How the former Mapusaga High Schoolcampus became the American Samoa Community College
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By Vaughn and Arlene Hawkes
(Vaughn served as a teacher at MHS from 1963 to 1966 and as MHS Principal from 1967-1970. NOTE: the letter-G in Samoan is pronounced like the NG in the word singer, not finger.)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints formally began its Samoa Mission on June 17, 1888, with the arrival of James and Florence Dean as official missionaries (although two unofficial missionaries had been sent from Hawaii about 20 years earlier).
As Samoan people began to join this new church, they were often ostracized from their villages. The same thing also happened to other Polynesian people throughout the Pacific area. Therefore, during the first part of the 1900’s, the Church sent Edward. J. Wood, the former Samoa Mission President, throughout the Pacific islands to obtain land where those Church members could live and be safe. Thus, such places of refuge as Laie, Hawaii; Liahona, Tonga; Sauniatu, Samoa; Vaiola, Samoa; Pape’ete; Tahiti; and Temple View (near Hamilton), North Island, New Zealand were established.
For the island of Tutuila in American Samoa, Mapusaga (and nearby Mesepa) was that place – given that name because it means “place of rest” in Samoan. The members gathered to this area and formed their own community. The missionaries who served there would also teach school for the children at Mapusaga, even though many had not been trained as teachers. Early Mapusaga schools were housed in traditional Samoan fale, and later in a wooden building reconstructed from materials salvaged from a building in Western Samoa.
In the late 1940’s and 1950’s, Church leaders recognized Latter-day Saint children throughout the Pacific islands needed a better education. Concurrent with that recognition, many local young men desired to serve missions for the Church, but they could not afford the cost of a mission, so an alternative was developed.
A Church Building Program was launched and the young men served faife'au kamuta missions building Church schools and chapels throughout the South Pacific Islands, as well as the Church College of Hawaii (1955) and Polynesian Cultural Center (1963) in Laie, Hawaii. (They school was renamed Brigham Young University–Hawaii in 1974).
As they served, those young labor missionaries also learned the construction trade, thus giving them skills to provide a livelihood. The newly-built Mapusaga High School in American Samoa was dedicated in 1961. It was staffed by professional teachers who had been called as missionaries for four years (later three years).
To serve on the faculties at Church schools, applicants first had to fill out an application. Then applicants were interviewed by Church School representatives and, if accepted, they were then interviewed and usually set apart by a General Authority for the calling. Those who were thus called were missionaries in every sense of the word. Because the Church recognized that the missionary teachers would need financial support for their families, they were given a modest stipend to cover their living expenses – much like the support stipend given to mission presidents.
Teacher qualifications: Mapusaga High School served grades seven through twelve. The modern school was dedicated and officially opened for the 1961-1962 school year. Mapusaga High School was built to accommodate the LDS students, but many students from other faiths also attended there and were most welcome. The teachers were mostly from the U.S. and held college degrees. They worked hard to do all they could to give the students a quality education. They taught a core curriculum with high standards along with other classes that gave the students valuable skills and knowledge (such as typing, home economics, etc. All students took a religion class, which strengthened the testimonies of member attendees, and many of those students not of the LDS faith were converted to the Church.
Mapusaga High School operated from 1961–1974, serving approximately 300-400 students each year (or a total of approximately 5,000). Early in those years, the U.S. Government also recognized that the people in the U.S. Territory of American Samoa needed a better educational system. Thus, U.S. dollars began to pour into improving the local government education system.
An educational television station, KZVK, was established and school fale were built in villages throughout American Samoa. Qualified U.S.-trained teachers began teaching primary school lessons from the television station in Utulei, with the classes being broadcast to the village school fale where the children were supervised by a local teacher’s assistant. Money also helped upgrade the secondary education at Samoana High School and brought about the establishment of Leone High School. As the years went by, it became apparent that the government schools were doing a fine job of educating young Samoans.
