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When Osa Tui, Jr. becomes president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association July 5, he will bring a varied background in teaching, volunteering and actively serving the union to his new role.

Tui grew up in Kaneohe in public housing on Oahu’s windward side and saw public school as a safe place. He attended Head Start at Enchanted Lake Elementary in Kailua, followed by Kailua Elementary, Kalihi Uka Elementary and ended his primary school years at Kapunahala Elementary in Kaneohe. Tui attended King Intermediate and Castle High, and went on to earn his bachelor’s in secondary education and mathematics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

He always had a love for mathematics, which led him to be a part of Castle’s math team. Tui’s trigonometry teacher (who also served as the math team coach), Mr. Mizuta, was his impetus for wanting to become a math teacher.

After working at Castle for three years, he moved to McKinley High School and taught math there from 2001-2007 before becoming a registrar in 2008. Registrars, like counselors, librarians, student service coordinators, and other non-classroom teachers are also represented by HSTA.

Tui also served as a coach for both Castle and McKinley’s math teams before switching to McKinley’s robotics team to take care of administrative and teambuilding duties.

In 2016, he was awarded the VEX World Championship Volunteer of the Year Award in Louisville, Kentucky for all of his efforts in traveling the state to ensure consistency in events and supporting tournament organizers.