Hilo Intermediate science teacher inducted into National Teacher Hall of Fame

Hilo Intermediate science teacher Dr. Pascale Creek Pinner experienced the surprise of a lifetime when she found out that she’s being inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame.

Founded in 1989, the National Teachers Hall of Fame recognizes and honors exceptional career teachers, encourages excellence in teaching, and preserves the rich heritage of the teaching profession in the United States.

Only 170 teachers make up the hall of fame, located in Emporia, Kansas, including Pinner.

A 37-year teaching veteran who spent her entire career at Hilo Intermediate, Pinner is the first woman in Hawaiʻi and the first public school teacher from Hawaiʻi Island to receive this honor.

Pinner lives and breathes the qualities of a master teacher. Among many achievements, Pinner created the Envelopes of Science Awesomeness program, which provides hands-on science activities for elementary students on Hawaiʻi Island. The program has already impacted more than 2,300 students. It has received annual funding from the Hawaii Science and Technology Museum for the Envelopes of Science Awesomeness position and program since 2020, as well as a more recent grant of $100,000 from the Thirty Meter Telescope, which supports Next Generation Science Standards teacher workshops.

She also helped run a summer physics camp for girls for the past few years, sparking interest in physics for young women.

Pinner is always working to ensure that students who leave her classroom have a lifelong love of science and the skills necessary to be a positive citizen scientist. She works closely with her students to create projects and compete in science fairs. She also creates projects that help students how science plays an important role in their own community.

For the Hall of Fame honor, Pinner was surprised during a “fake” Merrie Monarch assembly at her school last month. She was led to believe she was one of several teachers being interviewed about Merrie Monarch, the prestigious hula competition held in Hilo each spring.

Watch: National Teachers Hall of Fame Inductees get big surprise on “CBS Mornings”

It wasn’t long after arriving that she realized the setup and was presented a plaque from Lisa Graff from the National Teacher Hall of Fame in front of her students.

Her first thoughts upon finding out about the honor were, “Wow, you guys really like me!” She later reflected, “I can’t even tell you what crazy of an honor this is yet.”

For Pinner, the most special moment of the surprise came when Joel Truesdell, a Hawaiʻi Island chemistry teacher at Kamehameha Schools and last year’s inductee “showed up out of the blue” and presented her with three lei: a puakenikeni, a lei po’o (head lei or flower crown), and maile lei, explaining the significance of each.

“There were probably 60 kids in the room, and of that, probably 60% at least are part Hawaiian. But do they know all the cultural significance of all that? Probably not. And so for me, that was super special. I mean, that was an opportunity for them to really hear it from somebody who knows what they’re talking about, and then see it in action. It was just, it was really fantastic,” she said.

As a winner, Pinner will receive $20,000 to spend on herself from the graphic design platform Canva, which will also give Pinner’s school, Hilo Intermediate, $20,000.

Pinner said this year was the first in the awardʻs history that offered a monetary prize, championed by former inductees.

“It’s a huge honor. And I really put it back to my keiki, my students, because that is the reason that I’m here, but it’s also my why. It’s why I do what I do. I love what I do,” she said.

Other recent Hawaiʻi inductees into the National Teacher Hall of Fame include Kamehameha Schools chemistry teacher Truesdell, of Keaʻau on Hawaiʻi Island. He has since retired after being honored in 2024. He nominated Pinner for this year’s award.

In 2017, Jonathan Gillentine, then a mentor teacher for the Executive Office on Early Learning, primarily serving preschool programs, was also inducted into the hall of fame shortly after he retired. He is now president of HSTA Retired, representing thousands of educator retirees across Hawaiʻi.