The Hawaiian Mission Academy (HMA) is a private coeducational day and boarding school in Honolulu, Hawaii. HMA is the only Academy that provides international dormitory housing on the island. It is a part of the Seventh-day Adventist education system, the world's second largest Christian school system.
History
Educational work of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Hawaiian Islands started in 1895 with a boarding school for boys, under the leadership of H. H. Brand. This school was named the Anglo-Chinese Academy in 1897 when Professor and Mrs. W. E. Howell came to Honolulu to head it.
To accommodate expanding enrollment, several changes in location were made until Bethel Grammar, as it was known then, located on Keeaumoku Street, added secondary grades. Increased enrollment again called forlarger quarters. In 1920 several properties on Makiki Street became the site of a combined elementary and secondary school designed to accommodate all Hawaiian Seventh-day Adventists mission schools, adopting the name Hawaiian Mission Academy.
Enrollment peaked during World War II. In 1946, the estate of former Princess Abigail Campbell Kawānanakoa property on Pensacola Street, Royal Hawaiian land, became available as a site for a new secondary school. Construction began in summer 1949, and the secondary school and its administrative offices were moved to the campus in December, 1949. The elementary school remained at the Makiki Street campus.
All students take religion classes each year that they are enrolled. These classes cover topics in biblical history and Christian and denominational doctrines. Instructors in other disciplines also begin each class period with prayer or a short devotional thought, many which encourage student input. Weekly, the entire student body gathers together in the auditorium for an hour-long chapel service.
Outside the classrooms there is year-round spiritually oriented programming that relies on student involvement.
