Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 6, 1 Iune 1989 — Naturally Hawaiian [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Naturally Hawaiian

By Patrick Ching Artist/ Environmentalist

1 "Awareness Week" Shows Hawaiians Can Use Education To 1 Be Hawaii's Leaders

By Kalama K. Akamine Operation Kua'ana More than 200 Hawaiian students, faculty and staff members from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, along with their families and non-Hawaiian supporters, gathered at the UH campus April 21 for the second Kua'ana "Bash." The gathering in the courtyard of Moore Hall was the climax of Hawaiian Awareness Week sponsored by Operation Kua'ana, whieh began April 17. For five consecutive days, Hawaiian professionals in various fields related their feelings on higher education and their experiences in their careers. Speakers in law, medicine, public health, education, architecture, business, and the arts, all shared their mana'o with enthusiastic lunchtime audiences. 'Ekela Kani'aupi'o, director of Operation Kua'ana, summed up the discussions when she observed, "Every speaker mentioned that there is a need for Hawaiians to take leadership roles in their chosen professions and in the community, and, more importantly, that higher education is the doorway to change. With higher education, Hawaiians ean become the decision makers in our homeland instead of being the followers." Operation Kua'ana is a student seruice program of the University of Hawai'i. Its aim is to recruit more Hawaiian students into higher education and to provide them with tutoring, enrichment and support programs to build confidence and ensure success in college.