Mufi Hannemann, a candidate for governor, came to give a speech to McKinley students about importance of education during period 3 on August 28.

The general election will be held in November and the other three candidates for governor are Duke Aiona, Jeff Davis and David Yukata Ige.

He is the former Mayor of Honolulu and the Independent Party’s candidate for Governor in the State of Hawaii now. He attended Fern Elementary, Puuhale Elementary and Kalihi Kai Elementary before receiving a scholarship to attend ‘Iolani in the seventh Grade. Later, he went to Harvard before continuing his studies as a Fulbright Scholar in Wellington, New Zealand.

“I’m applying for colleges now and I hope this Harvard guy can tell me something useful,” Senior Yujun Pang said.

The most important reason for his successful career is education.

He grew up in Kalihi with a German-Samoan father and Samoan mother. Although his mother only has a fourth grade education and his father only has a high school diploma, he saw how hard his father worked and he knew that “education is so important.” Hannemann took the job which no one likes on campus but is the highest-paid one to supplement his education.

Hannemann said nowadays with all the social media and technology, “you have no excuse not to get as much information as possible.” The key is the “need to want to do that.”

Junior Victoria Lu agreed with him and said, “Those students who don’t do their homework and drop their grades really need to change their attitudes.”

His advice to McKinley students is “don’t let anybody tell you you cannot be what you want to be. It’s all about you.”