Although Dennis Tynan of Nanakuli High School is a newcomer to teaching in Hawai‘i, he has made a tremendous impact on economic education. Dennis introduced the first economics course to the curriculum at Nanakuli and his junior level economics course has become a semester requirement at the school. With confidence and belief in his students, he has brought his students to compete in the Economics Challenge, a competition of economics knowledge for high school students, for two consecutive years.

Dennis is a strong advocate and supporter of economic education. In addition to introducing economics and the Economics Challenge to the students at Nanakuli, he gave up a week of his summer break to attend the Economics for Leaders course co-sponsored by the Foundation for Teaching Economics and the Center for Economic Education of UH- Manoa and participated in the HCEE Financial Literacy Conference. At the recent Hawai‘i State Teachers Association conference, Dennis introduced a resolution to endorse the idea of making economics a requirement for all public high schools.