The partnership marks the first formal partnership between a Hawaiʻi and Taiwan school
HONOLULU — Niu Valley Middle School yesterday held a Sister School Cooperation memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing ceremony with Guang Wu Junior High School from Hsinchu, Taiwan. The partnership marks the first formal partnership between a Hawaiʻi and Taiwan school.
The signing took place before Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, Director General Jerry Chang of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, area lawmakers, HIDOE leadership, teachers and students.
“It’s important to show our students that people from different countries and cultures can get along,” Niu Valley Middle School Principal Jeffrey Shitaoka said. “It’s important to show our students that working towards unity is worth it… We have shared responsibility to build bridges of understanding and mutual respect… We need [our students] to be builders of peace and friendships [as] our future leaders of hope.”
“Guang Wu Junior High School has long been committed to international education,” Principal Xin-Ten Huang said. “We hope that through exchanges, our students will learn to understand the world, respect differences, and work collaboratively with others. Today’s sister school signing represents an important starting point for us to broaden our students’ horizons and open up new possibilities together.”
Leading up to the formal sister school signing, Niu Valley Middle hosted 28 seventh and eighth graders and four staff members from Guang Wu Junior High on campus for the week. Guang Wu Junior High students and staff shadowed their Niu Valley Middle counterparts for three days to get a better understanding of what education looks like at Niu Valley Middle.
Niu Valley Middle students also shared cultural experiences with the Guang Wu Junior High School students, teaching them an oli, hula, lei making, spam musubi making and shave ice making, in addition to shared culturally collaborative experiences of singing, dancing, and playing sports. A joint field trip to a lo‘i also allowed students to experience firsthand the significance of kalo and the importance of taking care of the ʻāina.
Niu Valley Middle School is an International Baccalaureate World School, with the goal of preparing students for life in a globalized world, and developing young people who are active, knowledgeable and caring, and prepared for life in a global society. It was the first middle school in Hawaiʻi to be authorized as an International Baccalaureate World School, and is currently the only public middle school in the state to offer the Middle Years Programme.
