Kamehameha Schools

Kamehameha Schools is a private charitable educational trust endowed by the will of Hawaiian princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop (1831-1884), the great-granddaughter and last direct descendant of King Kamehameha I.

During her lifetime, Princess Pauahi witnessed the rapid decline of the Hawaiian population. The princess knew that education would be key to the survival of her people, so in an enduring act of aloha, she left them a precious gift upon her passing — 375,000 acres of ancestral land. She instructed the trustees of her estate to use “the rest, residue and remainder of my estate” to educate her people.

Today, her endowment supports an educational system that serves thousands of Hawaiian learners.