New E-Booklet on Underrepresented Minority Scholarships and Fellowships for Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders

Aloha mai kākou,

About half a decade ago, the Pacific Islander Access project formed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation focused on increasing higher education access for Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders ("Pacific Islanders").  For most of our time, especially in the beginning, our focus was on educating people about the exclusion of Pacific Islanders from underrepresented minority programs, and persuading those programs to change their policies. In our first three years, we persuaded 13 scholarships and fellowships to change their policies, which amounted to over $1.1 million in additional financial aide now available to Pacific Islanders. At that point, our sample of underrepresented minority programs suggested that inclusion of PIs -- once the exception -- appears to be becoming the norm. 

Seeing that evolution, we realized that our energy needed to shift as well, and focus equally on raising awareness among Pacific Islanders about the underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships that they are now eligible for.  The main product we wanted to produce to do this was a simple e-booklet. 

It is with pride and pleasure that we are announcing the publication of that booklet, which we are attaching to this post. It includes:

- A description of the Pacific Islander Access project,  

- Information on Underrepresented Minority Scholarships and Fellowships that are open to Pacific Islanders, 

- Information on those URMSFs that are still not open to PIs, and  

- Some suggestions for those PIs who want to contact the scholarships that still ignore the underrepresentation of PIs.

I want to thank the board and our volunteers who helped develop the booklet. It would not have been possible without them, especially Karin Karpin and Lorinda Riley. Please take a look and share your thoughts with us. And especially -- share the information with others! 

Click here to see the e-booklet: link

Mahalo nui loa,

Kawika  

P.I.A. project comments on Native Hawaiian self-governance rule making

Aloha Readers!

It's been a while since our last post, which announced that I was taking a break after a successful year of persuading over a dozen underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships to allow Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders to apply.

We've been talking to a number of people and organizations as we determine our next steps. We hope to have more to share in the near future.

In the meantime, I wanted to share how we weighed in on an important potential action by the federal government. First some background:

 Native Hawaiians are the indigenous people of Hawaii. They are the only major indigenous groups (the others being American Indians and Alaska Natives) that lack a government to government relationship with the United States. Worse yet, there isn't even a process by which Native Hawaiians can enter into a government to government relationship, if that's what they want. Even more troubling, this lack of a clear federal policy leaves Native Hawaiian serving programs under constant legal and political attacks.

The Obama Administration recently announced that it is considering ending this inequity through the federal rule making process. Native Hawaiians and and non-Hawaiians have given passionate comments on both sides of the issue. The P.I.A. project thought that it was important enough for us to  weigh in on our reasons for strongly supporting ending this disparity, protecting existing rights and resources, and paving the way for greater self-determination in a manner consistent with existing law.

For those interested, here is a link to our comment: link

Malama Pono,

Kawika

CEO taking blogging sabbatical as P.I.A. project considers next steps

Much has changed since the Pacific Islander Access project was incorporated in November of 2010.  After turning our blog into a one-stop-shop for information on Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander underrepresentation in higher education, we completed a national study which demonstrated that most underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships were misclassifying Pacific Islanders (thereby inadvertently excluding an underrepresented minority group from applying to underrepresented minority programs).

From there we split our efforts in two: first and foremost, educating the scholarships and fellowships that were misclassifying Pacific Islanders, and encouraging them to open their programs up.  Secondly, we maintained this blog as a place to find news and commentary about America's growing Pacific Islander community.

On the first measure, we are proud to have made wonderful progress.  The P.I.A. project persuaded thirteen scholarships and fellowships to change or clarify their policies towards Pacific Islanders. In total, these programs provide an average of over $1.1 million in financial aid each year, and now Pacific Islanders have equal access to those funds.

Another way to look at our impact is to assess the percentage of programs that still misclassify Pacific Islanders. In 2012, our research indicated that 56 percent of underrepresented minority programs excluded Pacific Islanders from applying. Today that number is just 30 percent, or less than one in three.  

