Last Friday, we launched our crowd-funding campaign to raise much needed funds for the future of Akoyikoyi’s kids. Check it out and please support this great cause.

Beyond Elementary: Future Education Fund for Akoyikoyi’s Kids

Akoyikoyi School kicked off February with Sprit Week!! Monday, the first, was Founder’s Day. We remembered and celebrated the life of Akoyikoyi School founder, Ketani Graham. Tuesday through Friday included activities like crazy hair day, coconut husking and basket weaving races, a talent show, and local day. This was a very exciting week that included student, staff and parent participation.

Coach Newell paid our school a visit and discussed the importance of sports and hard work with our students. Xavier students, Natasha and Nathan also participated in Spirit Week by teaching our students how to weave. We truly value this collaboration and support between visitors, as well as neighboring schools. School spirit was through the roof, and we would like to thank everyone who helped make this week a success.

With the 2014 – 2015 school year officially behind us, Akoyikoyi School has begun looking forward to next year and is currently offering summer programs for enrolled students. Please download and take a look at our first official Akoyikoyi Annual Report to see news and events from throughout the past year.

Kinisow Chapwur!

Download Here:

Akoyikoyi Annual Report 1

The Oceania Wrestling Championships were held March 20 – 22 in Majuro, Republic of Marshall Islands and featured strong performances from several Chuukese wrestlers. Julius Koto, Keinichy Rudolph and Giveme Cheipot all earned medals at the competition and wrestled hard in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman formats.

Akoyikoyi School was recently recognized by the organization Teaching Tolerance as a Mix-It-Up Model school, a true testament to the positive attitude we work hard to cultivate at the school. For the past three years, Akoyikoyi has participated in the Mix-It-Up Lunch program, a event designed to bring people from different cultures together in the spirit of breaking down barriers between people of different backgrounds to allow students the opportunity to see how many commonalities we all share. We have partnered with Xavier High School for this event as students from Yap, Palau, Pohnpei, Phillipines, Kosrae, Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands, Korea, and Chuuk have come to speak to the youth at Akoyikoyi about the customs and culture of their home.

We are truly honored to be one of only 100 schools to have received this recognition, and one of only two international schools, the other located in Israel. Teaching children tolerance is something that we value very highly and we will continue striving to teach our students the value of respecting people of all nationalities and backgrounds so that we can provide the safest, most positive learning experience possible.

March 7th, 2015 marked the second Keitani Graham Wrestling tournament held up at Xavier High School. Turn out for the event was great as there were 22 high school wrestlers competing as well as over 20 elementary age students of all ages.

Although this post is several weeks late at this point, it is important to touch on the effect of Typhoon Maysak on the local communities, and Akoyikoyi as a school.

Hearing that the storm was coming to Chuuk, Australian Volunteer Martyn Burne and I went to Akoyikoyi Center/School. Soon we were joined by Jesuit Volunteers Chris and Melanie. We put computers, printers and other equipment in cupboards and moved things to what we felt were safe places. We moved some desks and tables and other storage things.

Sunday the storm came with an unexpected fury.

Fortunately our school sustained only minor rain damage and mud splattered walls and cabinets, water on the floor and some wet student workbooks that had to be replaced. Telephone poles and lines were and so we were without island power, Internet & phone service, but we are OK! In spite of the typhoon, 14 students came Monday.

The staff came together and worked all day cleaning, straightening and organizing. We were also joined by World Teach nurse Hwoi Min and several other World Teach instructors. They conducted a health clinic offering advice and help to those with medical issues.

Tuesday we opened! We were the only school in the state offering classes and we had over 2/3rds of our students show up. We did this, feeling it was important, for several reasons:

1. School is important and we don’t want to just take time off.

2. Children need order in their lives. They need to be able to count on some things, and school offers this.

3. We felt if we had the kids back that we could find out if they had clothes, food, etc., and get things back to normal as soon as possible.

4. We wanted them to continue getting the daily Manna Relief, high vitamin and nutrient rich powder, our kids take everyday.

January 26th – January 29th was a great time for basketball in Chuuk, as former professional Coach Tom Newell visited Chuuk along his tour through Oceania in order to promote the sport of basketball and assist in setting a base for future success within the state.

Mr. Tom Newell has a long history of coaching basketball, a skill that has taken him all over the world including time in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), Greece, Japan, China, Korea, Russia, and the list goes on and on. He is now an sports ambassador for the U.S. State Department teaching coaches and players about the game of basketball.

To find out more about him, check out his website: http://www.coachtomnewell.org/

In his time in Chuuk, Coach Newell was incredibly busy making motivational speeches to local students and youth as well as running basketball and coaching clinics to share some of his vast knowledge with the local communities.

Coach Newell ran basketball clinics at:

• Penia Sene
• Xavier High School
• Chuuk High School
• Berea High School
• College of Micronesia
• Saramen Chuuk Academy

He also ran a coaches clinic during the morning at Truk Stop for any local coaches that were interested in attending.

The final way in which he helped establish the grounds for basketball in Chuuk was the creation of the Chuuk Coaches Association which will be responsible for the governing of the sport and local coaches.

Thank you Coach Newell for your visit and assistance in establishing the great sport of basketball here in Chuuk!

Akoyikoyi School recently received a certificate from the Federated States of Micronesia Department of Education as a 3-year accredited school. During the 2013-2014 school year, accreditation teams sent out by the DOE traveled all over the state of Chuuk to inspect and check in with every public school currently operating. These committees were tasked with looking at everything from the facilities and locations of these schools to the teacher/student attendance and class lesson plans. Each of these categories was then judged on a 1 to 4 scale, 4 being the best possible score. Schools that earned an average 3 or 4 rating earned a 3-year accreditation, and schools earning a 2 average were granted a 1-year accreditation during which time they are expected to make improvements to the school.

Chuuk is often looked upon negatively, and one of the biggest reasons for this is due to the abysmal state of education there. The recent accreditation process backed this up, as very few of the public schools were deemed functional, with Chuuk High School being the only secondary school to receive a 3-year accreditation. At the elementary level, the outlook was even more grim. Out of the 64 public elementary schools, Akoyikoyi School is the ONLY elementary school to have been granted a 3 year-accreditation.

We are very proud of this recognition for the hard work that the teachers and administrators have been doing and see it as affirmation for the direction in which we are heading. Special gratitude goes out to Elder Crisp of the Latter Day Saints who provided consultation in preparation of accreditation, as well as Will Marshall and Clark Graham for their hard work in putting everything together.

One thing that can be a challenge necessary to overcome in running a successful school is low expectations. A way in which this has been addressed has been through a strong relationship with Xavier High School on Weno, Chuuk. As the preeminent high school in all of Micronesia, Xavier High School is the ultimate goal for any elementary student to strive for in gaining the best possible education. [Read more…]