{"id":112309,"date":"2020-03-03T13:30:20","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T23:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=112309"},"modified":"2024-03-15T15:09:28","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T01:09:28","slug":"keaulana-legislative-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/03\/keaulana-legislative-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeward CC<\/abbr> coordinator honored for speeding up special-education pathway"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"large
Christina Keaulana, center, and the Hawaiʻi<\/span> State Legislature<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Hawaiʻi<\/span> State Legislature has honored Leeward Community College\u2019s<\/a> special education coordinator for teacher education for her invaluable contributions to the state\u2019s educational systems. Social Sciences Instructor Christina Keaulana<\/strong> received a legislative resolution in February, highlighting her work designing and implementing the N\u0101n\u0101kuli Educational Assistant-to-Teacher Pilot Program.<\/p>\n

The program was designed to increase and enhance the recruitment, support and retention of educators from diverse backgrounds, with a specific emphasis on the state\u2019s chronic shortage of special education teachers. Candidates with experience and commitment to working with special needs students and who are representatives of Hawaiʻi<\/span>\u2019s culturally and linguistically diverse populations were recruited into the program.<\/p>\n

Keaulana said, “Leeward Community College has given me a platform to innovate and to serve as a change agent for my community. I am privileged to hold the position I have in the teacher education program and blessed to have the leadership who gives unwavering support of outside-the-box thinking and for sharing a community strength-based approach to teaching and learning.”<\/p>\n

Teacher education collaboration<\/h2>\n

Through a collaborative effort between Leeward CC<\/abbr>\u2019s Teacher Education Program<\/a> and the Institute for Native Pacific Education and Culture<\/a>, a pathway was designed for educational assistants to complete an accelerated, site-based hybrid bachelors of science in special education K–12, a state approved teacher education program.<\/p>\n

Leeward CC<\/abbr> provides comprehensive wrap-around services to support these non-traditional students, who are first-time college students, in an advanced age group, or have limited exposure to navigating online higher education. The N\u0101n\u0101kuli Educational Assistant-to-Teacher Pilot Program is leading the charge in establishing a long-term pipeline of locally sourced, highly invested and culturally competent teacher candidates to work in Hawaiʻi<\/span> Department of Education schools with chronic teacher turnover.<\/p>\n

In fall 2018, 37 ambitious educational assistants residing in Waiʻanae<\/span> enrolled in the pilot program, and Keaulana procured funds to cover the tuition for all four years of their bachelor of science degrees in special education, leading to teacher licensure.<\/p>\n

The resolution honoring Keaulana was initiated by Sen. Michelle Kidani and supported by Representatives Stacelynn Eli, Cedric Gates, Justin Woodson and Scott Saiki, and Senators Maile Shimabukuro and Ronald Kouchi. A reception was held in Sen. Shimabukuro\u2019s office after the ceremony.<\/p>\n

—By Kathleen Cabral<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christina Keaulana received a legislative resolution for designing the Nanakuli Educational Assistant-to-Teacher Pilot Program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[598,65,933,71,1626],"class_list":["post-112309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-leeward-community-college","tag-teacher-education","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-women-of-uh","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t