Love at First Sight

As a fourth grade student at HPA, Meimei watched a group of students in the Upper School’s marine sciences program as they tagged juvenile Hawaiian green sea turtles on the beach near Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and Resort on the Big Island. For her, it was love at first sight. There was just something about those turtles.

Now a junior, Meimei is winning awards and traveling the world to tag, monitor, and study the turtles and raise awareness about this endangered species. In 2008, she was recognized with a Prudential Spirit of Community award as one of Hawaii’s top two youth volunteers. The Prudential awards, which honor young people nationwide for their outstanding acts of volunteerism, earned her a trip to Washington, D.C. She also has been to Japan, Midway Atoll, and New Caledonia on turtle tagging trips.

“At HPA, there are lots of opportunities for students to get involved in whatever they want to do,” she said. “The teachers are very supportive.” As for Meimei, she’s sticking with turtles. Her recent project was the “Growth Analysis of Juvenile Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas) by Gender,” under the direction of Marc Rice, director of HPA’s Sea Turtle Research Program.

Meimei, who came to HPA in kindergarten, is a day student from nearby Waimea. And there’s a lot more to her life here than just turtles. There are her studies, in which she excels in science and Spanish. She also participates in soccer and cross-country, where she’s recorded a time of 27:02 over HPA’s three-mile hillside course.

She also likes to spend some time relaxing in her spare time. “I like to hang out with friends and go to the beach,” she said. “I’ve been with some friends since kindergarten.”