Aloha Kakou,I wrote this article so that other Hawaiian students would know where to get information on how to fund their college education. The UH Manoa Office of Student Equity, Excellence, and Diversity, Kua'ana Student Services, & especially Aunty Ku'umealoha Gomes helped me get tuition waivers, scholarships, & grants so my family & I wouldn't have to pay for much during my college career. It's really simple to do, especially since there is a whole fair,office, and good people dedicated to just this purpose that happens every year in/around February. I will updated my blog when I find out more about this year's fair, but until now I hope other Hawaiian students on this site will read this blog and start thinking about & contacting the SEED Office & Kua'ana for assistance in funding their education.It's ALWAYS important to know your source of information, so here are mine:The information for my article came from an afternoon of separate sit down interviews in February 2006 with Aunty Ku'umealoha Gomes, Kaleo Manuel, & Zachary "Ikaika" Bantolina at the Kua'ana Office.My contact info for the Kua'ana Office comes from p.48 of the University of Hawai'i 2008-2009 Catalog.Originally, I intended for this article to reach more Hawaiians & pitched it to the editors at Ka Wai Ola OHA at one time, but well...long story short & my new personal politics aside-that did not work out ^^/ But this article is here for your use now, so read on! ^^)Some Contact Info:Kua'ana Student ServicesQueen Lili'uokalani Center for Student Services 2072600 Campus RoadHonolulu, HI 96822Tel: (808)956 -2644Mahalo Nui,kEAHI^^)Written By: Keahi Lee, KaLeo ReporterIssue Date: Tuesday, February 6, 2007.Section: FeaturesLink to online article: Unavailable; during the time when this article was printed, KaLeo.org was not up & running, so my article was printed on paper, but never made available online. It's too bad because besides being useful information for all Hawaiian students interested in funding their higher education, the UH Manoa Board of Publications also honored me with a 2006-2007 Excellence In Journalism Award for my reporting in this article (that's another reason for you to have faith in my article's accuracy ^*)The annual Hapai Pu Financial Aid Fair will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Campus Center on Wed., Feb. 7. Hapai Pu, is a fair to help students, especially those of native Hawaiian ancestry find information on scholarship opportunities, tuition waivers, and financial aid.Hapai Pu, now in its fourteenth year, has successfully helped many students find the funding for their college education.“It all started fourteen years ago, through my work I remember hearing from students and observing their frustrations with the financial aid and scholarship applications,” said Ku’umealoha Gomes, director of Kua’ana student services. “The students had many questions that they wanted to ask the resource people and [but] had no opportunity or forum to do this.”The fair is set up to provide students with the ease of picking up applications and talking to representatives without the hassles of answering machines or other annoying squabbles.“What we did as part of the Office of Student Equity, Excellence, and Diversity, was organize a financial aid fair,” Gomes said. “Students could just go from one table to the other table, picking up the application forms and have the opportunity to speak to the resource people directly.”Kaleo Manuel, now a graduate student in the department of Urban and Regional Planning, reflects on his experiences. “The process of looking for the funding to go to college was really tedious, especially because all of the resources were scattered everywhere.Manuel said the Hapai Pu brought a lot of the resources together and made it easy and more convenient for him to find and apply for financial aid and funding.“Through the help and support I found from attending Hapai Pu, I was able to find the funding to attend school full-time as an undergrad, and it has continued to support me today, as a graduate student,” Manuel said.Besides helping to support students, the fair and its resources also encourage the Hawaiian ideal of “Kuleana” — one’s responsibility to support and give back to their community.“Sometimes we’d go to schools to work with children or go to cultural sites like Hei’au’s (Hawaiian temples of worship) or Lo’I (Taro patches) to help with clean up [with] restoration,” said Zachary "Ikaika" Bantolina, an undergraduate in architecture. “Through these scholarships, you are given the opportunity to not only help yourself, but also the opportunity to help your community as a whole.”Hapai Pu, means to “Carry together, to lift up and to go forth.” in many ways, the fair has lived up to its name.“Many of the scholarships stress that you make a commitment to doing community service. Through attending the scheduled community service events, I was given the opportunity to work with people and other students who were committed to promoting and living Hawaiian culture,” Bantolina said.
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