COE Students Participate in Educational Voyage to Kaho'olawe

Graduate students in the Masters of Education in Teaching (MEdT) and the Masters of Special Education (SPED) programs were granted access to Kaho'olawe for four days in October 2008. Meilan Akaka, Kenneth Ferenchak, Justine Fonte, Shayna Langsner, Jon Milgrom, and Alex Teece were among eight Teach for America Hawai'i corp members to receive training in the new place-based curricula of the Malama Kaho'olawe program. The program was overseen by more than 20 other educators.

"It was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had," said Fonte, an MEdT student and mathematics teacher at Aiea Intermediate School. "It impacted me so much that I have organized a five-day trip to bring 17 students and teachers from my school so they can experience the rich culture that Kaho'olawe has to offer and help to revitalize the island.'

The aim of the program is to develop culture and place-based academic curricula to serve middle and high school students. The curricula are aligned to state standards and incorporate mathematics, science, and other core subjects. Participants are tasked with bringing back a heightened sense of awareness to their schools and communities. Educators teach students about the island as a case study which can later be applied to another island.

Teece, another graduate student in the MEdT program, expressed how he had not felt "connected to the islands" until he went to Kaho'olawe under the mentorship of Hawaiian educators. Recent MEdT graduate, Langsner, developed her own culturally appropriate curriculum for US History at Campbell High School based on her experience.

Akaka, a graduate student in SPED, said they visited Kaho'olawe "to become stewards of the land while restoring and preserving connections to the land, sea, and sacredness of Hawaiian culture and tradition."