salute to the Hawaiian Cowboy), on May 2. The event, held at the school’s Gates Performing Arts Center, paid tribute to the paniolo through hula and songs. This year’s program was dedicated to Headmaster Dr. Olaf Jorgenson.

 

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Lower School students collected 227 pounds of food that was donated to the Hawaii Island Food Bank.  This service project was organized by the Lower School student council.

 

 

Hawaii Preparatory Academy riding program students, instructors, and other local horse enthusiasts recently participated in a two-day polo clinic at HPA conducted by Wilbur C. O'Ferrall, field director with the Polo Training Foundation. Franz "Dick" Solmssen, who heads the HPA horse program, instructors Judy Folk and Joan Maute, and volunteers Paula Beamer and Tom Peterson, organized the event.

 

O'Ferrall, who also helps organize the Intercollegiate and Interscholastic Polo Programs for the United States Polo Association, reviewed the basic rules and the polo swing on foot using shorter “foot mallets” and the inflated arena-type ball.

Beginner to advanced riders mounted HPA or privately-owned horses to compete in field practice games at a walk-trot speed for the novices and accelerated to a slow canter for the more experienced. Despite a few tired arms, all riders gained a better understanding of the game.

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Middle and Upper School students represented HPA at the Eighth Annual Coral
Reef Awareness/Earth Day Fair held recently at Kahalu'u.  Student shared
information about their work with sea turtle conservation under the
direction of Middle School science teacher Laura Jim and HPA's Sea Turtle
Research Program director, Marc Rice.

Laura Jim's seventh grade science students use quadrats to identify coral reef zonation at Crystal Cove.