"When Maryknoll launched the Chinese Immersion Program two years ago, we made a transformative commitment to preparing our students for global opportunities," said Perry Martin, Maryknoll School president. "Doug Ho stood with us from the beginning, and he gave $20,000 in seed funding to develop and launch the kindergarten class. We are thrilled that he is supporting the second phase of scaling the program so that children can receive the full benefits of a Chinese immesion education from kindergarten through sixth grade." 

The admission entry points for the Chinese Immersion Program will continue to be kindergarten and first grade so that students are able to build fluency in Mandarin from a young age. Research has shown that immersion builds bilingual fluency, increases children's cognitive development, improves critical thinking, and results in the same or higher academic performance as compared with English-only classrooms. The immersion students are doing as well as their non-immersion peers in all core class curriculum- and gaining proficiency in Mandarin. 

Since launching in the 2017-2018 school year, Maryknoll's Chinese Immersion Program has had full enrollment. There are currently 81 students in the immersion kindergarten and first grade program. There was a waitlist for the current kindergarten immersion classes. 


View Coverage:

1. Gift to expand Mandarin immersion program
   Hawaii Catholic Herald, Thursday 2/21/19
   
   
2. Maryknoll to expand its Chinese Immersion Program
   Star Advertiser, Saturday 2/9/19
   
   
3. Teaching children to be global citizens
   Star Advertiser, Tuesday 2/12/19
   
   
4. Chinese Language Immersion: Maryknoll School
   Hawaii Public Radio, Monday 2/25/19
   
   
5. A groundbreaking Chinese immersion program on O'ahu is expanding
   KITV, Friday 2/8/19