Teach for America is worthwhile investment

"Kamaaina come home" is more than three simple words. It is the driving force behind my life’s work and proof that home is where the heart remains.

I, Meilan Akaka, was raised in Honolulu and education was a priority for my family. My parents worked multiple jobs so I could attend Punahou School.

As a student teacher at Wellesley College, I fought educational inequity and wanted to do so in Hawaii. The same is true for Jester Galiza, who came back to Ewa Beach after graduating from Dartmouth College. Jester went to public schools and returned to teach at James Campbell High School. Teach For America allowed us to not only return to Hawaii, but to work with students we identity with and who will be the future leaders of our community.

Teach For America makes it a priority to recruit kamaaina from universities all over America to return and give back to the community that has given so much to them. Public funding is a key source of revenue and helps recruit and support teachers like us for our schools.

During this legislative session, the state House proposed half of the funding we received last year. When the bill went to the Senate, our line item in the Department of Education’s budget request was cut completely. As the bill goes into conference committee, we hope to highlight the impact public funding has for our keiki.

Jester’s students at Campbell looked like him and shared similar stories. He identified with their challenges, but more important, he was a testament to what is possible. He taught his students that stereotypes and statistics don’t determine your future. He taught them to have confidence and high expectations.

Most of his students were not planning to go to college, but by the end of his second year, more than 75 percent were not only interested in attending college, but had taken steps to get there. His students began the year with less than 300 on their math SATs. By the end, they averaged a 480 as 10th graders, with two years of progress ahead.

I, too, witnessed the variety of expectations, rigor and opportunities at James Campbell High School. My sister was in ninth grade at Punahou. While she was producing argumentative essays, some of my students were struggling to write a paragraph, but I knew they could rise to the challenge. My charge was not simply to teach algebra; it was to build confidence, knowledge and skill in every single one of my 90 students, and to develop an understanding of the value of education that my family and former educators instilled in me.

One of my students engaged in fights, skipped school, and ran away from home. I strived to teach her the importance of hard work and let her know that education would make her dreams a reality. A few weeks ago, a smiling young woman, dressed in her JROTC uniform came over to me, saying, "Miss, miss I have something to show you." She pulled from her bag a letter from Le Cordon Bleu, a premier culinary school, admitting her into their fall 2014 program. She always aspired to become a chef, and said to me, "This is a dream come true."

These stories of success and defying the odds prove that every keiki can achieve at the highest levels. It is our hope that our legislators will provide funding and continued support for organizations like ours so we can continue to bring our kamaaina home to work with families and schools for positive change in Hawaii.