Makalapa Mic Drop: Episode 1

Listen to Makalapa's podcast hosted by our very own Ailana Hetrick.
Today's guest: Principal Shigemasa.

Listen to Makalapa's podcast hosted by our own Ailana Hetrick. Today's guest: Principal Shigemasa.

Aloha makalapa I'm your host Sona hetrick today you're tuning into the mopa mic drop home to everything happening on our campus from kinder to sixth grade we're bringing stories that matter to you today for our very special guest we're welcoming Michael up very own principal principal Shiki Masa so the first question we have is do you have any favorite hobbies um I do have hobbies so some of my hobbies are I do enjoy sports so I do enjoy so I do coach um but I also like to work in my garden I do have a garden in the back of my house and so I grow lettuce tomatoes cucumbers green onions but yeah and that those are things that I'd like to do I I like sports and I do like to Garden what are your favorite things to do after school sometimes I do I said go to either practice or watch my daughters because they're involved in sports too so a lot of times my my time is spent there but if not when I go home I do like to go in the back of my garden um and just check to see if anything has grown um or or just actually after I'm done with doing some work just kind of relax and and just kind of hang out at home so do your daughter's also play volleyball yes they do so I have 3 girls um my oldest 1 is in college so she plays um in college I have a senior in high school and she plays volleyball as well and I have my eighth grader and she also plays volleyball and then where did you grow up so I grew up in Pro City so I was born and raised here and so I still I was born and raised in Pro City and I still live in Pro City where did you go to College I went to college at the University of Hawaii did you play any sports when you were younger the only sport I played was volleyball so I played volleyball since how old was I probably since I was about 10 years old and so um I think I've actually played yeah since I was 10 years old and actually got to play at College too do you have a favorite team to watch uh you talking local or like in the me like and then how professional I like uh Sports because that's that was the school that I went to and it represents Hawaii so I I do like to watch a lot of the University of Hawaii Sports um I don't really have a professional team um but we are kind of like a 49ers fan for football what about you 49ers 49ers all right yes but they did they didn't make it but that's okay but yes they will they will do you have any fun facts you'd like to share share with our audience that's listening fun facts well maybe that people didn't know so like I said I got to play volleyball when I was in college so I did play volleyball at the University of Hawaii so I was a wahine volleyball player there um other fun facts I know I didn't say it was a hobby of mine but I do like to bake I think I'm a Okie Baker but I do like to bake so maybe that's a fun fact about me that I do like to bake what's your favorite anything to bake I think I'm pretty good at making cupcakes but I make them fancy so I make like Lily koi cupcakes pistachio cupcakes so not just like vanilla cupcakes in a box but I do like to try to make with sprinkles or like little Oreo cookies on it so I do try to do fancy cupcakes do you have a favorite dessert I think my favorite dessert I actually really like carrot cake carrot cake and I actually like frozen bananas you know the chocolate yeah so I I those are probably my 2 favorite desserts now now that we've learned a bunch of fun facts about our principal Chi Masa let's move into learning about her experiences as a principal how long have you been a principal so I've been a principal for 4 years this is kind of I started I came in uh like mid year so February um but this is kind of like my fourth year here at Makala what schools have you worked at besides makalapa um as an administrator or like as a teacher and just in general um so I started out at iroko Point Elementary which is out in Eva Beach um and then I was at Pearl City Highlands Elementary so I was a teacher and then I actually moved uh started working out in yai so I was uh vice principal out at Wai Elementary then why not high school and then I came to W Malu Elementary where I was a vice principal and then 9 so this is your soak is the first school you've been a principal yes yeah what's your favorite thing about being a principal I think for me my favorite thing is doing things like this uh being able to work with the students um you know working with the staff but I do have a love of just I think being able to go out on campus visit the classrooms see the students out and about whether it's recess lunch seeing you know all the good things that you guys are doing so I think that's my favorite part of the job and what was the hardest challenge you had to overcome while working at makalapa hm I would like to say you know when we had that fire oh yeah yeah a couple years ago when our Portables um you know burnt down that you know just having to 1 I was just very grateful that nobody you know got hurt or anything like that but I think just having to deal with um like the procedures and you know what to do you know in the after part of the fire uh we're still trying to recover from that as far as you know getting new buildings um so I think for me that was the biggest challenge because then that affected you know we were 2 classrooms short you know and so we have the tents um but it's still just kind of figuring out um and managing um how to get the replacement Portables and just how we can navigate around campus and then what made you want to be a principal um you know I I think from a young age I've always wanted to go into education so I kind of always knew that I wanted to be a teacher and so you know I was a teacher for many years um and then you know my family and you know other I guess administrators kind of you know was telling me like oh maybe you would like to go into Administration um and so like I said I was a vice principal for a while and then you would you be interested in being a principal um and and so for me I think a principle is a very tough but rewarding job because you're kind of in charge of you know making sure things happen at the school um and so for me I I think just being able to support our students and our teachers and work with our community I think that's I make a difference um in a different uh sense you know um is kind of why I wanted to go into this role and then our last question okay is do you have any advice ice for anybody who wants to be in education will be a teacher or be a principal that's you know I think if anybody wanted to go like I said even go into education in general I think it's making sure that you understand we always talk about knowing your why you know why do you want to be in education it's a tough career um like I said it's rewarding but you also need to know why you want to be here focus on that um um go with your passion um and and I think that's what that kind of gets you through those tough days just remember they'll be I guess the rewards that you get at the end seeing later on the students that you worked with being successful in life whether in college or a career so I would say just know your why stay with that um stick with it it's it's a tough job on a daily basis but it's also very rewarding and that's a wrap thank you for listening to our first episode of the mopa mic drop once again I'm your host ailana hetrick and I hopefully I'll see you very soon mahalo makalapa