Inclusion is now the norm, with 54 percent of the scholarships and fellowships recognizing that all Pacific Islanders are underrepresented, and another 16 percent recognizing that some groups (such as Native Hawaiians or Samoans) are underrepresented. 70 percent -- nearly three in four programs -- are either all the way there or part of the way there. It should have been this way all along, but until this last year, exclusion was the norm.

Our second area of focus (sharing news and commentary) had a less direct impact, but we're proud of what we've done there as well. Since incorporating in 2010 we've published roughly 150 blog posts, created special web pages for our target population (underrepresented minority programs considering correcting the way they classify Pacific Islanders), and even published a column in the biggest and most influential higher education publication in the nation. We made it easier than ever for underrepresented minority programs to make the right decision about including Pacific Islanders, and we came up with simple and straightforward ways for Pacific Islander parents and students to share data to support their arguments for inclusion. Those are big changes.

It's undeniable that during my three years as CEO and President of the P.I.A. project, my life has changed as well.  When we first incorporated, Lorinda and I were newlyweds living in Washington, DC. Since then we completed our graduate degrees, became parents, worked in a few different places, and brought a number of wonderful students and professionals into our work with this important nonprofit.  One of our interns became our Vice President, graduated from GWU, and is now on her way to becoming a medical doctor. Another founding board member also earned his bachelors, masters, and is now a Naval Officer working in DC. Both of them have stayed with our organization  the whole way through, and it's been inspiring to see them develop.

This winter Lorinda and I fulfilled a long-sought goal by bringing our two-year-old son back to Hawaii, where we now live full time.  Our family is getting bigger, and my day job has too: I'm now the director of a multifaceted and fast-paced advocacy department serving Native Hawaiians.  My responsibilities at home and at work has becoming increasingly consuming.  These have been wonderful changes, but they've left little time to run an all-volunteer nonprofit with the dual responsibilities of CEO and President of the Board.

After talking it over with my family and our board, I've decided to take a self-imposed "blogging sabbatical" as our little all-volunteer nonprofit considers our next steps. I believe there's still much more work to be done, but I also think that it's time for me to step back as CEO and refocus on my responsibilities as a board member.  After taking the time we need to decide the P.I.A. project's next steps, I expect that we'll start the appropriate search; whether that means hiring a new CEO or joining forces with another organization that serves Pacific Islanders.

What does that mean for you, our readers? Far fewer blog posts, for the time being, and a new direction in 2014.  We'll continue to do our outreach work (though at a slower pace), and maintain our pages with all the facts necessary to understand why Pacific Islanders should be eligible for underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships.

And for our most supportive readers and allies, it means that we hope you'll send us your suggestions and ideas about where we should go next. Do you know of a like minded organization that we should reach out to? An aspiring community leader who we should consider for our next CEO? Do you have a topic that relates to our mission that you'd like to write about on our blog? Let us know.

And lastly, mahalo nui loa to all of you who have shown such tremendous support for the Pacific Islander Access project over the past three years.  I'm especially grateful to our all-volunteer board, to our past interns, and to everyone who's shared positive feedback as we struggled along the winding road toward progress. It's been an incredible honor to have the chance and ability to make a difference through this little nonprofit. And the best is yet to come.

Kawika  

Infographic on Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander access to underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships

Here's a quick infograpic demonstrating the current level of Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander access to underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships, based on an update of our 2012 national study. It's hard to believe that two years ago, our study suggested that 56 percent of these programs excluded all Pacific Islanders.

Today that number has fallen to 30 percent.

Of course, as the rate of exclusion has fallen, the rate of inclusion has risen. Today 54 percent of the scholarships in our study include all Pacific Islanders, while another 16 percent include some sub groups (such as Native Hawaiians or Samoans). In other words, 70 percent (nearly three out of four) underrepresented minority programs recognize some or all Pacific Islanders as underrepresented minorities.

