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IPA Wins National Competition, Receives $2,500 GRAMMY® Signature Schools Community Award

Island Pacific Academy is one of three schools in the country to win a national music video competition sponsored by the GRAMMY Foundation and Jostens.  Representatives from both organizations were on campus recently to congratulate IPA at a Town Hall (Grades 9-12).  IPA received a framed certificate celebrating the GRAMMY® Signature School Community Award.  In addition, the school will receive $2,500 from the GRAMMY Foundation & Jostens for its music program.

150508 Grammy Award Presentation group shot

IPA receives $2,500 GRAMMY® Signature Schools Community Award. (L-R) Gerald Teramae, Head of School; Alan Yamamoto, Governor for The Recording Academy Pacific Northwest Chapter; Michael Compton, Executive Director of The Recording Academy Pacific Northwest Chapter; Micah Hirokawa, History Teacher & Music Club Advisor; Boz Schurr, Digital Arts Teacher; Maureen Willett, Jostens Hawaii Yearbooks; John Ferry, Membership & Special Projects for The Recording Academy.
 
“Our entry really stood out,” says IPA’s Micah Hirokawa, history teacher and advisor of a music club in the Secondary Division. “Navigator Records, our music club, is open to all high school students.  This year it’s really taken off and those club students took the lead on planning, writing, and choreographing the video.”
The contest challenged high schools to “rock their school song” by submitting a music video.  Judges looked at how inventive the entries were in showcasing school pride, the quality of the music performance, and the editing of the finished video.Screen grab Middle School in the MPRGrades 6-8 students sang IPA’s Alma Mater in a group as part of the “Rock Your School Song” video submitted for the contest.

“At IPA as a K-12 school, we really work hard at being one community, one school.  The students took that to heart and involved every grade in the video, not just grades 9-12,” says Hirokawa.

Screen grab RAP in LibraryGiovanni deLugo (’16, in blue long-sleeved oxford) raps in the video while other IPA students join in the good-natured creative fun.

“We worked several types of music into the video: Hawaiian chant of our oli, part of ‘The Navigator Song’ written by a student when she was in elementary grades, rap, and the IPA Alma Mater.  During the video you get a little tour of the school too as the camera follows each lead singer from building to building and room to room.”

IPA plans to use the GRAMMY®/Jostens award money to build upon the music program in the Secondary Division.

150508 Grammy Award Presentation Hirokawa

Micah Hirokawa, History Teacher and Music Club Advisor, with the award from the Grammy® Foundation
“GRAMMY® Signature Schools Community Award” in support of outstanding efforts in high school music education.

Watch the winning video below: