Representatives from the Kamehameha Schools visited the upper school campus to learn about the Kutler Center and Video Art programs on Jan. 22 and 23.

The Kamehameha Schools is a private school system in Hawaii that educates students descended from indigenous Hawaiians. Currently, the school is planning on creating a capstone project for their eighth-graders in which students will use filmmaking to express their indigenous ancestry.

“We’re looking at film being our capstone from an interdisciplinary perspective, but the interesting thing about our kids is they’re all part Hawaiian, it’s a school for indigenous Hawaiian children, so the film is about their indigenous voice,” Middle School Principal of the Kamehameha Schools Pua Kaai said.

Before creating the project, however, the school is pursuing a deeper understanding of interdisciplinary curriculums at both Harvard Westlake and Viewpoint.

“We’re here to look at the interdisciplinary teaching as a way to give a really strong and rich cultural foundation to the voice that they’ll portray on film,” Kaai said.

Director of Kutler Center and Summer Programs Jim Patterson worked with Kamehameha Schools to organize this visit.

“Anytime you meet with colleagues and talk about your shared practice, in this case, curriculum development and teaching, both parties definitely learn from each other,” Patterson said.

While at the school, the nine representatives, which included the principal and the curriculum development director, attended Video Art and Kutler Center classes and met with President Rick Commons, Head of Upper School Laura Ross and various department heads and administrators.

They also had lunch with students and were given a tour by student ambassadors Ashlee Wong and Isabella Yanover.

“A lot of them were taking notes, so I think that they were interested in a lot of the new things we had on campus,” Wong said.