It's not where it should be, but it sure is progress!

Kawika

WaPo article on rise of professionals "donating" skilled work

An article in last weekend's Washigton Post caught our eye, as it relates to the work of the Pacific Islander Access project. And no -- Pacific Islanders are not mentioned, nor are underrepresented minority scholarships.

The connection? The article's description of professionals who are donating their skills to worthy causes, rather than just their money or unskilled labor. This is right in line with the model behind the Pacific Islander Access project, which we describe as "micro nonprofit." The key difference is that instead of moving from one nonprofit to the next, our idea was to create an organization to address the issue we care about, and find a way to make an impact with a few people, a few hours a week, and a few hundred dollars a year.

I've missed doing some of the charity work I've so enjoyed (building homes for Habitat for Humanity, working the food line for the hungry, etc.), but I truly feel that I'm making the best use of my time focusing 90 percent of my "give back" time on this one stubborn problem. Not to say that it's for everybody, or that it will always be the best option, but I've loved it.

You can read the article here: link

Kawika

Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander graduate rates rise in Utah

This week The Herald Journal reported that in the state of Utah, Pacific Islander graduation rates rose 4 percent this year. That's slightly higher than Utah's overall high school graduation rate over the same period, which was 3 percent.

You can read the full article here: link

This data is similar, though slightly different than what's reported by the Utah dept of education in their 2013 report on graduation and drop out rates. That report showed a 5 percent increase in PI high school graduation. You can read that report in full here: link

Kawika

Update on national study of Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander access to underrepresented minority programs: most programs now open to Pacific Islanders!

In the summer of 2012, the Pacific Islander Access project published the findings of a national study we conducted regarding whether underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships permitted Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander students to apply.  We'd known for some time that despite significant data demonstrating Pacific Islander underrepresentation in higher education, many programs were still treating Pacific Islanders as though they were not underrepresented.

Our question was: how many?  What was the extent of the problem, and had it gotten better or worse since the last time someone conducted a study with the same question?

Our findings were that in the several years since the last study, things had gotten better, but only marginally. (You can read our post on that here: link)

In addition to giving us a sense of the extent of the problem, the study provided us with a list of programs that needed to be approached so they could make an informed decision about whether to continue excluding Pacific Islanders. This was the list we've used for the past year, as we worked to reach out to well-intentioned programs.

This month, we re-crunched our numbers, so see what kind of difference a year of advocacy has made. Here's what we found:

• Scholarships and fellowships that recognize Pacific Islander underrepresentation: 54 percent (almost twice as many as 2012, when the number was just 28 percent) 
• Scholarships and fellowships that don't recognize Pacific Islander underrepresentation: 30 percent (a little more than half as many as 2012, when the number was 56 percent)
• Scholarships and fellowships that recognize some Pacific Islander subgroups (such as Native Hawaiians or Samoans) but not others: 16 percent (identical to 2012)

In reaching this point, the P.I.A. project surpassed several milestones, including these:

• When we were founded, all of our research indicated that most underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships misclassified Pacific Islanders. Today, our research indicates that most of them properly recognize that all Pacific Islanders are underrepresented!
• The total annual value of the financial aid provided by the 13 or so scholarships that  changed their policies after hearing from the P.I.A. project now exceeds one million dollars. That's a seven figure annual return from a nonprofit that runs on just a few hundred dollars a year! 

We are proud and encouraged to have seen such a shift in just a year-and-a-half, and believe that progress can continue as long as the leaders of these underrepresented minority programs are open to hearing the facts, and the P.I.A. project and others keep pressing the issue. I am also very grateful for all of the work that has been done by our all-volunteer team of directors, interns, project assistants and others who have given their time, energy and intellect to this little nonprofit.

Imua!

Kawika

The P.I.A. project turns three!

