Hawaii’s ‘Milken Teacher of Promise’ followed a winding career path to Stevenson Middle School

Ken Kakesako used to spend his time advocating for agriculture at the Capitol, as a legislative coordinator for the state Department of Agriculture and then its deputy director.

Nowadays, he reports to Room 208 at Stevenson Middle School on the slopes of Punchbowl crater. There, the 36-year-old with the contagious grin has found his real calling.

“Ken is amazing — he’s a star,” said fellow science teacher Julia Segawa, who mentored the new recruit when he arrived at Stevenson in 2015. “He’s very inspirational in his quest for learning. That’s one of the main things that I just adore about him.”

Kakesako, 36, was named the state’s 2018 “Milken Teacher of Promise” by the National Milken Educators of Hawaii last month. The $1,000 award recognizes excellence in the first years of a teacher’s career and is sponsored by the Hawaii USA Federal Credit Union.

“He’s always seeking to learn the latest about science so that he can help his students make real world connections,” Segawa said. “His passion for learning and his passion for science gets transferred into his students.”

Segawa is well qualified to judge teaching styles. She landed a Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching in 2011, the nation’s highest honor for teachers in that field.

Kakesako’s career path to Stevenson illustrates the varied routes people are taking toward teaching. Hawaii’s public schools need about 1,200 new teachers every year to replace those who retire or leave the profession.

The Department of Education is reaching out in many directions to address the teacher shortage, a national problem. Initiatives include the “Grow Our Own” program to convert educational assistants and substitutes into full-fledged teachers; the federal “Troops to Teachers” effort; Teach for America; luring back retired teachers; and encouraging people to consider second careers as teachers.

“We’re trying to get the teacher vacancies down to as small a number as we possibly can,” said Assistant Superintendent Cynthia Covell, who oversees human resources for the state Department of Education.

Covell herself is on a second career. A retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, she joined the Department of Education in November.

Kakesako said he doesn’t miss the long hearings and meetings at the Legislature that were a big part of his previous job as deputy to the chairman of the Board of Agriculture.

“Teaching is just so much more rewarding, as far as seeing students get excited about something real, that’s not just in their textbook,” he said. “All of the energy they come to class with is what I can feed off of.”

In January he told his students about a rare upcoming lunar event, the “super blue blood moon,” when a blue moon coincides with a supermoon and a total lunar eclipse. A student told him later that he had stayed up to 3 a.m. to see the spectacle and was excited to be able to explain to his parents what was happening.

He takes students on field trips to tidepools at Sandy Beach to collect samples and collect data to share with University of Hawaii researchers. Hot topics from his agriculture days, such as plant genetics and invasive species, can help inform his life-science lessons.

An ‘Iolani School graduate who earned a bachelor’s in economics from Harvard in 2004, Kakesako began his working career as an assistant English teacher in Tottori, Japan, for three years through the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. He then found a job in Tokyo as a recruiter for financial institutions but decided to move on after a couple of years.

He returned to Hawaii and landed work as a legislative administrator and budget analyst at the Capitol, and began working on a master’s degree in education at Chaminade University.

He joined the Agriculture Department in 2012 as legislative coordinator and then became deputy to the chairman, the equivalent of a deputy director. After Gov. David Ige was elected in November 2014, his appointment wasn’t renewed and he headed back to the classroom.

Kakesako came to Stevenson as a student teacher August 2015 and wrapped up his master’s degree and teaching license that December. In January 2016, he become a full-fledged science teacher there.

A former wrestler, he teamed up with Lawrence Bucsit, head custodian at Stevenson, to launch an after-school wrestling program, which has attracted as many girls as boys.

He knew he enjoyed working with kids ever since he volunteered and later co-directed an after-school program for “latchkey” children in a low-income neighborhood of Boston when he was an undergraduate.

“We’re so happy that he decided to come back to teaching,” Covell said. “It’s never too late to come back. I must say I’m thrilled.”