By Diane Pizarro

When Chaplain Joshua Hayashi came to Punahou a year ago, he wondered how he would fit in; his experience and passion for working with homeless youth was a far cry from Punahou School.

"I remember telling [President Jim Scott '70] in my interview that Punahou is not the world that I grew up in, in Hawai‘i, let's be honest, and that's the part that I was emotionally trying to think through," said Hayashi, who attended Hawai‘i public schools. "And Jim said, ‘Well, these students here need your voice.' I felt like that was a validation for me to be who I am. That was, I felt, my calling to be myself in this place."

Indeed he made the leap of faith, and looks back on his first year: "I've never been so challenged or stretched in every single part of my life before - intellectually, socially, emotionally - and it's been wonderful."

Hayashi was at a crossroads in his life in spring 2008. He was living in Canada finishing his master's in divinity; his wife, Charity, was pregnant with their second child; and he was wondering what he would do next. When he came across the posting for chaplain at Punahou School, he immediately began filling out the application, and the answers flowed. He had applied to positions all over the country, but "I just was thinking more and more about how I really love Hawai‘i so much."

Hayashi wanted to help remedy some of the social problems he had encountered in his travels and at home. "A place like Punahou is where the people grow who will one day make that difference," he said.

Raised on the Windward side, Hayashi attended Kane‘ohe Elementary, King Intermediate and Castle High School. After graduating from Bethel College in northern Indiana, he returned to Hawai‘i and worked as a YMCA substance abuse counselor and an at-risk counselor for ‘Ewa Beach Elementary. He found he was drawn to helping young people. "I wanted to really get to the heart of some of these systemic problems: the drug abuse, the crime, the foster care," Hayashi recalled. "I really want to be involved in people's lives to a greater degree, so I decided to go off to seminary."

He and his wife moved in 2002 to Vancouver, where they lived in a mixed-income housing cooperative, sharing building ownership as well as maintenance and administrative duties. "It was a great way for us to be able to be in a community with people of all different incomes, and get rid of some of our stigmas about how we view people of different socioeconomic backgrounds," he said. Every Saturday, they participated in Vancouver Paper Cup ministry, feeding about 50 homeless street youth under age 24.

In July 2008, his wife seven months pregnant, Hayashi returned home with his wife and son, Everett, 2. His daughter, Alethea, was born a month later, on the second day of school.

Now settled and his first school year completed, Hayashi said he loves being involved in children's lives, whether it's in the classroom, playing basketball with fourth-graders during recess every day, helping out with Impact Club, or running a social skills group for new sixth-grade boys who are trying to adjust and make friends. "I can't think of a better day than I have here."