An event organized by high schoolers to motivate their peers to become educators and to address Hawai‘i’s teacher shortage recently drew more than 130 students from seven public high schools to the University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu.
The Dive Into Education event, held Nov. 3 in the Campus Center multi-purpose room, was organized by Pearl City High School seniors Hailey Rodgers and Arisa Yazaki, according to a press release from the Hawai‘i State Teachers Association. Rodgers and Yazaki are enrolled in the Teaching as a Profession program under Tammy Yoon at Pearl City High School, and the two students planned the gathering as their capstone senior project.
“We wanted to organize this event because it is important to have homegrown teachers,” Rodgers said in the press release, adding, “I just wanted them to stay here in Hawai‘i and become teachers and have their careers here in Hawai‘i.”
The first-ever event was supported in part by a grant from the Hawai‘i Education Association. UH West O‘ahu and its Ho‘opūliko Kumu Hou program, a Title III grant that supports the middle/secondary education pathway project, provided financial support to host the event on the campus.
Dive Into Education featured a keynote address with advice from a veteran teacher, a panel discussion and Q&A with current education students from different colleges and universities, and a college fair with information about college and university teaching programs in the islands.
The panelists included three representatives from UH West O‘ahu — Ho‘opūliko Kumu Hou program participants and secondary education majors — Raymart Billote, Joshua Kamalani, and Makayla Rogers-Tivao.
Among the questions posed to the panelists was what inspired them to become a teacher.
“I was blessed to have really good teachers … great role models,” said Rogers-Tivao, who is currently student teaching at James Campbell High School. … “Just being able to help kids out is one of the most important things that I find about teaching.”
The students who attended Dive Into Education were from Campbell, Farrington, Kapolei, Leilehua, Nānākuli, Pearl City, and Waipahu high schools. The colleges and universities represented at the college fair included Chaminade University of Honolulu, Hawai‘i Pacific University, Leeward Community College, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo–Kahuawaiola program, UH Mānoa, and UH West O‘ahu.
“An event like this, at this scale, really reflects how interested students are in becoming teachers,” said Ho‘opūliko Kumu Hou instructional student support specialist Lei‘ala Okuda.
Okuda added, “When we see presence like this and the effort that’s being put into an event like this, it really shows how passionate this community is wanting to grow teachers, especially our own teachers.”