By Poʻo Kula Kāhealani Naeole-Wong
Condensed and summarized keynote address at the National School Counseling Leadership Conference.
I am humbled, honored, and blessed to be here with our Kamehameha ʻohana, in a space that has given so much, invested, inspired, and informed our journey towards reclaiming cultural vibrancy and well-being for our haumāna (students) and our lāhui Hawaiʻi (people of Hawaiʻi). I bring with me the aloha of our students and our kula (school). As I stand here today, I am privileged to share my gratitude for how you have invested in this network and in us, and for the team that has invested in our ʻōpio (youth) represented in this photo.
To begin this journey, I share the grounding, the ʻāina (land), my ancestor, Kualoa, my family, some now ancestors, and the privilege of being a haumāna back in the 1980s, the Centennial class of Kamehameha Schools. Raised as a Native Hawaiian leader at that time, I received endless opportunities, such as being an exchange student in Aotearoa at a Māori boarding school. Living among native people who spoke their language and practiced their traditions was life-changing, allowing me to see a future I couldn’t see before. Although I grew up in a multi-generational Native Hawaiian household, I did not see my language spoken regularly nor knew all my history. We were erased. Our history was erased, even in a school that served Indigenous students.
A fire, a purpose, ignited within me at the age of 16 that has never burned out. I returned home from Aotearoa thinking about my post-secondary journey. What could I do to create this kind of vibrancy for my people in my lifetime? I stand on the shoulders of brilliant Hawaiian leaders, in marginalized and unrepresented spaces, who navigated waves of settler colonialism that erased what we hold dear and true.
I began as a Hawaiian language immersion teacher, moving through my 30-year career to be a catalyst for ensuring a vibrant lāhui (people). Reflecting on my roles and their relevance to my journey toward being a school leader, I always worked closely with counselors to ensure the well-being of our children. Counselors play a critical role, and I thank those I worked with for teaching me and helping shape the work I am about to share.
Four key insights have guided my journey and have been instrumental in driving our collective efforts and success:
Clarity of purpose drives commitment
Clarity of purpose is essential. Who are you? What is your context? Who do you serve? How clear are you about that purpose and communicating it? Our teams don’t get excited merely by hitting targets. There must be a bigger purpose, and it’s our job as leaders to create that compelling why and put it in front of them every time. This clarity of purpose drives commitment to sustain the work.
Values and beliefs guide actions
Leading this work requires that our values and beliefs guide our actions. What we aspire to should be reflected in our actions, especially as we moved to a K-12 data-driven school counseling program for the pono of our lāhui.
Distributed leadership cultivates empowerment
Acknowledging the diverse types of leadership culture within this room, I ask: what is your leadership culture? Does it match the values and beliefs of your purpose? Our leadership culture is one of distributed leadership, and while we do not have it all figured out, we are on the journey and are blessed to have a network to reach out to all of you for experience and support.
Inspiring results fuel momentum
Reclaiming something important can seem overwhelming, especially when serving underrepresented, marginalized communities. The goal is to start, and the leadership culture we have cultivated fuels momentum. The key is to initiate action and build on small wins, which collectively lead to significant achievements.
Clarity of Purpose Drives Our Kauhale Commitment
Our History: Who We Are
The Kamehameha Schools is a private, charitable educational trust endowed by the will of Hawaiian princess Ke Aliʻi Bernice Pauahi, the great-granddaughter and last direct descendant of King Kamehameha I. Her vision was to use education to achieve equity for Native Hawaiian learners, seeing the mass depopulation of her people, the loss of language, and the introduction of foreign diseases. She used her resources to create a legacy for Native Hawaiians, promoting well-being and capability into perpetuity.
Kamehameha Schools Hawaiʻi Campus is located in Keaʻau, Puna on the island of Hawaiʻi. Our learners reside in rural communities across a vast landscape. While we predominantly serve students in East Hawaiʻi, some travel two hours each way to school. They come to our school for the promise of our Princess, to seed hope, take advantage of opportunities, and become ʻōiwi (native) leaders for the purpose of empowerment.
Our Learners Reflect the Communities We Serve
The 2020 census showed that Native Hawaiians living on the U.S. continent (53%) now outnumber those residing in Hawaiʻi (47%). Our Native Hawaiians are economic refugees, unable to afford to live in their homeland and therefore relocate to the continent. The work we do is sacred because Indigenous people can no longer afford to live on the sands of their birth. This makes our K-12 data-driven counseling program critical. We care about these statistics, but what we shoulder is the existence of our people.
When examining basic needs, 52% of Native Hawaiians worry about their daily expenses, and 74% are more likely to come from single-mother households. Additionally, 63% of Native Hawaiian high school students have attempted suicide. Compared to non-Hawaiians in Hawaiʻi, Native Hawaiians are 50% less likely to have earned a bachelor’s degree. Although we are not at the top of the list for cancer prevalence, our mortality rates from cancer are 24% higher, and the life expectancy of Native Hawaiians is six years shorter than the average Hawaiʻi resident.
