Catching up after a great month

Aloha!

Aside from the previous week's updates, last month's blogging was focused largely on our Chronicle on Higher Education guest column on the misclassification of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. I have been overwhelmed by the amount of positive feedback I've received from Pacific Islander students, professors, parents, organizations, Asian Pacific Islander advocacy groups, and social justice advocates of various backgrounds who reached out to me and others at the P.I.A. project since our column went online and to print.

My greatest hope is that in addition to raising awareness and getting people talking, the inclusion of our column in America's top publication on higher ed will also help underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships realize that now is the time to stop misclassifying Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. Only time will tell.

As the P.I.A. project staff mentioned in an earlier post, we've also gained a voice on the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education. 

Meanwhile, I'm pleased to announce another change that you'll see in this month. We are very happy to have some new volunteers giving their time to our cause.  You'll start seeing their work products in our blog and for some of our longer term projects. As usual, I feel blessed to be joined by a team of people who believe enough in our mission to give their time and energy for free.

Mahalo!
Kawika