Past LDS Church school history: When the early members of the Church settled in what would become Utah and surrounding states, they established schools for the children. These schools were often called academies and came under the direction of Church officials. Eventually, public schools were established throughout the West. By the late 1800’s, financial problems plagued the Church and the expense of operating its schools became a burden the Church could not handle. Church leaders began to turn the responsibility for education over to local governments.
In the 1890’s and early 1900’s, many of the former Church school campuses were turned over to local and state governments became public and state institutions of learning. For example, Weber Stake Academy became Weber State University, St. Joseph Stake Academy became Eastern Arizona College, St. George Stake Academy became Dixie State University, the University of Deseret became the University of Utah, and Brigham Young Academy (in Logan, Utah) became Utah State University.
(The only college-level institutions retained by the Church are now Brigham
Young University in Provo, Brigham Young University–Idaho (formerly Rick's College), Brigham Young University–Hawaii, and Ensign College (formerly LDS Business College).
In recent years, the Church Educational System has also added the BYU-I Pathway Worldwide educational institution.) From that time forward and as financial stability returned to the Church, when the Church established a school in an area, it was because of inadequate educational opportunities for the Latter-day Saint children living in that area. It also became the policy of the Church Educational System that as soon as the local government was able to provide a quality education for its residents, the Church would withdraw and turn over its school facilities to be run by the local government.
Often, part of the agreement for the Church to turn over its facilities to the local government was the condition that Church seminaries or institutes could be established near the school.
What was best for Mapusaga High School? With the influx of US dollars into American Samoa, a better public educational system was established. By about 1970, the administrators of the Church Education System began to consider what was best for the future of Mapusaga High School.
By then, there were several other high schools operating on Tutuila, but there was no institution of higher learning in American Samoa. The Church school administrators began to explore the possibility that the Mapusaga campus could become a college campus – thus bringing the blessing of a college education to the people of American Samoa and possibly to other residents of South Pacific islands.
The Mapusaga campus is turned over to the Amerian Samoa government: Church representatives met with local government officials to discuss the idea and found them to be receptive. Plans began to quietly unfold, and by the fall of 1973, it was announced that following the end of the school year in the spring of 1974, the Mapusaga High School campus and facilities would be closed. The Church then turned the Mapusaga facilities over to the Government of American Samoa for the establishment of the American Samoa Community College.
It is our belief that the lease agreement for the campus buildings (probably for legal reasons) was something like $1 a year, but we have only heard that. We also believe the agreement included the condition that an LDS Institute of Religion (serving college studetns) could be established near the ASCC campus and that LDS seminaries could be established near the existing high schools.
A "blessing to the people": This historic agreement and transfer of facilities has been a blessing to the Samoan people. Countless residents of the South Pacific islands have been able to earn a college degree while being close to their homes. ASCC has become a beacon of learning for numerous people whose influence has circled the world. The transfer of the Mapusaga school to the government also follows the same pattern that was established in the Church Educational System many years before.
When Mapusaga High School closed, many members of the Church felt abandoned and could not understand why such a fine school would be closed to them. Perhaps with this explanation, now they will understand that the Lord was simply closing that door so that another even better door could be opened, and that that door would open up to bless an even greater number of God’s precious children in the South Pacific.
Meanwhile, the Church Educational System still operates the following schools in the South Pacific where the local governments are unable (or unwilling) to provide a quality education for their residents, including:
Moroni High School (Kiribati); LDS Primary School and LDS Church College, (Fiji); Church College Pesega, Sauniatu Primary School, Vaiola (Fusi) Primary School and Church College of Savaii (Samoa);
Also Liahona Middle School and Liahona High School (Tongatapu); Saineha Middle School and Saineha High School (Vava'u, Tonga); 'Eua Middle School ('Eua), Havelu Middle School, Pangai Middle School,and Pakilau Middle School (Tonga).
— (reprinted from Latter-day Saints in Sāmoa private Facebook group,
Mike (Mikaele) Foley, editor)
Mike (Mikaele) Foley, editor)