Echo Explorers at Island Pacific Academy
2026-05-20 • ECHO Team
2 min read
We are honored to announce the successful launch of our original program, Echo Explorers! This past spring, ECHO and Island Pacific Academy teamed up to give the third graders, our first group of Explorers, an adventure through the heart. Explorers embarked on a quest to fulfill ECHO’s Four Pillars of lifelong heart health. The Four Pillars are:
On our expedition, Explorers had a very important mission: to build a HeartFelt Home. These homes provided sanctuary to all the newly acquired knowledge the Explorers gathered on their quest.
HeartFelt Homes are a mirror to our anatomical hearts. In a heart there are two levels and four chambers. In each HeartFelt Home there are two stories and four rooms. One room for each Echo Pillar!
CEO and founder of ECHO, Kimberly Uehisa had this to say about her experience with Echo Explorers:
“Piloting the Echo Explorers program with Island Pacific Academy was so special! IPA is the same school I graduated from. Returning as an alumna to give back to the community that helped shape me into who I am today, filled my heart with so much gratitude and joy!
I taught 46 students twice a week, and they were always filled with awe, excitement, and a lot of questions. Some of the questions that really stood out to me were:
Can plaque form in veins?
Why doesn’t Echo have eyes?
If I eat french fries, will I have a heart attack?
These questions were surprising and filled me with hope that the younger generation has a desire to care for their hearts and their communities by learning and advocating.”
By the end of the program, Explorers became community advocates for lifelong heart health by putting on a play that shared the Four Pillars with the other students at IPA. We are so proud to see the way these Explorers were able to echo all of the amazing knowledge they had learned with their friends!
We discovered so much on our first expedition, and we can’t wait to go on the next! Want to join us? Check out to see how you can bring Echo Explorers to your community!