Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 11, 1 November 2013 — EASING THE BURDEN OF PAYING FOR COLLEGE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EASING THE BURDEN OF PAYING

FOR COLLEGE

BY HARŪLD NEDD PHŪTŪS: JŪHN MATSUZAKI

This mueh Rachel Makaiwi knews: paying fer cellege ean be ene ef the teughest parts ef earning yeur degree. But the 23-year-eld student, whe is ene semester away frem graduating at the University ef Hawai'i, alse knews it deesn't have te be7 especially if yeu are Hawaiian.

"You just have to know where to look for help paying for college," said Makaiwi, who expects to earn a master's degree in social work in May due largely to direct aid from a variety of grants and scholarships available to Native Hawaiian students. "Grants, scholarships and a part-time job as a lifeguard covered all of my college expenses. My parents pushed me to eonhnue my education, but they were not able to set aside money for me to attend college." Increasingly, the job of helping financially stressed students like Makaiwi defray the cost of college is falling to organizations like the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, whieh has heeome a major source to help piek up the bill for courses, housing and books. Education a priority for OHA Hundreds of Hawaiian college students are leaning more heavily on scholarship money from OHA, where they have been turning to cover up to 25 percent of their college costs.

The pattern is repeating itself at a time when tuition and other costs are rising, and family budgets appear tighter than ever. But the critical role its scholarship program has been playing in helping foot tuition and other college bills is part of a broader effort at OHA, where improving education in the Hawaiian community ranks near the top of its priority list. Just ask Lisa Watkins-Victorino, an executive at OHA who is leading the agency's efforts to approach its commitment to Hawaiian education with a renewed sense of urgency. Called the Education Strategic Priority Results Initiative, the effort hinges on two goals. "The first is to increase the percentage of Native Hawaiian students who meet or exceed reading and math standards at the middle and high school levels," said Watkins-Victorino, who is OHA's research director. "The second goal is to increase the graduation rate at a post-secondary level. The Strategic Priority Results Initiative's task is to identify ways OHA ean support and contribute to systemic level change

j MO'OLELO NUI ^ > C0VER FEATURE /

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Students Zachary Villanueva, left, Rachel Makaiwi and Amber Kalua visit the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies library, above, and relax in shady McCarthy Mall, at right, on the University of Hawai'i-Mānoa campus. Makaiwi, whose parents didn't complete college but encouraged her to do so, has received a total of $8,000 in scholarships from OHA, covering about 25 percent of her college costs.

through education." Given that reality, OH A has been pouring $1.2 million annually, for nearly a decade, into the Nā Pua No'eau Center for Gifted and Talented Native Hawaiian Children. For the past several years, it has also pumped $1.5 million annually into Nā Lei Na'auao Allianee, whieh is made up of 17 Hawaiianfocused charter schools. And in the past five years, OHA's scholarship program has given out $3.3 million in hnaneial aid to more than 1,500 Hawaiian students, who have demonstrated aptitude for college-level work. For instance, a study of 455 Hawaiian students who received scholarship money from OHA showed that 77 percent - or 351 students - graduated with degrees from either two- or fouryear colleges. Watkins-Victorino calls the findings from the study encouraging. "But when we look further, we ean see that our Hawaiian students are getting degrees in associate's and bachelor's levels," she said. "Fewer go on to earn master's degrees and even fewer go on to get their doctorate's degree. So, there's a lot of work to be done. And at OHA, there's a renewed eommitment to helping our Native Hawaiian students improve their educational outcomes." Rising demand for aid OHA's growing role in helping pay college bills has not gone unnoticed. Within the past year, the number of Native Hawaiian students applying for college scholarships from OHA nearly tripled as families looked to lessen the hnaneial burden on their households. The total number of applications this past college scholarship season hit 1,520, up from 536 the previous year. Despite the growing demand, only about 320 students this year won OHA scholarships, ranging from $500 to $5,000 to help cover expenses at various colleges, including such top universities as Stanford and Harvard.

OHA's budget for its next scholarship season is an estimated $500,000, whieh is expected to help about 300 Hawaiian students with their college expenses. Even so, scholarship and hnaneial aid officials maintain that finding help to pay for college doesn't have to be a burden. If you are Native Hawaiian, you have to know where to look, according to the Native Hawaiian Education Association, whieh has worked closely with OHA to draw attention

to a statewide series of scholarship fairs aimed at helping Hawaiian students find hnaneial aid to pay for college. Known as the Scholarship 'Aha Program, this year's statewide series is scheduled to start Nov. 7 and continue through January, highlighting the various scholarships that are available to Native Hawaiians. Feb. 20, 2014, is the deadline to apply for scholarship money from OHA. Applications are avail-

able via the Hawai'i Community Foundation web site - hawaii communityfoundation.org. "Some of the challenges facing our Hawaiian students are not mueh different from others applying for scholarships," said Eric La'a, scholarship officer for Hawai'i Community Foundation, whose average OHA scholarship is about $2,000. "Two of the biggest challenges involve some of these students coming from families of low socio-economic status. The other big challenge is the rising cost of college, whieh has doubled in the last 10 years. And 75 percent of our

students are considered non-tradi-tional students, whieh mean they are attending on a part-time basis because they are juggling families or jobs." It's a situation that is all too familiar to the Liko A'e Native Hawaiian Leadership Program at Maui Community College, whieh has a May 1, 20 14, deadline to apply for scholarship money from OHA. "As a community partner, Liko A'e's greatest contribution to OHA's

efforts has been our ability to nurture and mentor a new generation of leaders with training and inspiration for decades to eome," said Malia Davidson, program director. Finding eeonomie relief For high-achieving students like Kapoku'uipoonalani Cope, the $3,000-plus in scholarship money she received from OHA has made a difference to her ability to remain on track to graduate in four years in May. "Without the scholarship, it would have taken me a lot longer to graduate," said Cope, 22, a senior who is studying eommunications and Hawaiian language at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Thomas Pali, 20, a junior who is studying computer science at the University of Hawai'i, turned to a $2,000 OHA scholarship this semester to cover 25 percent of his college expenses. "I'm also working a part-time job as a sales clerk in a vitamins and supplements store to help pay my tuition," Pali said. As for Rachel Makaiwi, she is typical of the students from Hawaiian households that are becoming reliant upon OHA scholarships to hnanee a postsecondary education. The $8,000 in total scholarship money she received from OHA covered about 25 percent of the expenses stemming from her bachelor's degree in social work from Brigham Young University and the master's degree in social work she expects to earn in May from the University of Hawai'i. "My parents encouraged me to get a college education, but they weren't able to complete college themselves," said Makaiwi, whose father works in the construction industry and mother is employed by a nonprofit organization. "They value what schools have to offer. But the most stressful part of eollege life for me has been worrying about how I'm going to pay for my education." To watch the video related to this article, visit www.oha.org/video/ ohas-commitment-education. ■