Agnes Brown stands in front of the statue of Our Lady of Peace at Sacred Hearts Academy in Kaimuki where she attended high school and did her student-teaching. (HCH photo | Anna Weaver)Merrie Monarch’s Miss Aloha Hula 2023 gives her all to teaching, her flawless dancing and her Catholic faith
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Agnes Brown had a busy spring. Not only did she finish her student teaching at her high school alma mater, Sacred Hearts Academy, to earn her elementary education degree from Chaminade University of Honolulu, but she also won the prestigious Miss Aloha Hula title at the annual Merrie Monarch Festival.
The talented hula dancer is also a faithful Catholic.
“A very huge priority in my life is my faith, and also being a part of hula, being able to share that faith through hula,” she says.
Her faith is something she’s been surrounded by since birth.
Agnes Renee Leihiwahiwaikapolionamakua Thronas Brown and her younger sister, Emily, were raised by their parents, Ryan Brown and Mandy Thronas-Brown, in Kaneohe. The family was and still is active at St. Ann Parish, with the girls being altar servers and their parents involved in various ministries.
The girls attended preschool through eighth grade at St. Ann School, where their mother taught and was eventually principal. Thronas-Brown is now the associate superintendent of Hawaii Catholic Schools.
The family also has a second church home at St. Catherine Parish on Kauai where their mom is from.
Brown says she and her sister were lucky to grow up in a family that “knows God.”
“And then also, I’ve been surrounded by people of faith so it’s normal, the people I surround myself with are very faithful,” she said.
However, Brown’s mom says she saw her daughter’s faith really mature in high school at Sacred Hearts Academy.
“She began to take more of an interest in serving,” Thronas-Brown said. “It wasn’t Dad and I who pushed her anymore, it was her making a conscious decision to participate actively in our parish.”
Agnes Brown, wearing lei, posed for a photo with her sister Emily Brown, mother Mandy Thronas-Brown and father Ryan Brown on April 13 after winning Miss Aloha Hula at the Merrie Monarch Festival on Hawaii island. (Photos courtesy of Agnes Brown)
Sacred Hearts
Leilani Asuncion-Tagupa, Sacred Hearts Academy’s theology department chair, worked with Brown as her class’s advisor and through the “Living in Faith Experience” or LIFE team, which is made up of a dozen seniors who train to lead retreats and small groups on campus.
Asuncion-Tagupa described Brown as enthusiastic, very high-spirited, faithful and a “natural-born leader.”
“Even on tough days of balancing academics while preparing for a liturgy or a retreat, she put a smile on her face and did what she set out to do. And always with the help of her LIFE sisters, friends, and her guides along the way,” she added in an email. “She never failed to seek help when needed and always made sure to empower others so that they, too, could share in the mission of the school.”
Asuncion-Tagupa could also see how much Brown liked working with the lower school students and remembers her talking about wanting to teach elementary school someday.
Brown chose to study education at Chaminade in part because she wanted to continue her education in a Catholic environment. As part of her degree work there, she was a student-teacher in Debbie Au’s third-grade class at Sacred Hearts.
Au said Brown had a “wonderful rapport” with her students.
“Her positive and enthusiastic style of teaching helps her to connect with each student,” she said in an email. “She loves having our students work in small cooperative groups so they can learn to how to communicate and work well with their teams.
“I’ve enjoyed working with Agnes and am looking forward to seeing her impact with our future keiki!” she said.
On a recent visit to Sacred Hearts, Brown had a quick visit with her third graders. They squealed with delight as they saw her coming across campus and were giggly and excited to talk with her again.
Brown also coaches volleyball at Sacred Hearts. At St. Ann Parish she is a religious education teacher for fourth and fifth graders. She describes her Sunday school teaching style as “casual.”
“I think being Catholic sometimes can feel like a formality, very proper,” she said. “So, I try to, when I’m with the kids, keep it fun and light so they know that you don’t need to be proper to pray.
“I think that’s where my chanting of ‘Jesus’ in my head comes from, just repeating ‘Jesus’ over and over. Because sometimes I don’t always have the right words for a prayer. So just calling him, and he knows.”
Her mom describes Brown as a very “God-first” woman and an inspiration to her and her husband.
“We attribute everything, all of our successes, all of the chaos, all of our imperfections, we credit all of that to Jesus,” Thronas-Brown said.
Agnes Brown poses with third graders she worked with while student teaching at Sacred Hearts Academy this year. (HCH Photo | Anna Weaver)
The hula-faith connection
Thronas-Brown herself grew up dancing hula on Kauai along with her three sisters. Their mother also danced and was a musician. Brown’s father, Ryan, danced hula in the same halau as Agnes’ now kumu hula, Tracie (Farias) Lopes.
And Agnes started dancing hula at age 9 for Tracie and her husband Keawe Lopes through their hula halau Ka La ‘Onohi Mai O Ha‘eha‘e. The Lopes family and the halau are ohana to Brown, and she said they have kept her dancing all these years.
“Hula is a very spiritual aspect of my life,” Brown said. “I feel telling the stories through hula and mostly learning through hula from our kumu is an incredibly spiritual journey, and we surround ourselves with prayer in everything we do.
“I think that’s one of my greatest appreciations towards my kumu and our halau is that we are very surrounded in prayer always. Everything we do is grounded in prayer. It doesn’t feel separated between my faith and dancing hula because we give glory to God and all the blessings that he gives us. And that translates in our hula.”
At Merrie Monarch, the group traveled with their kahu. She was also chanting “Jesus” over and over in her head through different moments in the competition.
Tracie and Keawe Lopes stand on each side of their student, Agnes Brown, at the Merrie Monarch Festival in 2023. (Photo courtesy Agnes Brown)
Brown said that beyond the title of Miss Aloha Hula she was glad to represent her hula family.
“The opportunity to represent my halau, just the opportunity to be on the stage was amazing,” she said.
Her mom said that Agnes has always worked hard at things, including her hula dancing.
“It took her faith, it took her self-determination, it took her dedication and hard work to get her to the level that she’s at,” Thronas-Brown said of her daughter’s receiving the Miss Aloha Hula title.
Some of that grit may have come in handy while Brown juggled a lot preparing for Merrie Monarch, including an increased amount of training for the prestigious competition. At the same time, she was doing her student teaching, completing her Chaminade coursework, and working part-time in an afterschool care program.
Brown isn’t sure yet whether teaching or business will be her primary career pursuit but she will be returning to Chaminade in January to study for her MBA, which will alow her to keep her options open. She’ll also be a substitute teacher at Sacred Hearts.
She has entertained the idea of her own tutoring business and has seen her dad run his own talent agency and work with the Miss Hawaii pageant.
“There are no set plans,” Brown said. “I’m just open-minded.”
