Name: Mitchell K. Kuloloia
Contact Information: mkuloloi@hawaii.edu
Semester/Year Started
at WCC: Summer 2001
Semester/Year Started
in TRiO SSS: Spring 2001
Degree(s) Earned at
WCC or 4yr. college/university: ASC
Hawaiian Studies (WCC, Spring 2005); AA Liberal Arts (WCC, Fall 2006); BA
Hawaiian Studies (UHM, Spring 2009)
Semester(s)/Year(s)
Graduated: Currently enrolled at UHM
in the Hawaiian Language Graduate Program seeking MA in Hawaiian Language.
TRiO SSS and its
impact on my education:
I am the
first of my immediate family to go to college. Coming from a Native Hawaiian
family living on the Hawaiian Homesteads of Waimānalo, this is a major
accomplishment that I am extremely proud of. While enrolled as a senior in
Kailua High School, I was encouraged by my aunt (who at the time worked at the
school) to sign up for the TRiO Upward Bound Program. Not being sure of what I
wanted to do after graduation, I said, “sure.” This was the most important
decision I have ever made in my life.
At Windward
Community College, being a participant of TRiO Upward Bound meant that we
belonged to a larger community: the TRiO community. It was at WCC that I was
able to interact with TRiO SSS students and staff, including those of the
Windward TRiO Talent Search program.
After graduating from the Upward Bound program, I enrolled as a WCC
student and in effect became a TRiO SSS participant. I often made use of the
computers, printers and other supplies available at STAAR (TRiO SSS’s old
program name) to do papers and projects for class – what a life-saver this
proved to be!
After
graduating from WCC with my ASC and AA, I then moved onto Mānoa, where I later
graduated with my BA in Hawaiian Studies. There’s no doubt in my mind that
WCC’s TRiO programs, especially TRiO SSS, contributed to my success as a
student. Since my graduation from UH Mānoa, I’ve returned to WCC to teach as a
Hawaiian language lecturer and am now also working on a Title III grant as a
Curriculum Assessment Specialist. I encourage all of my students to join the
TRiO SSS program as I am certain that they will benefit from the program, just
as I did during my undergraduate studies at WCC. TRiO SSS has provided
countless support for my students including tutoring, financial aid assistance,
budgeting advice, community service, technical support for computers and project
assignments, transferring to larger universities, and much, much more.
TRiO SSS
was and still proves to be a driving force for students such as myself. Now, as
a graduate student in the MA program for Hawaiian language at UH Mānoa, I am
still encouraged by TRiO SSS’s staff members and director to persevere and
continue until I get “that palapala”,
that long-awaited degree. The environment at the Hale Naʻauao TRiO office is so
inviting that I often find myself retreating there to do my own homework,
studying alongside my own students. TRiO SSS has seen many success stories like
my own, true accounts of students succeeding in college and attaining
occupations that benefit not only themselves, but also their families and
community as well; these are the goals of TRiO SSS, and it is met year after
year.
I still
consider myself a TRiO SSS participant and at every afforded opportunity, I
lend my support and helping hand. News of TRiO SSS funding cuts are both
disheartening and disappointing. With a program as successful as this, we can’t
afford to cut the very momentum that keeps these students going to classes and
achieving high gpa scores. I recently participated in WCC’s Phi Theta Kappa
induction ceremony, where over half of the inductees were TRiO SSS
participants, a large number of which were my Hawaiian language students.
Accomplishments such as these lift the spirits of the entire student body,
giving everyone that positive peer pressure that boldly states, “you can too!”
I am proud to be a positive influence and example in the lives of our students,
however, without the support that I myself received, the dream of success and a
bright academic future for our students seems bleak. I urge you to save this
program and continue to lend it your full support. As a TRiO SSS participant,
now and always, I’ll need that extra support when I graduate with my MA and
decide to continue my education and become the first PhD of my ʻohana.
Me ke aloha pumehana,
Mitchell K. Kuloloia
Windward Community College
Hawaiian language lecturer
Curriculum Assessment Specialist
TRiO SSS participant
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