Three years ago this month, the Pacific Islander Access project was incorporated as a nonprofit in Washington DC.  Our vision was to create a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that would zero in on a problem that wasn't being addressed adequately at the time: that despite being underrepresented in higher education, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders were being excluded from most academic programs for underrepresented minorities. We also had an unusual strategy: we would be run entirely by volunteers, and keep expenses to no more than a few hundred dollars each year.

In the thirty-six months that followed, we made gradual progress that we are very proud of. In the first two years, that included:

• Developing the nonprofit's corporate governance structure, and handling the necessary filings that eventually allowed us to operate under 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
• Maintaining and improving this blog, which provides anyone with internet access a one stop shop for information on this issue. 
• Completing a national study on Pacific Islander eligibility for scholarships and fellowship for underrepresented minorities, which gave us 1.) a sense of the extent to which Pacific Islanders were being misclassified, and 2.) a concrete list of scholarships and fellowships for us to educate. 

With the research, legal structure, and communication means established, we've turned our attention to reaching out to underrepresented minority scholarships, educating them about Pacific Islanders, and persuading them to open their doors to this underrepresented group.  

The progress we've made in this area -- talking with well-intentioned underrepresented minority programs and helping them change their policies -- has been the most rewarding and impactful work we've done. We showcase the 13 programs that have changed their policies after hearing from the P.I.A. project on our "honor roll" page, which you can view here: link

Next post: In our next post, we'll return to the national study we conducted last year, and update you on where we are today. 

Kawika

Seattle school district disaggregation of Pacific Islanders and Asians reveals drastically different scores

Earlier this month, The Seattle Times reported on public remarks by Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Jose Banda, unveiling problems and progress made within Seattle-area schools.

Seattle, and Washington State in general, has a noticeably larger than average community of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, so I was curious about whether the district complied with the federal data collection standard that recognizes Pacific Islanders and Asians as two distinct groups. I was pleased to see that at least in some cases, the answer is yes.

As a result, rather than reporting a figure that lumps Pacific Islanders in with Asians, we can see whether the two groups are at different places academically.

The result? A wide gap.

81 percent of Asian students in the school district passed the state's math exams, much higher than any other reported group. The corresponding passage rate for Pacific Islanders was 46 percent, meaning that the average PI student is not passing the test.

These kinds of problems would have been hidden if the two groups had their data combined. (For more on why "Asian Pacific Islander" data rarely portrays Pacific Islanders accurately, click here: link.) Now that they have accurate data, we hope that they will be more effective in helping Pacific Islander students achieve their educational potential.

Read the full article here: link

Kawika

Media continues to highlight growing Pacific Islander community in Missouri

In recent weeks, at least two articles in Missouri news outlets have mentioned the state's growing minority populations, including Pacific Islanders. This reflects what Census data has shown as well: while the national Pacific Islander populations is growing fast (Pacific Islanders are the second fastest growing of the basic racial groups in the America), Missouri's PI population is increasing at an even higher rate.

The specifics: between 2000 and 2010, Missouri's Pacific Islander population grew by 70 percent. During that same period, the Pacific Islander population in the 50 states grew by 40 percent, while the total U.S. population grew by 9.7 percent.

The growth was even more dramatic in neighboring Arkansas, where the Pacific Islander community's numbers increased by 150 percent between 2000 and 2010.

With this increase in the state's Pacific Islander community gaining attention, the P.I.A. project couldn't be happier about the University of Missouri's decision to open up three of its underrepresented minority scholarships to Pacific Islanders.

Here are the Missouri-focused articles:

• The Gazette: Noel, Missouri: Schools build safety net for immigrant children
• KBIA (radio): Learning English key for slaughterhouse workers

Also, here's an article from earlier this year, which focuses on the growth of Missouri's Micronesian community: Public Radio International: Far from the Pacific, Micronesians increasingly call Missouri home

And for those interested in the PI population boom in Arkansas, you can read two New York Times articles on that here and here.

Kawika

University of Missouri Transition Grant for Underrepresented Minority Residents also Opens for Pacific Islanders

Earlier this fall, we blogged about the University of Missouri opening up two underrepresented minority scholarships to Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, after hearing from the Pacific Islander Access project.