In our language, when responsibility feels heavy, we call it kaumaha. From age 16, I saw 20-30 years ahead of what it could be, privileged to work alongside Native Hawaiian leaders through different movements. Our campus leaders, counselors, students, and parents stand united to change the narrative and reclaim our own of our people thriving.
Our Purpose at Kamehameha Hawaiʻi
Culturally relevant education is crucial, especially given our people’s distrust of government. It ensures our learners can disrupt systems perpetuating inequities. Native leaders strive for ea, or empowerment, not just for themselves, but for their families, communities, and the greater good. This approach matters to the people we serve, and that is where we start. Simply put, this is our purpose: to reclaim and collectively advance a narrative of Native Hawaiians thriving.
To achieve this, we must decenter toxic narratives about ourselves and our people, replacing them with a strengths-based approach. Over the past 30 years, the movement for Native Hawaiian education has produced incredible leaders, including former students now leading at the university level. Our people’s expectations have never been higher, with more individuals holding degrees in various fields. It’s a different time for our people. As a school leader mobilizing this transformation, I understand the difficulty of decentering old narratives, especially for those who didn’t grow up hearing these stories.
I speak Hawaiian not because I learned it growing up but because I learned it in college. Many of our narratives were nearly erased but have been skillfully revived by this generation using technology, making them available in English. This momentum from one generation feeds the next.
Inspired by Our Past
Our Princess named the school after her great-grandfather for a reason. He was an incredible leader under whom people thrived. To advance these narratives of a thriving people, we must decenter the other narratives. Though none of us were alive during his time, tapping into that historical repository is critical. We must bring this repository into our curriculum, starting with our faculty, staff, and counselors, ensuring a common language and understanding. We commit to investing in this knowledge, instilling a strong sense of identity, and giving us the confidence to exert our agency toward empowering socioeconomic and political equity.
Our Values and Beliefs Drive Our Actions
How do our values and beliefs drive our actions? I am inspired by Epeli Hauofa, an oceanic scholar from the University of Suva. He framed the oceanic identity by highlighting how people often see us as islands scattered randomly across the Pacific. Epeli flipped that narrative. As oceanic people, we are Polynesian voyagers with extensive pathways connecting all our island nations. Do you see yourself as broken or as connected?
We see ourselves from a strengths-based approach. As Epeli said, “Just as the sea is an open and ever-flowing reality, so should our oceanic identity transcend all forms of insularity, to become one that is openly searching, inventive, and welcoming.” The values and beliefs that we center on, as a lāhui Hawaiʻi and as a school, are rooted in this interconnectedness. This is why, when asked to be here, I humbly and automatically said “yes.” Despite our differences, you are our people.
Initially, we didn’t know how to build a K-12 data-informed culture. We have gained good momentum, but we are still learning. We analyzed hard data within our school and for Native Hawaiians in general, and we committed to looking at it from a strengths-based perspective, starting with an assets approach.
ʻAe Kai to Kahiki: Centering Our Approach
Unlike my experience growing up, where I learned little about Native Hawaiian culture and history, we are now centering these elements in our education. You can see our horizon, where we have ʻAe Kai to Kahiki—ʻAe Kai being the shore, centered on our origins, and Kahiki being out on the horizon. This journey to a K-12 data-driven counseling program came at a time when we, as an organization, recognized the need for post-secondary education. If we want ʻŌiwi leaders to disrupt systems and challenge inequities, they need post-secondary education to make an impact. The “why” is for our graduates to become leaders like Kamehameha Paiʻea, creating conditions for themselves and their lāhui.
We centered ourselves on what was important to us: our Princess, her lineage, her leadership, and the conditions under which our people thrived. We revisited those moʻolelo (stories) as a school and created our expectations for teaching and learning.
These expectations reflect our beliefs and actions and guide our progress. We also examined future-focused data, understanding that in the age of machines, human skills become the most important. Skills in social and emotional learning, often seen as “extra,” are now core in this era—skills in which our people naturally excel.
Distributed Leadership Cultivates Empowerment
At Kamehameha Schools Hawaiʻi, we have ambitious post-secondary targets, and to reach these targets, we had to change. We have a continuous innovation and improvement process that rigorously centers on ʻŌiwi, or indigenous methodologies. This means owning our responsibility as an indigenous-serving institution and closing the gap between those most likely to succeed and those least likely to succeed, with a bias toward action. Big wins come from many small wins through taking action. We began with the leaders of the counselors and then expanded our work to include all counselors.
Our Alaukawai Journey for Sustainable Innovation
Role Identity and Optimization. We take bold action while being respectful and responsible for the professionals impacted. We have a task force that includes our counselors, emphasizing respect through co-creation, honoring their profession, and providing autonomy. We embrace Alaukawai, our system of bottom-up innovation with top-down support, removing barriers to ensure success. Additionally, we accelerate change from within, bringing people with different perspectives and roles into a collaborative space, whether in a learning and teaching task force or an R&D task force, to enact change.
Evolving Role of Counselors
The evolving role of counselors over the years has embraced advocacy and systemic change. Counselors talk to students about their unique purpose and responsibility to themselves, their families, and their lāhui. They connect because they understand the impact of post-secondary education and the necessity of having a clear “why.”
