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OUR SESSION SPEAKERS

 

Amanda has the distinction honor of being recognized as one of the first Running Start students in the State of Hawaii to earn an Associate in Arts degree by her senior year in high school.  As a harbinger of early college, Amanda was in the Honors Program, was Vice President of Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society, Alpha Lambda Gamma Chapter and was a proud graduate of the University of Hawaii – West Oahu.  Amanda continued her studies at UH Manoa, earning a Master in Arts degree in English with a focus in Creative Writing.  Amanda is one of the first early college teachers in Hawaii who brings a unique perspective of the early college experience as a once 14-year old college student and now an early college teacher.  

 

Reschi “Karla” Ramo was one of the first Waipahu High School students to participate in the Early College High School program at its inception in the summer 2012.  While a senior at Waipahu High School, she earned a 4.0 GPA for all college coursework.  As a high school senior, she also presented at the 2013 National Early College Conference at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.  Her topic was entitled on the topic entitled Our Early College Students:  The Message and the Messenger As a transfer student to Leeward Community College, she graduated with numerous distinctions:  Honors Program, Phi Theta Kappa, Dean’s List, and the State of Hawaii’s only recipient of the prestigious 2015 Coca-Cola New Century Scholar.  Karla is now a junior at the University of Hawaii and works part time as the WHS Early College Administrative Assistant (PPT).

 

Mary Ancheta is a proud graduate of Waipahu High School and after receiving her Bachelor’s degree from BYU Hawaii, she returned to her alma mater to become an academic advisor and counselor.  She is currently serving as Division Head of the Counseling Department at Waipahu High School.  Mary is also lead counselor for nearly 50 Waipahu High School Early College “Olympians” – Early College students who have dedicated themselves to earning an Associate in Arts degree by the time they graduate from Waipahu High School.

 

Gabrielle Dang is currently a senior at Waipahu High School and is also enrolled as an Early College student.  As a senior, she is conducting research that investigates factors which contribute to Early College success.  Her senior project research is entitled, “The Early College Freshmen Experience: An Examination of Delayed Gratification, Grit and Growth Mindset,” and is in partial fulfillment of a Board of Education Recognition Diploma with STEM, CTE, and Academic Honors.  Miss Dang is a member of the National Honor Society, and will be inducted into the collegiate Phi Theta Kappa International  Honor Society at Leeward Community College this spring semester. Miss Dang competed in the 2016 Career Technical Student Organization (CTSO) Conference and won second place in the extemporaneous writing category for Health Occupations Students of America. She has the distinct honor of competing in the national CTSO Conference in Nashville, TN during the summer.  Miss Dang’s career goal is to become a optometrist or pediatrician.

 

Kami Kato is the Student Services Program Officer and Early College Coordinator at Leeward Community College.  She facilitates the design, implementation and evaluation of initiatives that encourage college success, including Leeward CC’s Early College Program.  Leeward CC’s Early College Program is currently the largest on the island of O`ahu; it has served over 1163 students since the program’s inception in Fall 2012 via partnerships with 8 Leeward District DOE, Central District DOE and private high schools.

Anna Chung holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, College of Engineering.  She joined Chevron in 1998 and has held various positions in Hawaii in Retail Marketing, Transportation & Operations, and Refining.  She is currently the Compliance Assurance Advisor at the Chevron Hawaii Refinery located in Kapolei, Oahu, Hawaii.

Tina Frank currently manages the Projects Team at the Chevron Hawaii Refinery located  in Kapolei, Oahu, Hawaii  She started her career with Chevron at Chevron’s El Segundo Refinery in Los Angeles after earning a bachelor’s of science degree in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA.  During her 26 years with Chevron, Tina has held various positions of increasing responsibility including overseeing several major capital intensive plant maintenance turnarounds with cost ranging from under a million to $ 60+ million dollars.

 

 

Manulani Aluli Meyer is the fifth daughter of Emma Aluli and Harry Meyer.  Her family hails from Mokapu, Kailua, Wailuku, Hilo and Kohala on the islands of Oahu, Maui and Moku O Keawe.  The Aluli ohana is a large and diverse group of scholar-activists who have spent their lives in Hawaiian education, justice, land reclamation, law, health, cultural revitalization, arts education, prison reform, transformational economics, food sovereignty, Hawaiian philosophy and most of all, music.  Manu works in the field of indigenous epistemology and its role in world-wide awakening.  Professor Aluli-Meyer obtained her doctorate from Harvard (Ed.D. 1998) by studying Hawaiian epistemology via language, history, and the clear insights of Hawaiian mentors.  She is a world-wide keynote speaker and has published extensively on the topic of native intelligence and its synergistic linkages to quantum sciences, transformational and whole thinking, and to liberating pedagogy.  Her book: Ho’oulu: Our Time of Becoming – Hawaiian Epistemology and Early Writings, is in its third printing.  Her background is in wilderness education, experiential learning and ecological literacy, and she has been an Instructor for the Outward Bound schools, Wilderness Hawaii, Hawaii Bound, and other alternative learning programs.  Dr. Aluli-Meyer championed the Hawaiian Charter School movement in Hawaii, worked within the prisons, and developed Hoea Ea and Kaiao Garden for the Hawaii Island Food Sovereignty movement.  Professor Aluli-Meyer was the International Indigenous Scholar in 2005-06 at Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, the Center for Māori Research Excellence at the University of Auckland.  She is an international evaluator of Indigenous PhD’s and is mentored with the lessons learned.  Manulani has been an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Hawaii in Hilo and host to many creative community transformational education projects within/outside the university.  She has lived 5 years in New Zealand working for Te Wānanga o Aotearoa as lead developer/teacher for their innovative Masters of Applied Indigenous Knowledge, He Waka Hiringa.  She is currently the Director of Indigenous Education at UH West Oahu and working with many community initiatives in educational reform, food security, and prison transformation.  Mau ke aloha no Hawaii.

