Maya Kasandra Soetoro-Ng is the Indonesian-American maternal half-sister of the 44th United States president, Barack Obama. Formerly a high school history teacher, she is currently a consultant for the Obama Foundation, working to develop the Asia-Pacific Leaders Program, and a faculty specialist at the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace & Conflict Resolution, which is based in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Early life and education
Soetoro-Ng was born Maya Kasandra Soetoro in Saint Carolus Hospital, a Catholic hospital, in Jakarta, Indonesia, the daughter of American cultural anthropologistAnn Dunham, an American of English, Irish and German descent, and Indonesian businessman Lolo Soetoro. Her elder half-brother is the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama. She has said she was named after American poet Maya Angelou. Soetoro-Ng and Obama spent several years together in Indonesia and in Hawaii before her mother decided to return to Indonesia with her. After her parents divorced in 1980, her father remarried. From this marriage, Soetoro-Ng has another half-brother, Yusuf Aji Soetoro, and a half-sister, Rahayu Nurmaida Soetoro. While living in Indonesia, Soetoro-Ng was home-schooled by her mother and then attended Jakarta International School from 1981 to 1984. Like Obama, Soetoro-Ng returned to Hawaii and attended the private Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, graduating in 1988. Soetoro-Ng received her B.A. degree from Barnard College of Columbia University. She then received an M.A. in secondary language studies and an M.A. in Secondary Education from New York University. In 2006, she received a Ph.D. in international comparative education from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Soetoro-Ng has often spoken warmly about her relationship with her older half-brother, which she says has remained strong even though they have often lived far apart. As adults, they have often celebrated Christmas in Hawaii, and savor the time they spend with their families together.
Career
Soetoro-Ng is currently a faculty specialist for the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace & Conflict Resolution, which is based in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, as well as a consultant for the Obama Foundation's Leaders Program: Asia-Pacific. Dr. Soetoro-Ng teaches courses on: Peace Education; the History of Peace Movements; and Leadership for Social Change. She also oversees externships for undergraduates who are majoring or minoring in Peace Studies and coordinates the institute's community and global service learning programs. Soetoro-Ng was an assistant professor at the Institute for Teacher Education at the University of Hawai'iCollege of Education and continues to do some consulting work, promoting international exchange and understanding, in partnership with the East West Center. She authored a children's book, Ladder to the Moon, that was inspired by her mother and her daughter, Suhaila; it was published in 2011. She is working on a book about peace education and a young adult novel entitled Yellowood. Soetoro-Ng was a high school history teacher at and the Education Laboratory School, both in Honolulu, Hawaii. She previously taught and developed curriculum at The Learning Project, an alternative public middle school in New York City, from 1996 to 2000. In 2009, Soetoro-Ng helped bring her mother's dissertation to publication in the form of the book Surviving against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia. She wrote a foreword to the book and participated in its launch at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting. in Denver, Colorado.
Research
Soetoro-Ng's doctoral research at the University of Hawaii at Manoa focused on Multicultural and International Education. She examined the use of narrative to develop more complex understandings of identity in multicultural classrooms. She promoted the learning of Social Studies—history and current events—from multiple perspectives. She has developed and implemented peace education curricula in public high schools and for K-12 teachers in Colleges of Education. With partner Kerrie Urosevich, she conducts professional development workshops to share the Cedes of Peace with educators and families. She co-founded a nonprofit Our Public School that works to build bridges between schools and the communities that surround them.
In 2003, Maya Soetoro married Konrad Ng, a Chinese Canadian from Burlington, Ontario, Canada. Ng, who is of Malaysian Chinese descent, is now also a US citizen. He was the director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii's Academy of Creative Media. He is now the executive director of the Doris Duke Shangri La Center for Islamic Arts and Culture in Hawaii in Honolulu, Hawaii. They have two daughters, Suhaila and Savita. Soetoro-Ng has described herself as "philosophically Buddhist". She speaks Indonesian, Spanish, and English.