Today we are pleased to announce more good news: the University of Missouri has announced that a third underrepresented minority program -- their sought after Transition Grant -- is also open to Pacific Islanders. This is a highly competitive grant program for underrepresented minority students who are Missouri State residents.  Recipients receive $2,500 per year, with renewal for up to three years.  We inquired with the University after hearing great feedback from many of you on the institution's decision to open up their other underrepresented minority programs.

Students and parents can learn more by visiting this page on the grant program: LINK

And of course -- mahalo to the University of Missouri for choosing to include Pacific Islanders!

Kawika

Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders recognized as underrepresented in articles, by universities, and grant programs

A quick read of our Google News feed provided us with a nice list of universities, grant programs, and articles recognizing Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders as an underrepresented minority group.  This was refreshing, especially paired with the wonderful progress  being made by underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships who are choosing to include Pacific Islanders. Here are a few of those articles:

Michigan Daily: Enrollment breaks record for fifth year

Using a new federal demographic classification for the past four years, the University has been able to track data on race and ethnicity. Under these guidelines, the number of underrepresented minority freshmen — which include African American, Hispanic American, Native American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students — saw a slight increase 10.6 percent this year, 0.6 percent more than last year.

 University of Washington: Largest freshmen class ever

The freshman class includes 181 African Americans, 1,794 Asian Americans, 74 Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, 77 Native Americans and 455 Hispanics/Latinos. Overall, the numbers and percentages of under-represented minorities have increased over last year.

Alice Echo-News Journal: University receives grant to help increase Graduation Rate of Minority Students

The Island University partnered with other universities in the Texas A&M System to complete the proposal for the grant. Five doctoral-granting institutions form the central partnership: Prairie View A&M University, Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and West Texas A&M University. The goal of the university partnership titled, “Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate” (AGEP), is to increase numbers of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders entering and completing graduate programs. 

The hope for this master plan is that these underrepresented students will enter graduate and postdoctoral training in STEM fields. 

Buffalo University Graduate Fellowship Recognizes Pacific Islanders as Underrepresented

Since completing our national study on Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander access to underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships, our little nonprofit has focused primarily on contacting those programs, and sharing information about why Pacific Islanders should be eligible. During this time, eleven of those programs have either changed their policies (choosing to include Pacific Islanders) or clarified that while it wasn't advertised, they always intended to include them.

Today we are pleased to announce the twelfth program to make that switch: after hearing from the PacificIslander Access project, the University at Buffalo's Aurthur Schomburg Fellowship Program has clarified it's policy towards Pacific Islanders. Reflecting over twenty years of data on the subject, this prestigious program will accept applications from all qualified Pacific Islander applicants.

 To learn more about the Aurthur Schomburg Fellowship Program, which supports graduate students across various disciplines at Buffalo, click here: LINK

 Kawika

Native Hawaiians in the U.S. Civil War

Thanks to all the great news regarding underrepresented minority scholarships opening their doors to Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, we haven't had as much space as usual to blog about news and commentary on America's growing Pacific Islander community. Last month, I really wanted to share an interesting column on Native Hawaiian participation in the U.S. Civil War.

While Hawaii is now the 50th State, at the time of the U.S. Civil War it was an independent constitutional monarchy located thousands of miles away from the American battlefields. Nonetheless, the author (a professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo) showed that Hawaii's people, including its indigenous people,  played a notable role.

Considering the confusion over how Pacific Islanders for into America's larger racial classification system, it was interesting to read about how some Native Hawaiians fighting in the U.S. Civil War were segregated into the "colored" units, while others fought in the White units. (I've pasted one of the paragraphs about that below my signature line.) I was also reminded of other posts we've written regarding the high levels of U.S. military service among Pacific Islanders.

In my opinion, it's definitely worth a read. See more here: LINK

And please let us know if you've seen any other stories on Pacific Islanders in the U.S. Civil War!


