HONOLULU \u2013 Kaw\u0101nanakoa Middle School educator Jade Pham became the latest recipient of the prestigious Milken Educator Award on Monday. Regarded as the “Oscar Award of Teaching,” the award recognizes exceptional teachers and comes with an unrestricted $25,000 cash prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pham was presented the award by Lowell Milken, chairman and co-founder of the Milken Family Foundation, Gov. Josh Green, M.D., Superintendent Keith Hayashi and other officials in a surprise school-wide assembly as students, teachers and staff members cheered her accomplishments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJade is an outstanding teacher who advocates for every student and works diligently to create high-quality learning opportunities for all grade levels at Kaw\u0101nanakoa,\u201d Superintendent Keith Hayashi said. \u201cHer engagement with her fellow teachers has created processes to improve students\u2019 academic and personal growth through data-driven problem solving and project-based learning. Her dedication to mentoring her colleagues and to improving student outcomes has elevated the entire school and we are truly grateful to have an exceptional educator like Jade on our team.\u201d
Pham shared that she immigrated to Hawai\u02bbi with her family as a toddler and attended public schools throughout her educational journey \u2014 from Linapuni Elementary and P\u0101lolo Elementary to Jarrett Middle and Kaimuk\u012b High School \u2014 while she grew up in public housing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in political science from Corban University in 2017, originally thinking she would go into the legal field. Upon returning home from college, she began teaching at her alma mater, where she discovered her passion for teaching and education. She went on to get her master\u2019s degree in education from the University of Hawai\u02bbi at M\u0101noa in 2019 and began her career as a special education and general education teacher.\u00a0
\u201cI do believe that I wouldn\u2019t be here today if it wasn\u2019t for all of my teachers that believed in me growing up,\u201d Pham said after receiving the award. \u201cAll and all it’s the teachers that really mentored me from when I was in preschool all the way up till today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2021, Pham made the move to Kaw\u0101nanakoa Middle and served as a special education and social studies teacher before assuming her current position as student services coordinator where she now provides direct support to all classrooms and works closely with teachers to ensure high-quality learning for all students.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pham received her National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification in February 2024 in recognition of meeting the highest standards for teaching, and was recently tapped by Kaw\u0101nanakoa Middle Principal Ronnie Victor to serve as a temporarily assigned vice principal for the school, which has an enrollment of 595 students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat kept me here is the love I have for my students,\u201d Pham said. \u201cEver since my first year, I\u2019ve developed very impactful relationships \u2014 not just the impact that I\u2019ve had on my kids but the impact that they\u2019ve had on me, always helping me to have a humble perspective on life.\u201d
The Milken Educator Awards program, which was launched by the Milken Family Foundation in 1987, has been described as “the Oscars of Teaching” by Teacher magazine.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are proud to recognize Jade Pham for her dedication to advancing student growth, mentoring teachers and forging strong relationships with parents and families,\u201d Lowell Milken said. \u201cJade\u2019s leadership early in her career is impressive and demonstrates her potential to positively impact the community and profession for years to come. We welcome Jade to the Milken Educator Network and thank her for making education her chosen career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pham is the 81st Hawai\u2018i teacher to receive the award since Hawai\u2018i joined the program in 1990. Hawai\u2018i recipients have received awards along with a total of over $2 million in prize monies.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HONOLULU \u2013 Kaw\u0101nanakoa Middle School educator Jade Pham became the latest recipient of the prestigious Milken Educator Award on Monday. Regarded as the “Oscar Award of Teaching,” the award recognizes exceptional teachers and comes with an unrestricted $25,000 cash prize. Pham was presented the award by Lowell Milken, chairman and co-founder of the Milken Family […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","wp_popup_display_lightbox":0,"wp_popup_suppress":"","wp_popup_trigger":"","wp_popup_trigger_amount":0,"wp_popup_disable_on_mobile":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":21,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Chanel Honda","author_link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/author\/chanel-hondak12-hi-us\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":21,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":21,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":306,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":21,"category_count":306,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 01:56:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_status","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}