Yonglu Grace Pan: The New Girl

By TYLER OKAMURA

Moving thousands of miles away can be difficult but there could be tough and struggling throughout the way here. All the way from China is a very different environment then it has helped me move out to different places and different parts of the world to finish a tough middle school and high school year. I’ve looked back I have changed so much to learning new things and exploring the new journey.

Three doors down the hall from the fourth floor, there is Ms. Pan, a teacher originally from China, who learned so much here in Hawaii and has stuck with very challenging students. She can handle them by just yelling, she jokes. Teaching Chinese to students that have not learned anything but they learn very fast. She decided to be a teacher. Ms. Pan grew to being part of a new learning environment and explore Hawaii with a new set of goals and going to Marsh Island and in Middle school and High school and got to teach at Saint Francis a very challenging school but she got it down.

From China, to the Marshall Islands, to Hilo, then Honolulu has helped Ms. Pan grow.

“(Getting to Hawaii) is a long story. I graduated from middle school then, at that time, it’s very important to decide to go to high school or go (to a) foreign country and my parents, they decide. Anyway, after I finished high school and college in China and at that time most students or families, they decide to move to another country to continue the education. It’s better in America so we pay. So when you go to America, it’s weird, some people are so jealous and so at that time I finished my middle school year and my parents decide. At the same time, one of my uncle’s was living in the Marshall Islands. … He was doing business over there and then he said “How bout you should come over here and start to learn English. So he said “You need to learned English here and after you graduate high school here, then I can have a try at going to America. Then my mom said, “OK, sounds good.” So, that’s why they start applying that high school over there for me. And lucky, they accepted me. I moved to the Marshall Islands first and then i spend two and a half years to finish my high school year. so I had to decide which state I’m going to go, right? And, um, they decided probably Hawaii because, number one, the weather, and second, people are friendly, especially for a single girl, right? And (to) go into a foreign country (with) no more family next to me and I don’t know anybody and so they said probably Hawaii because it’s more safe to start. Yeah, so then I started to go to college, then I decided to move to Hilo and that’s how I started my journey.