While initially chasing a 90% post-secondary enrollment rate, we realized it was too late to start only at the high school level. We began with our youngest learners, recognizing that it is the job of all educators, not just counselors, to create purpose and connect with families as true partners. Counselors also contribute by emphasizing the importance of post-secondary education and the role of learners in lifting the lāhui.
Our Counselor Leaders
We developed micro courses for foundational pathways, providing all educators access to the repository of Hawaiian ‘ike or knowledge. Not only are counselors taking these foundational courses, but they have also been featured in these courses, sharing their insights into the role of counselors and impacting the well-being of the whole child. This participation has transformed our culture, positioning counselors as teachers and respected figures within the profession, fostering empowerment.
Inspiring Results Fuel Momentum
Our progress has been significant, though there is much left to do. I draw inspiration from Kamehameha III, a very prominent Hawaiian leader who said, “Mine is a nation of learning. My people are a learned people.” We are inheritors of this scholarly identity, and as systems disruptors for equity, we draw inspiration from this lineage of Native Hawaiian education, where our people thrived.
Our Learners: Traditional Student Measurements of Success
We are studying past conditions to recreate them for our people today. We aim to decenter toxic narratives, both cultural and academic, by reclaiming a narrative of a learned people. Here are some exciting outcomes from our counselors on the ground:
Elementary School: Counselors create personalized learning agreements (PLAs) with families, teachers, and counselors, focusing on student needs. Early results showed a decrease from 55% to 41% in students needing intense support.
Middle School: Counselors focused on reducing chronic absenteeism from 27% to 10%.
High School: Through academic goal setting, one-on-one intervention, and family involvement, we reduced the number of students on academic probation.
These measures of success build our data culture, critical for achieving larger outcomes of lāhui transformation. While some aspects are harder to measure, like applying skills in a modern context for community benefit, these are the learners in our schools today.
Our Graduates: Traditional Post-Secondary Measures of Success
This process is part of our core business, taking five years to establish. It wasn’t a plug and play quick fix. We set ambitious targets for post-secondary success, aiming for 90% enrollment. For the class of 2023, we achieved 100% enrollment, thanks to the efforts of our entire community. It was a significant lift, and it took a long time to figure out these steps from our ʻAe Kai to Kahiki learnings.
Our goal remains to ensure that 70% of the Kamehameha Hawaiʻi senior class graduates within six years post-high school. For the class of 2017, we hit this target, and we are excited about continuing this progress.
Our Graduates: Native Hawaiian Measurement of Post-Secondary Success
I leave you with a story of an alumna from the class of 2013. [Insert link to video] Many of you might have heard of the Lahaina wildfires, the deadliest fires in U.S. history since 1918. His mother, a single mom, moved to the Big Island from Maui to find family support. He started at our school as a sophomore and graduated. He loved his ʻāina, his land, his home, his family, and returned to Lahaina. I share his story because it exemplifies what we strive to achieve: preparing Native Hawaiian leaders to stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with leaders already in the community, taking action to disrupt inequities not just in the school system, but in the larger community. In this clip, you will see him at the opening day of the State legislature, demonstrating his advocacy.
Neither I nor our school take credit for his achievements, but this is the kind of outcome we focus on. It’s the kind of data that truly matters.
His story reminds us that we are all leaders. Despite our different contexts, we share a common goal: to prepare our students for empowered futures, to lead purposefully, and to reclaim our results. I understand how heavy this work can feel, especially for our counselors and those who support them and our haumāna.
A Call to Action
I leave you with words from Native Hawaiian composer Larry Kauanoe Lindsey Kimura. This chant is about a foundation where the rocks are coming apart and how we reset that foundation. When you carry heavy kuleana, heavy responsibility, let these words inspire you to rebuild and strengthen your foundation, carrying forward the heavy but noble calling of leadership.
Ke Au Hawaiʻi
Haku ʻia na Larry Kauanoe Kimura
Auē nā aliʻi ē o ke au i hala!
E nānā mai iā mākou,
Nā pulapula o nei au e holo nei.
E ala mai kākou e nā kini, nā mamo o ka ʻāina aloha.
Aloha wale ia ʻāina kō kākou kahua.
Auē ka ʻiliʻili ē i ka hoʻopuehu ʻia nei
E paepae hou ʻia ka pōhaku
I paʻa maila ke kahua hale hou.
No kākou e nā pua e hoʻolulu ai.
E ala e ka ʻĪ, ka Mahi, ka Palena!
I mua a loaʻa ka lei o ka lanakila!
Oh my chiefs of times past, if you could be here with us,
To see and observe us
Descendants of this current time.
Rise up, O multitudes, offspring of this beloved country.
So much aloha for this country our foundation.
Alas for the pebbles [of our home foundation] being scattered about.
Let rocks be set up again
So a new house foundation be fixed
For us, O descendants, to find security in.
Rise up, O clans of ʻĪ, Mahi, and Palena!
Move forward and obtain the banner of victory!