Kamehameha Alumni Offer Scholarships

The Kamehameha School Alumni Association-NW Region has available $1,000 scholarships to be awarded this year.

Applicants must be Washington or Alaska State residents and be eligible to be enrolled as a student in a post high school educational program leading toward an accredited degree. The applicants must have demonstrated scholastic ability, community service, be of good character and through his or her own endeavors, have the ability and commitment to help perpetuate the Hawaiian culture. Preference will be given to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry.

To receive an application, please send a request to Stan Dahlin, Scholarship Chair, to scdahlin@comcast.net, or mail request to 14918 SE, 183rd Street, Renton, WA 98058.

Completed applications must be received by May 4, 2007.

College Success for Native Hawaiians
and Other Pacific Islanders

Thoughts from Reidar Smith and Dr. George Mills

Aloha,

Here were some ideas from myself and Dr. George Mills at University of Puget Sound (UPS) to a question on the OHA Legislature Agenda on WHY Native Hawaiians (and Other Pacific Islanders) (NHOPI) DO NOT complete their college education and obtain degrees. Some do get their degrees but the percentage is low. I think this may be something that every PI in Academia should be aware of and first of all, confirm it is true, evaluate why, and come up with ideas on how to fix it. This problem alone can improve NHOPI education statistics significantly.

To continue the discussion on why Hawaiians drop out of college without getting a degree, the U of Washington may have a clue. They are the only college that I know of who keeps data on how many Pacific Islanders (including Hawaiians) enroll, how they perform and how many receive degrees. Data from the last two years indicated that Pacific Islanders (PI) had the highest drop out rate of any minority, especially in the first 3 years. There were two primary reasons given, neither of which were about grades.

The main reason seemed to be family emergencies. When a family member of a PI student gets sick, has money problems or dies, many PI students used their financial aide money to help out and thus leaving them with inadequate funds to continue schooling. This is the reason our organization (Northwest Association of Pacific Americans) is providing Emergency Fund Scholarships to PI students attending UW and Seattle U. We are trying to keep those students in school.

The second reason give seems to affect the students from Hawaii more, but is also applicable to mainland PI's. That reason is homesickness or feeling alienated and out of place at UW. – Reidar Smith

While I have not seen research done specifically with native Hawaiian students, I have worked with them over the years and would agree with some recent work done in Canada with aboriginal peoples. (Aboriginal Peoples and Post-Secondary Education; RA Malatest and Associates; Montreal , QC ; January 2004.) The findings include: 

• Students must acquire and accept a new form of consciousness, an orientation which not only displaces, but often devalues the world-views they bring with them.
• Students must acquire and accept a new form of consciousness, an orientation which not only displaces, but often devalues the world-views they bring with them.
• Many educational programs ignore aboriginal perspectives, values and issues.
• Many colleges have no representation of aboriginal peoples on the faculty or staff.
• Loneliness and the absence of family support is also an issue.
• Lack of immediate success coupled with debt, which is often the case, leads students to leave rather than continue.
• Lack of a clear vision and purpose for education can debilitate a well prepared student.             

Reidar's points are very true.

We have had a long history of success with Pacific Islander students at the University of Puget Sound. Among the reasons for this would be: a long tradition of Pacific Islander enrollment and graduation, a local Tacoma support group which operates in place of family (I do miss Keoki Willis), a cultural tradition within the college community which acknowledges and celebrates the Pacific Islander culture and heritage and a staff in student services which is very tuned in to issues of isolation and loneliness.

Those would be my contributions - George Mills - UPS

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