PATS Comes To An End

Fr. Ken Hezel, SJ, Regional Superior of the Jesuits of Micronesia; Patrick Tellei, president of the Palau Community College; Bill Raynor, once a teacher at PATS and now Director of The Nature Conservancy in Pohnpei; and a slew of parents, former teachers and former volunteers, were on their way to Pohnpei to participate in PATS' final graduation. Fifteen graduates in construction, mechanics and computer technology were to make up the final class.

Members of the Class of 2005. From L to R: Lance Lebehn, Frederick Andrew, Francis Sohl, Jr. (Valedictorian), and AJ Harris (Salutatorian).

"To understand the reasons for closing PATS, you have to first understand the reasons for creating it," says Fr. Francis X. Hezel, SJ, a Jesuit priest (and Pacific Magazine columnist) who has lived in Micronesia and worked in education for over 40 years. "PATS grew out of Fr. Hugh Costigan's attempt to do genuine economic development in the 60s. His idea was to train people to be elements of change in their communities, providing them with the skills they needed to build churches or houses, or to contribute to agricultural and mechanical needs in their home islands."

Founded in 1965, PATS was created during a time of rapid development in Micronesia. The U.S. Trust Territory administration was creating new jobs at record rates, centralizing health and education systems, building new schools and dispensaries, and staffing them with Peace Corps volunteers. Meanwhile, PATS graduates were finding jobs quickly and easily.

While the mid-1980s brought nationhood and job growth by way of the Compacts of Free Association in the FSM, Marshalls, and Palau, that job growth had begun to stagnate by the mid-90s. Moreover, Micronesian citizens had the ability to emigrate to the U.S. to live and work.

"So PATS gradually became less desirable for Micronesians," Hezel explains. "Why focus on vocational education when people are moving to the States for employment?" School enrollment became disproportionate by the late 1990s, with over 50 percent of students from Pohnpei, and PATS began to struggle financially to make its annual budget of $650,000 to $700,000. It seemed that Micronesians no longer wanted blue-collar jobs, and neither Micronesian governments nor international donors were willing to support vocational education.

Fr. Joe Cavanaugh, SJ, who took over as director of PATS after Costigan died, believes "the biggest factor in closing the school is that governments, families, and students no longer see the value of vocational education."

While the closing of PATS will leave behind a void in vocational education, it also calls into question the future role of Jesuits in Micronesian education. The Jesuits will continue Xavier High School, and therefore continue supporting Chuuk by committing to maintaining a successfully run institution there. But larger questions remain unanswered, as Hezel notes.

"The real question for Jesuits is that if we are committed to being pioneers in education, what is our contribution to Micronesia going to be now?"

As a regional school, PATS was a symbol of Micronesian unity even after the dissolution of the Trust Territory and Micronesia's transition to nationhood. Students from throughout the North Pacific, including Palau, Saipan, the Marshalls and Kiribati, developed friendships at PATS that crossed national, cultural and linguistic boundaries. The school functioned as a lasting symbol of quality education in Micronesia, proving through its graduates that it was possible to get a good education without leaving the islands.

And so, in December 2005, with trademark kelly green robes, PATS graduated its final 15 seniors. They were, to the end, proud, future leaders of Micronesia. The graduating class: A.J. Harris, Albertus Noah, Dekei Adelbai, Dicotson Pelep, Donan Hasugumai, Francis Sohl Jr., Fredrick Andrew, James Sappa, Jeffrey Ikosia, Jimmy Ponapart, Jonathan Paag, Kaiae Roota, Lancellot Lebehn, Pedrus Torres and Walton Ngotel.