Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 9, 1 Kepakemapa 1994 — OHA grants used to heal, educate [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA grants used to heal, educate

Summer learning program opens up new worlds for underprivileged kids

Since 1978, Summerbridge, a summer education program, has been giving young adults an opportunity to teach and disadvantaged children a ehanee to learn. The program originated in San Francisco and has since gone nationwide. The Hawai'i chapter of the program started up this year. Administered by Mid-Pacific Institute, it hires high school and college students from Hawai'i and across the country to work as teachers and be role models for junior high school students in Hawai'i. Students eome predominantly from west O'ahu and the leeward coast. The targeted students, many of whom are native Hawaiian, are what Summerbridge calls "talented and motivated seventh and eighth graders" who eome from low-ineome or problem families, or those with "limited educational challenges" and opportunities. The program hopes to get these high-potential students in a new environment, expose them to new and different ideas, and develop their potential as leaders and role models in their own communities. Program director David Turner explains, "Our goal is to teach these kids and then have them take what they learn and contribute it to their own eommunities." The intensive six-week program lasts for two summers and has tutorials during the year. Its curriculum includes writing, mathematics, sciences, foreign languages and history. Students study six hours a day and ean either commute daily to Mid-Pacific or sleep at the school's dormitories. Turner explains that part of the course plan is to

incorporate Hawaiian values - aloha, lōkahi, mālama - into the curriculum and use them to enrich the learning process. While Tumer admits this has not

turned out quite as expected, the nature of the course design - small classes with a lot of one-on-one communication - had created bonds and allowed for educational "healing" that would

have been impossible in a larger classroom setting. "The difference between these kids now and when they first started is incredible," Turner says, referring to a math class of predominantly Hawaiian students. "The close attention paid to them by the teacher really helps." The program also tries to tailor the course materials so loeal students ean better identify with it. Shakespeare is given a pidgin rendition, lesser known aspects of American history, including the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, are taught, and loeal issues (sovereignty, the island environment) are emphasized in social studies class. The Summerbridge program works with 38 students, a third of whom are native Hawaiian. It has 16 teachers, eight from loeal high schools and eolleges and eight from the Mainland. The majority of the program's nearly $700,000 budget is funded by loeal foundations and MidPacific lnstitute. PJ

Organization: MidPacific lnstitute Program: Summerbridge OHA grant: $10,000

San Francisco native Scott Okamoto (right) shares a joke with David Modesto during a Summerbridge science class. Photo by Patrick Johnston