Wade Araki, has been an administrator for the Hawaii Department of Education since 1994.  Wade’s first stint as principal was at Reverend Benjamin Parker Elementary School in Kaneohe, Hawaii where he assumed the leadership role in 2003. Under his leadership, the school has been recognized for its high achievement based on rapid and dramatic increases in student performance in reading. In 2007, Benjamin Parker received the Alaka’i Na Keiki Award for Reading. The school was one of only 13 schools statewide that had achieved more than a 25% gain in student proficiency in their overall reading scores during the course of three years (2004 - 2006). In 2012 Parker was recognized as having the highest gains in the state. During Wade’s leadership they moved from 11 % to 84% in math and from 26% to 88% in reading.

Based on this success, Wade was named principal of the struggling Kaimuki High School in 2012. The school has already begun to show strong gains under his leadership.  The biggest improvement has been in Early College.  Early College enrollment was almost non-existent in 2012, with only one student registered for Running Start earning three credits.  In the 2015-2016 school year, over eighty (80) students a semester are now enrolled in Early College via Running Start, Jump Start and the Kaimuki2College programs.

Wade grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii and attended Chaminade University of Honolulu, where he earned a Bachelors Degree in Secondary Education and Social Studies, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he earned his Masters Degree in Educational Administration.

DOE Administrators’ Early College Roundtable

An educator for over 16 years, Keith Hayashi served as the State of Hawaii, DOE Complex Area Superintendent for Pearl City and Waipahu districts, and more recently has been Principal of Waipahu High School for five years. Mr. Hayashi has developed several innovative programs with one area of focus being on achieving students' career and college readiness.  To achieve this end, Mr. Hayashi established the first Early College High School program in the State of Hawaii. Mr. Hayashi was also the recipient of the 2013 Masayuki Tokioka Excellence in School Leadership Award, as well as the State of Hawaii 2015 High School Principal of the Year.

A graduate of Hilo High School, Kelcy Koga earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Master of Science in Counseling Psychology from Chaminade University of Honolulu, and Master of Education in Education Administration from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.  Mr. Koga has been a school administrator for 16 years and Principal at Waiākea High School for 9 years.

Daniel S. Hamada is currently Principal of Kapa’a High School on Kauai.  Mr. Hamada firmly believes in preparing all students for college, career and citizenship per the Smaller Learning Community’s Hui and Academy structure.  To achieve this vision, Principal Hamada helped establish Early College courses on the school’s campus and today, Early College courses continue to be strongly imbedded in Kapa’a High’s course selections.   Daniel S. Hamada previously served as the State of Hawaii, DOE Assistant Superintendent for the Office of Curriculum, Instruction and Student Support and Complex Area Superintendent for Kauai. 

Steven Hoy is the Chief Executive Officer of Dimension U, an academic gaming program that creates engaging and interactive multiplayer video games focusing on core skills in mathematics and literacy.  Dimension U is delivering highly compelling and engaging educational products to students, that they are desiring to use outside the traditional educational setting.  CEO Steven Hoy and his staff are creating positive change for many students and lighting a path towards the opportunity for higher education by establishing educational success through non-traditional means.

Nicole Atwood is the Early College High School Program Manager at Hawai’i P-20 Partnerships for Education.   She facilitates support, including funding, implementation, and technical assistance, for the 12 Hawai’i high schools participating the Early College High School (“ECHS”) Program Grant (jointly sponsored by Hawai’i P-20 and the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation). It is anticipated that approximately 160 classes serving more than 3,000 students will be offered through the ECHS Program Grant.

Elten Lau is the GEAR UP Counselor and Early College Coordinator at Waianae High School. He is responsible for the development and implementation of a comprehensive Early College Program in partnership with Leeward Community College and University of Hawaii - West Oahu. Waianae High School's ECHS program serves nearly 100 students per semester and is funded by the Hawaii P-20 Early College High School, UH-West Oahu Title III, and UH-West Oahu Holomua: GEAR UP grants.

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