Globally Minded Leadership Spearheaded by Native Hawaiians
Building resilient communities is amplified by globally minded leadership in collaboration with like-minded businesses
Driving into the Ka’u valley just minutes from the Hawaii Belt Road, I arrived at the campus of the Ka’u High and Pahala Elementary School. The blacktop was radiating heat like the black lava rock cascading to the sapphire ocean within view. I walked to the main office in an old plantation building to meet Dexsilyn Navarro, a leader in the Ka’u Global Learning Lab, and check in as a visitor. The murals on the campus buildings were powerful in color, design, and message, all created by the students.
Ka’u High and Pahala Elementary School, Pahala Hawaii
I felt the curious stares of staff and students, as my white skin glowed in contrast to theirs. I hoped my notoriously curly mop and dark eyes hinted at a global kinship. Being a haole, (Hawaiian term for a non-native, usually white person), I had no illusions that would be the case. As a graduate of Kalaheo High School, on the island of Oahu, I understood their distrust and have always done my best to be respectful of the local Hawaiian people. That holds for any culture I visit as a guest, but even more so for the adopted ohana (family) I feel so connected to and who have so warmly welcomed me into their community.
Newcomers are not frequent here. I was here to offer my father’s flight simulator equipment to the school to generate interest in flying among students in one of the communities he loved. He invited the local people into his home to fly on the simulator, “talk story”, and fly his drones and model airplanes over the years. He had been a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines for 26 years. I looked at the library near where one of his model airplanes had crashed, and felt his spirit with me.
Minutes later, we joined ‘Aina Akamu, the program director for the Ka’u Global Learning Lab. A native of this valley, he had returned after teaching at the prestigious King Kamehameha School on Oahu to foster the educational initiatives in his hometown. The public schools in Hawaii are struggling to perform successfully in general, and Ka’u is ranked the lowest in the state. Akamu sacrificed his prestigious position and took a large cut in pay and autonomy to come back and make a difference.
And he is.
Mural by students at Ka’u High School, Pahala Hawaii
“Ka’ū High & Pāhala Elementary School's Global Learning Lab is a community resiliency model for Ka'ū. With the belief that the foundation of any successful community is learning. The vision is to develop a vibrant, thriving, sustainable Ka'ū.”
Akamu has built a vision that, in my opinion, closely correlates to another powerful framework, the ideal framework for 21st century learners I had witnessed at a workshop lead by Harvard and MIT professor, Charles Fadel of the Center for Curriculum Redesign. It is being used by companies such as Microsoft, backed by educational institutions like Stanford and a myriad of international sponsors and organizations. It is the embodiment of what needs done in our schools. He has procured the backing of the Hawaiian Executive Council and numerous sponsors including one of the founders of Ebay.
As I listened, goosebumps rose as I realized it was being actualized. I had founded Agile Intellect based on supporting these competencies using neuroscience, and have the goal of bringing funding and support back to education as part of my own mission and company vision.
‘Aina Akamu and his team have been working parallel toward a similar goal in different lanes, and my father brought us into a merge zone geographically and philosophically.
It was so refreshing to see like-minded souls working on a seemingly impossible problem plaguing our country’s educational system. The Global Learning Lab is in its infancy and the challenges are steep, but when it succeeds it will be a model that can be replicated globally in areas with great need. The seed of hope in my chest burst open and radiated complete faith that it will.
The computer lab has been set up and students working with a 3D printer and new technology are transforming their digital designs into products. It has come a long way under Akamu’s direction.
While continuing virtually to develop the brain health lifestyle initiative of Agile Intellect. My hope to incorporate a way to support K-12 education now has a face, a place, and a name.
I imagined Dad smiling his giant smile and realized all of the ground work he had laid in so many ways. We all lay groundwork with our lives, and don’t necessarily know how that will come to fruition, but in this case, my heart swelled in gratitude once again.
“The Greg Clute Flight Simulator School” (name still TBD) will be established as a skill and curiosity-building generator to inspire future pilots at the Ka’u Global Learning Lab. Dad always loved mentoring budding pilots, especially young female pilots at Hawaiian Airlines. During one of his first flying jobs as a flight instructor we lived in a trailer at the airport in Durango, Colorado, while I attended preschool with Ute and Navajo children. Mom taught school on the Indian reservation in Ignacio, Colorado, and later would teach at the Wind River Reservation near Lander Wyoming.
Here, once again we were in a rural area with the native people of this country. I felt a resonance that reminded me of how interconnected we are across this world, but so many are not treated equitably. I am trying to hold space to listen to what is needed. I hear the students speak of their dreams and see them taking root.
In this country we have the opportunity to choose our passions and they need not be the same. But we are all lifelong learners who truly can create a better future, even from the heavens.
So thanks, Dad, for the flying lessons.
We are all exploring the sky for which there is no limit.
For more information on how to support this endeavor, feel free to contact me or the nonprofit O’Kau Kakou directly at https://www.okaukakou.org/
Mahalo, a hui hou!
(thank you, until we meet again)