2016 Hōkūpa‘a Summit held in West Hawai‘i; community comes together to empower youth

Posted on May 11, 2016November 13, 2025 by Staff

The summit—attended by a large cross section of stakeholders in education—was held to understand how to improve student engagement.

A diverse group of 300 youth, teachers, principals, community partners, and regional leaders gathered at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on April 16 for the 2016 Hōkūpaʻa/Instructional Leadership Team Summit, a combined event between the Hōkūpaʻa project and the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education’s Instructional Leadership Teams (ILTs).

The mission of the Hōkūpaʻa project, led by the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, is to empower youth, support schools, and build bridges for community partnerships.

2015 SUMMIT: Hōkūpaʻa Collaborative Youth Forum held in West Hawaiʻi (UH Hilo Stories, May 5, 2015)

“The Hōkūpaʻa approach is to ask our youth, teachers, and community to be design partners in our work,” says Kei-Lin Cerf, UH Hilo director of strategic community development. “We cannot attempt to design solution paths without them.”

The leadership teams are supported by the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation and made up of teachers and principals to increase collaboration and share in the decision-making of curriculum advancement.

Partners in the Hōkūpaʻa project include the DOE, West Hawaiʻi youth, schools, and leaders from UH Hilo, Kamehameha Schools, Hawaiʻi Community College-Palamanui, Queen Liliʻuokalani Children’s Center, County of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi County Council, West Hawaiʻi Community Health Center, The Learning Coalition, and Friends of the Future.

The 2016 Summit

Nineteen public schools from across the West Hawaiʻi region (Honokaʻa-Kohala-Kealakehe-Konawaena) and a charter school, Kanu o ka ʻĀina, joined the Hōkūpaʻa Youth Council and community partners to understand how to improve student engagement. The youth council is made up of middle and high school students and teacher coaches who contribute to all decision making.

Using cell phones and live audience polling software, anonymous feedback was gathered throughout the day. Attendees submitted hundreds of responses to periodic questions, which Hōkūpaʻa and West Hawaiʻi DOE will use to shape their strategic goals for the 2016-17 school year.

Attendees also heard from West Hawaiʻi complex area superintendent, Art Souza.

“This is very adaptive work,” says Souza. “We are innovating to inspire. It is not enough to change something here or there at the fringes. We must be willing to get a little lost, go into the unknown, and discover what we have not tried before.”

For the remainder of the day, the groups used the Design Thinking process, facilitated by Ravi Pare from Oceanit, to consider ideas for improving student engagement in the classroom. Attendees participated in a significant empathy-building activity where students interviewed teachers to get their perspective on how they build and struggle with student engagement.

Students also discussed what they wanted in order to be engaged and where they were not finding themselves engaged now.

Kamehameha Schools regional director for West Hawaiʻi, Jamee Miller, observed the activities.

“The youth council members leading the design thinking activity with adults to create solutions together—this is exactly how we want to foster and grow future leaders in West Hawaiʻi,” says Miller. “Hōkūpaʻa is doing a magnificent job at fore-fronting this movement.”

Organizers say Hōkūpaʻa and West Hawaiʻi DOE will continue the work to improve the personal, educational, and economic success of young people. They invite all interested community members to join them because everyone is needed to help young people thrive.

Photos by Claudia Hagan/UH Hilo Stories.