Kawika

Here's an except that caught my attention:

However, unlike the white Armstrong, native Hawaiians who fought for the Union risked segregation because of their skin color. One volunteer, Prince Romerson, served in the Fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry, an all-black regiment, and mustered out as a sergeant. Exceptions did occur, though: Henry Hoolulu Pitman, son of the Hawaiian Chiefess Kinoole O Liliha, was a private in the 22nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, a white regiment, who was captured and died in Richmond’s Libby Prison.

Full-Ride Engineering Scholarship for Underrepresented Minorities Clarifies Policy, Now Available to Pacific Islanders

Since we posted our original "honor roll" of underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships that chose to open their programs to Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders after hearing from our nonprofit, that number has more than doubled. The latest good news comes from the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), which operates the SRC Masters Scholarship Program, which recently clarified its eligibility policy and committed that Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are eligible to apply!

The MSP Scholarship, intended to address underrepresentation in engineering, pays full tuition and fees for two years of masters level studies, along with an unrestricted $2,000 living stipend. After completing our national study, the Pacific Islander Access project reached out to SRC, as we have with dozens of other underrepresented minority programs.  While SRC's stated eligibility policy did not include Pacific Islanders, a representative from the SRC Education Alliance confirmed that Pacific Islanders are a recognized eligible group. The eligibility requirements on their website have been updated.

We commend and thank the SRC Education Alliance for recognizing Pacific Islanders, and for updating their public eligibility policy. We encourage Pacific Islanders considering a career in engineering to take a look at this generous full ride scholarship.

Click here to learn more about the scholarship: LINK

Kawika

Two Missouri underrepresented minority scholarships now open to Pacific Islanders

This month we've announced great news regarding two underrepresented minority scholarships, both of which are now open to Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. At the close of the month, we are pleased to announce two more: after hearing from the Pacific Islander Access project, the University of Missouri is opening up two of its underrepresented minority scholarships to Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders!

Starting next year, Pacific Islander students who meet the other criteria can apply for the George C Brooks Scholarships and the Diversity Award. This change in policy was made after the university reviewed data on Pacific Islander underrepresentation among college graduates, both across the United States and in the State of Missouri.

The Pacific Islander Access project commends the University of Missouri for its commitment to underrepresented minorities, and for choosing to include Pacific Islanders. They join a growing group of underrepresented minority programs, and we hope that others will follow their lead. We strongly encourage Pacific Islander students and parents to look into these new opportunities.

Once again, mahalo to the University of Missoori! Please learn more about them by visiting their webpage here: http://missouri.edu/

For more info on the George C Brooks Scholarship, click here: LINK

And for the Diversity Award, click here: LINK

Kawika

Pacific Islanders now eligible for accounting scholarship

We've been the bearers of good news lately at the Pacific Islander Access project, thanks to several underrepresented minority programs that have decided to open their doors to Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. (You can read our recent posts to learn more about the two most recent announcements, regarding the Diversifying Faculty in Illinois program, and the Abraham Lincoln Graduate Fellowship.)

Fortunately for America's growing Pacific Islander community, the good news keeps coming!  We heard back from the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), which is the world's largest membership organization representing the accounting profession. AICPA administers the AICPA Scholarship for Minority Students, for undergraduate or graduate accounting students who are underrepresented.

We are pleased to share that this program is open to Pacific Islanders!  

We heard about this directly from AICPA, after contacting them following our national study on Pacific Islander eligibility for underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships.  While their online information indicated that their programs did not include Pacific Islanders, they shared that their undergraduate scholarship accepted a Pacific Islander student as recently as last year.  They are reviewing information we have been sharing with them, and are working to revise the official eligibility criteria. 

We commend AICPA for supporting Pacific Islanders who aspire to become CPAs and/or teach accounting at the university level!  We also look forward to the results of their official eligibility policy change, which should clearly state that Pacific Islanders are an eligible group.

