From Mango Sago to Washington D.C.: Kalani High School's PAAC Club Year in Review
Bryce Hara didn't exactly choose WorldQuest. "From being forced to join by Ivan," he wrote in his end-of-year reflection, the journey went from reluctant participant to national competitor. Team Shocked N' Appalled — Kalani's WorldQuest veterans — finally got the win they'd been chasing for years. YALL took third overall. The Kneecaps won the Oʻahu County prize. And Bryce is heading to Washington, D.C.
That arc — from hesitation to conviction — is the story of Kalani PAAC's entire year.
A Club That Took Root
Kalani's PAAC Club meets Thursdays after school, running a structured monthly rhythm: a bonding meeting, GAP planning, an SDG lesson, and an officer meeting — week by week, 40 members deep. President Jayden Tran led a ten-person officer team that included Vice President Ivan Tse, Secretary Yinyi Chen, Co-Treasurers Aurora Sullivan and Nicole Du, Co-Historians Hugo Lum and Anson Li, and GAP Coordinators Amelia Sullivan, Cathy Tran, and Leo Tse. The result was a club that ran like one: consistent, intentional, and genuinely fun to be in.
"PAAC brought recognition to various different cultures in the world," wrote Kai, a junior. "I am so happy I joined PAAC."
Food as a Way of Knowing
Kalani's signature approach this year was using food to teach — and it worked.
The Mango Sago Workshop (October 2, 2025) drew 33 sign-ups and 20+ attendees, opening with the dish's roots across Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and Singapore before members made and ate it together. The lesson was short but effective, the execution a little chaotic at the start — something the officers named directly and plan to tighten next time.
The Pichi-Pichi Workshop (February 19, 2026) took a similar approach, this time connecting to Palau — one of PAAC's featured countries this year. A competitive mini-game encouraged members to actually retain the lesson before earning their dessert. One note from the reflection: some members couldn't eat certain ingredients, a reminder to build in allergy awareness for future food GAPs. Otherwise, 20+ attendees, first-hand cooking experience, and a club that left knowing something new about an island nation they might not have thought about before.
"My favorite parts are the food GAPs the club does; it includes both information on the target island and its resources that lead to traditional diets. It's really interesting, and engaging." — Amelia Sullivan, 11th grade
Showing Up for the Community
The Oneʻula Beach Cleanup (November 29, 2025) brought four Kalani members out to One'ula Beach with 808 Cleanups, hauling out 7 heavy-duty bags of debris — batteries, lighters, cigarettes, glass, discarded tarp, plastic. Officers ran a pre-event lesson connecting beach litter to SDGs 13, 14, and 15: Climate Action, Life Below Water, and Life on Land. Distance was a barrier — the site was 27 miles from Kalani — and the club is already thinking through carpool and bus solutions for next year.
The club also partnered with Iolani PAAC for the Hawaiʻi Parkinsonʻs Walk, where seven members helped set up, distributed water, walked in solidarity, and cleaned up after. "I realized that every contribution — no matter how small — plays an important part in the overall success of an event." The reflection shows a club learning how to show up without needing to be in charge.
PAAC Programs
LEAD Summit: Three seniors — Jayden Tran, Ivan Tse, and Hugo Lum — attended Camp Erdman. Hugo's reflection is worth reading in full: "The people I met here were truly one of a kind. Hearing their unique backgrounds and stories help me become more open minded and appreciative of different perspectives. I still have meaningful connections with my friends and sometimes keep in contact with them through social media and messages which I'm so grateful for."
Global Vision Summit: Twelve Kalani members attended, with a clear directive from officers going in: speak. And they did. Zean Dalo, a senior, captured what the AI in the Pacific simulation made visible: "though Artificial Intelligence and the establishment of data centers might provide a better economic future for underdeveloped countries, it is better to consider their national sovereignty and environmental well-being."
WorldQuest: Three teams. One county title. One third-place finish. One first-place victory — and a trip to nationals. Bryce Hara put it plainly: "Learning about the world and understanding the patterns in coffee and soccer alongside my friends was fun, and the fact we get to travel to DC to compete again is the cherry on top."
What It Feels Like From Inside
The year-end survey responses from Kalani members read less like club evaluations and more like letters. Sherry Chen, a freshman, described being in a room with "students who actually care about what's happening in the world beyond school." David Morgan LeNoir, a senior who expected to coast through his last year, wrote that he was "blown away by how much thought the officers put into actually educating and creating at each and every meeting."
And Chiara (9th grade) expressed her enthusiasm for the food GAPs through seventeen consecutive food emojis, which is a form of qualitative data PAAC should probably start tracking.
Team Shocked N' Appalled heads to D.C. soon. The rest of the club will be watching — and next year, more of them will be ready to follow.
Kalani High School PAAC Club, led by President Jayden Tran, completed four GAP projects (Mango Sago Workshop, Pichi-Pichi Workshop, Oneʻula Beach Cleanup, Hawaiʻi Parkinsonʻs Walk), attended LEAD Summit, Global Vision Summit, and Academic WorldQuest — with Team Shocked N' Appalled advancing to the national competition — during the 2025–2026 school year.
