25^th ANNUAL HAWAII OAHU CHAPTER MATHCOUNTS COMPETITION

The 25^th annual MATHCOUNTS Oahu Chapter Competition was held February 9, 2008 in the Kamehameha Schools (KS) Kalama Dining Hall with 30 schools competing. Mayor Mufi Hannemann was there to personally read his proclamation marking the 25^th Anniversary of MATHCOUNTS in Honolulu. MATHCOUNTS Steering Committee members Jean Okumura and Doug Kamiya were honored for 25 years of service.

At end of the competition, the first place team was Punahou School with team members William Chen, Travis Le, Joanne Lee, Sean Rodan, and coach Todd Chow-Hoy. The other six teams moving on to compete in the March 8, 2008 Hawaii State MATHCOUNTS Competition in order of finishing after Punahou are Iolani School, Washington Middle School, Highland Intermediate School, Stevenson Middle School, Maryknoll School, and Mililani Middle school. The “Best New School” award went to Kalakaua Middle School for the highest scoring school that did not compete last year and has not placed in the top ten. The “Most Improved School” award went to Stevenson Middle School for having the greatest increase in their team score from last year’s competition.

Individual honor for scoring the highest in the written Sprint and Target Rounds went to Naoki Shigeta of Washington. He competed and placed high last year as a seventh grader. Travis Le of Punahou, Zhengyuan Ma of Punahou, William Chen of Punahou, Daron Lee of Highlands, Ben Shiroma of Stevenson, Geoff Kusaka of Punahou, Logan Davis of Iolani, Cordelia Xie of Iolani, and Joanne Lee of Punahou followed Shigeta in this order. The Winner of the Countdown Round was William Chen of Punahou, followed by Zhengyuan Ma of Punahou.

MATHCOUNTS is a national math competition for 6^th, 7^th and 8^th graders. Students compete individually in the Sprint Round solving 30 math problems in 40 minutes. Next comes the Target Round where students try to solve eight problems within approximately 30 minutes. The Team Round finishes the written portion of the competition. In this round students work together solving 10 problems in 20 minutes.

The first Hawaii MATHCOUNTS Competition was held in 1984 at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Engineering Department facilities. That’s a quarter of a century ago. From this beginning, there are only two Hawaii MATHCOUNTS Steering Committee Members still actively participating. They are Jean Okumura and Doug Kamiya. Okumura is an educator with Windward Community College and Kamiya is an engineer with Community Planning, Inc. Yes, after 25 years, they continue to be a part of the Steering Committee. Kamiya was the Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers (HSPE) President during this inaugural period for MATHCOUNTS. He and his wife, Mary, recalled some of the history of this early period. Wallace Hirai of W. A. Hirai & Associates, Inc., Hilo, was the HSPE President the year before who was involved with the initial MATHCOUNTS fundraising. Mechanical Engineering Professor Dean Kihara and Mary Kamiya were the coordinators for the competition doing just about everything to ensure that the competition ran smoothly. The first competition drew 15 schools.

Evelyn Cheong, former MATHCOUNTS coach for Punahou School is the only coach still around. After retiring from coaching two years ago she continues to be involved by helping score the events.

After three years at UHM, the competition moved to different locations, such as Kalakaua Intermediate School, Farrington High School, and a year at Iolani School before finding its current home at Kamehameha Schools. When HSPE member Dr. Michael Chun, President & Headmaster, Kamehameha Schools, assumed the Hawaii MATHCOUNTS chairmanship the competition found a home at KS Kalama Dining Hall. Along with providing the competition site, he recruited KS volunteers to help coordinate the competitions with educators and engineers on the Steering Committee. There were many Steering Committee members, coaches, proctors and scorers, and participating students who have come and gone. It is believed they went away with lasting knowledge of the many good things coming out of MATHCOUNTS. The current MATHCOUNTS Steering Committee Coordinators are Rowena Blaisdell and Pauline Marcello, both of Kamehameha Schools. They manage the Oahu Chapter and State competitions for HSPE with the help of the educator and engineer Steering Committee volunteers.

HSPE continues to be the sponsor of MATHCOUNTS, assisting Dr. Chun, Blaisdell and Marcello, financially and participating on the Steering Committee. HSPE conducts fundraiser to help provide the funds to successfully run the competition. Other major sponsors are Aloha Airlines and Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc.

MATHCOUNTS is grateful to organizations such as Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., The US Army Corps of Engineers, SSFM International, and engineering societies ASCE, ASME, and SAME for providing the proctors and scorers, without their help on competition day, there would be no competition.