P.I.A. project Board Member Stories: Karin

Aloha 'oukou! My name is Karin Puanani Karpin, and I am the Vice President of the Pacific Islander Access project.  

From a young age, it has been clear to me that there is a powerful link between educational attainment and overall well being.  Even as a young child, I knew that I wanted the freedom and choice that comes with an education.  After graduating from Roosevelt High School in Honolulu, I was lucky enough to be accepted to The George Washington University.  Attending GWU has provided me with many great opportunities to network and develop critical professional skills.  In addition to these opportunities, being in DC has also allowed me to learn more about myself, far from home and beyond my comfort zone.  

GWU is a wonderful school, but it is not cheap.  When my family -- like so many others -- was affected by the recession, I needed to figure out how to stay at GWU.  Though I was fortunate to find support as a Liko A'e Scholar, I was surprised to find that financial aid opportunities for Native Hawaiians were much more limited than I had imagined.

As part of my scholarship, I was required to fulfill community service that bettered the Native Hawaiian community.  I wondered how I was going to do this from the East Coast.  Thanks to Bryce, I met Kawika, who offered me an internship at the P.I.A. project. My main project as an intern was to update a national study regarding Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander access to underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships.  Kawika had conducted research in the area years ago, and started the P.I.A. project when he looked at a subset of the sample years later and realized that most programs were still excluding Pacific Islanders.  My job was to look at his entire study, and see exactly how things had changed.  

As I spent mornings, days, and nights updating the sample by finding how each academic programs defined "underrepresented minority," the reality began to dawn on me.  Some progress had occurred, but most programs were -- are -- still leaving Pacific Islanders out of their definition of eligible "underrepresented minorities." In calculating the final figures, I saw how Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are excluded from applying for millions of dollars in financial aid, and many opportunities for other kinds of support.  As a student and young woman who wants to spend her professional life bettering the health of the Native Hawaiian community, I continually study the link between health and educational attainment in my coursework.  Time and time again, data shows that educational attainment is positively associated with quality of life, health, and prosperity.  

Therefore, when Kawika offered me the chance to move from intern to board member, I accepted it in a heartbeat.  The P.I.A. project is an important cause and I want to be a part of our success.  I hope to see us elicit a positive change that will elevate the well being of all Pacific Islanders, including Native Hawaiians.  As an aspiring physician, I will continue to commit myself to this cause, hoping that future generations of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders will have all the higher education opportunities I have enjoyed -- as well as access to the many underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships that we're currently excluded from. 

Mahalo Nui Loa for reading this post!

A Me Ke Aloha Pumehana,

Karin Puanani

P.I.A. project Board Member Stories: Kawika, Founder

Why does this issue matter to me?  I guess it started with a personal experience.  

As a college student, I learned about the exclusion of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders firsthand -- when I was told by a well-intentioned executive at an underrepresented minority program that "Native Hawaiians aren't considered underrepresented because Pacific Islanders are 'Asian Pacific Islanders'." That program changed its ways, but as a McNair Scholar, I learned that most underrepresented minority programs were making the same mistake across the nation, and it cost Pacific Islanders millions in financial aid.  

Years later, I revisited my research and found that while some progress had occurred, this was still a problem -- most underrepresented minority scholarships and fellowships still didn't recognize that Pacific Islanders were underrepresented.  I wanted to help these programs understand why they should include Pacific Islanders, so along with a small circle of friends, I founded the Pacific Islander Access project as an informal group.  We spoke at conferences, networked with other Pacific Islanders, and started this blog.  

In the fall of 2010, we went one step further, by turning our organization into a nonprofit corporation. Today, our blog is a one-stop shop with easy access to the facts about Pacific Islander underrepresentation. We also work to provide our readers with an understanding of America's Pacific Islander community.  Tomorrow, we will do more to reach out directly to the underrepresented minority programs that still exclude Pacific Islanders. 

We're a bare-bones operation, but what we lack in funding, we make up for elsewhere.  Luckily for me, I've been blessed to work with board members like Karin, Bryce, and Lorinda, as well as others who also believe enough in this issue to help us for free.

So, why does P.I.A. project's mission matter to me? 

Because nine years ago, I saw something wrong, and started trying to fix it.  

If I can be part of fixing this problem, doors that were closed to me will be open for tomorrow's Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islander college students, including my son, and maybe one day my grandchildren.  It will help the scholarships reach more underrepresented minorities. It will help Pacific Islanders reach their potential.  And it will play a small role in making our country better educated, better off, and better prepared for the future.

Kawika

Sacramento State U. tracks recruitment and retention of Pacific Islanders, includes them with other Underrepresented Minorities

This week The State Hornet, Sacramento State University's student newspaper, published an article about the school's progress at retaining underrepresented minorities.  How do they define "underrepresented minority?" To quote the paper:

"Underrepresented minorities consist of African-Americans, 
Latinos, Pacific Islanders and Native Americans."

I was pleased to see Pacific Islanders included, given that U.S. Census data shows that Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are currently underrepresented, and have been for at least the past 20 years.

Digging deeper into the sources, I visited Sacramento State's website for their Office of Institutional Research.  (It was their data that the State Hornet was citing in its article on underrepresented minority retention.)  I was impressed! By visiting their website, you see the university's retention and graduation tracking for underrepresented minorities, as well as 1.) confirmation that they include Pacific Islanders as an underrepresented group, and 2.) even have tracking data specific to the retention and graduation of Pacific Islanders.  

You can see how it's done by visiting their website here. 

Kawika