You can learn more about AICPA's scholarship programs by following this link here: link

Mahalo for reading!

Kawika

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: "Voice of Pacific Islanders in U.S. not being heard"

Nudged perhaps by the story from New America Media that we blogged about earlier this month, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the top news outlet in Australia) recently did a story on challenges being faced by America's growing Pacific Islander population.  They zeroed in on the same area of California as New America Media, and interviewed one of the same sources.

There were several things about the story that we greatly appreciate, especially ABC's effort to raise awareness about the struggles of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders in the U.S. In particular, we were pleased with the focus on education issues, including the underrepresentation of Pacific Islanders in American universities.

We also noted one issue in need of correction: the description of Pacific Islanders as an "immigrant group."  New America Media made the same mistake.

As we've mentioned before, America's Pacific Islander community consists primarily of people who are indigenous to land that is now the United States.  Native Hawaiians (indigenous to Hawaii, the 50th State), Chamorros (indigenous to Guam) and American Samoans (indigenous to American Samoa) make up the vast majority of Pacific Islander Americans. We recognize that this diverse community does also include immigrant groups, such as Fijians, Tongans, Tahitians and others, but simply labeling Pacific Islanders as an immigrant group is inaccurate.

Click here to read the story from ABC: LINK

Kawika

Abraham Lincoln Graduate Fellowship revises eligibility policy, Pacific Islanders assured of eligibility

In our last post, I got to tell you that a program which provides over $1 million in annual financial aid is adding Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders as an eligible group.  In this post, we get to share very similar news, after hearing back from the Abraham Lincoln Graduate Fellowship.  This underrepresented minority program has also revised its eligibility policy, and has assured the Pacific Islander Access project that Pacific Islanders are recognized as an eligible group!

While the previous policy limited eligibility to specifically mentioned underrepresented minority groups (of which Pacific Islanders were not one), the new criteria requires that applicants:

...come from groups that have been historically underrepresented in graduate programs

(You can find U.S. Census years of data confirming Pacific Islander underrepresentation in graduate programs right here: link)

We heard this news directly from the University of Illinois at Chicago, which administers the Abraham Lincoln Graduate Fellowship, after contacting them following our national study on Pacific Islander eligibility for underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships. We are very pleased with this decision to include Pacific Islanders, and commend the university for making the right decision.

The Abraham Lincoln Graduate Fellowship is an exciting and generous financial aid program for underrepresented minorities interested in attending the University of Illinois at Chicago. In the first year, recipients of their recruitment award receive $25,000 per academic year plus a full tuition and fee waiver.  Together, this can easily amount to over $30,000 in annual financial support.  We encourage you to learn more by visiting UIC's webpage on the program, which you can find here: link

Mahalo once again to the Abraham Lincoln Graduate Fellowship for opening its doors to Pacific Islanders!

And mahalo to you for reading.

Kawika

$1 Million-plus Fellowship adds Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders as an eligible group

As our regular readers know, we've been reaching out to underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships on the need to properly classify Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders.

This week, we are elated to share that an underrepresented minority fellowship which provides over $1 million in annual aid is amending its eligibility policy to include Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders! Representatives from the Diversifying Faculty in Illinois program notified us about their policy change with the PIA project after hearing from us (following our national study), then again this summer.

The Diversifying Faculty in Illinois program provided an average award of $10,500 to new fellows recently, and named over 100 fellows last year. (That's over $1,050,000 in aid for new fellows in one year alone.) This program, open to underrepresented minorities, funds the education of students who want to become college educators. Fellows must pursue, and accept if offered, teaching positions at higher education institutions in the State of Illinois.

In making this important change to their eligibility policy, the DFI program joins five other scholarships that have opened their door to Pacific Islanders since last year's study.

We commend the DFI program for making the right decision, and hope that Pacific Islanders looking for a career in academia will consider this tremendous opportunity. For more information, please visit them here: link

Kawika