Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

The state of Hawai’i, remarkably, only has one Mandarin immersion program. It’s at Maryknoll School and launched in the 2017-2018 school year.

Now a gift from a former pupil is allowing that program to expand.

Maryknoll alumnus Douglas Ho presented the Catholic schools with a red Chinese envelope which has in it a check for $225,000. It’s a grant from Ho, who graduated from the K – 12 school in 1960.

The gift, announced on Feb. 8, will allow the school to expand Hawaii’s only school-day Mandarin immersion program through 6th grade six.

You can read more about the program here.

And here’s a nice article about it.

And here’s an NPR piece about the program where you can listen in on a first grade class.