Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 1, 1 Ianuali 2010 — OHA receives grant to build tech-based education [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA receives grant to build tech-based education

By Liza Simon Public Affairs Specialist Coming soon to rural island enclaves: Tools of technology will boost earning and learning power on turf that is home to large eoneentrations of Native Hawaiians. With support from a $453,131 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), OHA will serve as the hub of technology that links 15 rural sites, including puhlie schools, charter schools, Hawaiian Home Lands community centers and other locations for academic courses, health education, job-read-iness training and Native Hawaiian cultural literacy. OHA is also working on getting additional grant funding to add the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands as a hub. The USDA in November announced its award to OHA, whieh provided 30 percent in matching funds. OHA will use the grant to buy and install video-conferencing equipment that will comprise the new Native Hawaiian Education and Employment Network. OHA's Peter Hanohano, who wrote the grant application, said the new network will target the welldocumented link between poverty and low educational achievement

in the state's rural eommunities. Hanohano said the crisis in education for rural Native Hawaiians has worsened, as the recession takes a toll on the state budget. U.S. census data, whieh OHA used to qualify for the grant, showed that Hawai'i's rural communities, where

Native Hawaiians are concentrated, are underserved by access to quality education and job training. Hanohano said the problem begins in the early school grades and sets the stage for less wage-earning power across the life span. "In the past, someone from a remote area like Hāna has had to make the ehoiee: do I stay home and help the family or do I look for some way to get away and try to get a higher education? Because of affordability, the answer is usually to stay home," said Hanohano, adding that the grant is designed so that rural Native Hawaiians will no longer face this difficult ehoiee. Hanohano said another advantage of the network is that it will allow rural Native Hawaiian eommunities to integrate native knowledge and values into their curriculum. "Many Hawaiians are thinking subconsciously that the college-bound path is like a foreign system," said

Hanohano, OHA's education advocate for K-12. "So the question is, What do we give up spiritually, culturally and emotionally when we walk into our mainstream schools and compete within that system? The technology is a valuable tool in creating our own system suited to indiaenous leamina stvles

and self-sustainability." A former puhlie defender, Hanohano said that after switching his own career path to education, he frequently saw rural Native Hawaiians struggling with quality of life issues that could be addressed by better access to education. He cites the case of a middle-aged Native Hawaiian high school dropout from a remote area of Hawai'i Island who walked into his Hawai'i Community College office and announced that he was there to follow through on a long-cherished dream to eomplete his education. "When I asked him what took him so long, he said he thought he was too 'far gone' to even try," Hanohano recalled. "He said he had been living in the bush so long that on the morning he eame to see me, he had sat in his car and wrestled with his hesitancy and feelings of low self-worth for two hours." Good news followed, however.

The man took community eollege placement tests and scored high enough to enter college-level English classes. He received his associate's degree, continues to work toward his bachelor's degree and is gainfully employed in a job that serves the Hawaiian eommunity, said Hanohano, adding that the man's story should encourage others with dreams of a better edueahon to eheek out the new Nataive Hawaiian Education and Employment Network. Onee the network's video-con-ferencing equipment is installed at OHA offices in 20 10, Hanohano said the 15 site partners ean choose from an array of options. "Remote area

high schools, such as in Moloka'i, may not have funds for hiring teachers skilled in all necessary subject areas such as calculus," he said. "So now that course ean be delivered via video-conferencing with another private or puhlie school." The equipment is interactive and allows the site partners to produce content unique to their communities for others to learn from. "I would love for some of our Native Hawai-ian-focused charter schools to take the cameras out to the lo'i and fishponds and share what we have with the world," Hanohano said. "Hawai'i is a small plaee, but we have so mueh to give the world in education and this (new network) will help." ■

Participating sites 0HA's Honolulu office will serve as the hub forthe Native Hawaiian Education and Employment Network. Here are the locations that will be Dlugged intothe network.

Hawai'i Ke Kula 'o 'Ehunuikaimalino, Kealakekua Kona Native Hawaiian Community Center, Kona Kanu o ka 'Āina New Century PCS, Waimea KeAna La'ahana PCS, Keaukaha Ke Kula 'o Nāwahiokalani'ōpu'u Iki Laboratory PCS, Kea'au Kua o ka Lā PCS, Pāhoa Maui Hāna Youth Center, Hāna Lāna'i Lāna'i OHA office, Lāna'i City

Moloka'i Moloka'i High School, Hoolehua Moloka'i OHA office, Kaunakakai O'ahu Kamaile Academy PCS, Wai'anae Ko'olauloa Community Learning Center, Hau'ula Kaua'i Kaua'i-Ni'ihau OHA office, Lihu'e Kawaikini New Century Public Charter School, Lihu'e Kula Aupuni Ni'ihau A Kahelelani Aloha (KANAKA) PCS, Kekaha

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[^14 www.oha.org/kwo

Peter Hanohano