What kind of future do Hawaii’s high school students see for themselves? Who’s supporting them in their quest to create a good life and career, and what’s getting in the way? Instead of just listening to adults answer these questions, the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation and Learning for Action sat down and spoke with students at length so we could deeply understand their aspirations and concerns. We want to thank the students and staff from six public high schools across two islands and several nonprofit youth-serving organizations for making this possible in the midst of the pandemic.

We specifically wanted to know why the number of graduates going on to college has been stuck at or around 50% for so long. What we found from these focus groups of high school juniors and seniors and from a creative way to elicit student perspectives called PhotoVoice was both inspiring and deeply worrisome.

On the one hand, students have high aspirations not just to secure a good career, but to have stability and balance and to live a life of purpose. They want to make their families proud, and they mostly prefer to stay in Hawaii.

But lots of findings are very concerning. Many students feel ill-prepared for what comes next. They worry about the high cost of living and limited job opportunities in Hawaii. Students realize they need more life skills such as financial literacy and goal-setting, and they’re still not getting these in school. While some spoke highly of the new career academies that have sprung up in their high schools that connect learning to the real world, other students felt limited by the model.

Many are very worried about the high cost of attending college and don’t realize the abundance of financial resources there to help them. The stresses of poverty and isolation, exacerbated by the pandemic, adds to students’ self-doubt and anxiety. Low expectations by some family members and teachers also take a real toll on youth. As a result, many simply don’t see themselves as college material.

College and career advising got decidedly mixed reviews by students. Classes were sometimes boring, with little alignment to their intended future plans and job opportunities. And there was a lot of confusion of which pathways to pick and what college and career transition resources are available. It appears that students who are most proactive get the most help navigating their journey, while those who need the most help don’t always get it in school.

This combination of hope and angst is poignantly shared by one student who used PhotoVoice to share a photo of a young woman doing a back-flip dive along with the words, “In my future, I want to achieve what I believe now to be unattainable. I envision myself flying, free, and achieving the impossible. In order to get there, I need to let go of my insecurities, troubles, and worries, and just strive to be the best version of myself.”

As this year’s legislative session begins in earnest, hundreds of adults will testify on major policy proposals about teacher pay, affordable housing, economic diversification, and the minimum wage. Policymakers would do well to understand these issues from the perspective of our youth.

Our highest priority this session should be to ensure that every student graduates high school on a path to success. This means not only tackling the cost of living but also improving college and career advising, linking academics to students’ career interests more tightly, giving all students life skills and adequate mental health supports, and building work-based learning — including paid internships and industry certificates of value — deeply into the high school and college experience.

If policymakers can prioritize these actions and if we can grow the number of jobs that pay family-sustaining wages, this will restore hope to our youth that they have a promising option to stay in these islands that they love so much.

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ON THE NET:

>> See the findings of the “Voices of Youth” report at: http://castlefoundation.org/youth-voice-hawaii-year-1-report/

Terry George is president and CEO of the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation; Elba Garcia is senior consultant at Learning for Action.