This week we’ve been learning about how a state-of-the-art audio recording studio could soon make a big difference in the lives of low-income students at Washington Middle School.
HPR’s Jackie Young wraps up her three-part series with a perspective from an educator who has experience integrating technology into the classroom.
La Juaine “Candy” Suiso spent 33 years as an educator at Waiʻanae High School. She retired in 2020 and is now the executive director of the Searider Productions Foundation — the nonprofit arm of the well-known video program she helped co-found at the high school.
What was your initial impression of the Washington Middle School sound studio?
"No one else has that kind of cutting-edge facility. And to me, this is like a tipping point right now, I feel, what he’s done and what they’ve built there. What he’s doing is the future. And to give opportunity to these young kids — it’s going to be exciting to follow their journey. I was speechless. Literally, my first impression was 'wow.'"
Suiso targeted her program at high schoolers, but she says it makes sense to focus on an introduction to technology at an even younger age.
“We started at high school, but we very quickly realized in order to sustain our program, we had to build a pipeline, so we started to train — found funding to train — elementary, to feed into the intermediate, and then we would get those kids — and we could always tell the kids that were trained when they were in elementary, and were in the intermediate program. And then our job was to feed them into the college. And state of Hawaiʻi, you guys better be ready and build that workforce, because these kids are going to be ready in the creative media.”
An advanced sound studio is expensive to maintain. But some help is coming from the community.
Line Studio Director Sam Fong says owner Alvin Okami of Ko Aloha ʻUkulele donated a brand-new koa ʻukulele.
Well-known local drummer Noel Okimoto donated a new Pearl drum set with cymbals and accessories. Fong says he’s applied to form a nonprofit arm, like Suiso has, to manage these donations, and to help operate the studio.
“So as you mentioned earlier, it’s a very expensive facility. So for the DOE to support, say even regular piano tuning, upgrades of our software and our technology — is very difficult. So to help that, we are starting a foundation at Line Studio at WMS Hawaiʻi," Fong says.
Suiso says, "You know, my advice to him was the 501(c)(3) will make all the difference in the way he’s going to receive funding, and control funding.”
“He’s in an area where there’s a lot of raw talent. It’s just like out here in Waiʻanae. Because the kids — even in his area, just like us — they don’t grow up with a lot. So what do they do for fun? They sit around, they talk story, they play music, they sing songs, they dance. They create.”
The Line Studio at WMS is a finalist for the 2025 National Association for Music Merchants’ Technical Excellence Award in California at the end of this month. It will be competing with commercial studios around the world. Its soft opening will be early this year.
This is the last story of a three-part series. Go back and listen to parts one and two.
