Kallautang
Aurelio Solver Agcaoili
The UH Manoa Experience 2012 and
What It Means To Our Young People
The statistical data on college education retention and promotion among the ranks of children of immigrants in the islands remains something we can only hope for to change for the better—and soon.
In real terms, we have a lot to do to improve our standing in these numbers that remind us we have not done a lot yet.
In real terms, we have to yet to hit a number that will make us say that our immigrant peoples take college education as a matter of obligation to self and to community.
The Obama Administration has never been remiss in its constant reminder that our key to the integral development of the United States, to the enrichment of our community in general, and to the development of our individual capacities for a more qualitative life—in short, to the pursuit of a real and honest-to-goodness American Dream—is dependent on increasing the number of our peoples who have gone to college and have gotten out of there with new expertise, skill, value, and competence.
The production and reproduction of the right mix of knowledge for nation and community building is a nation-state’s political, cultural, and economic commitment.
It is also its best resource, its best capital.
We have an educated population, we have citizenship ideas and practices that are at the service of both our nation and our people.
We have people who are skilled with multicultural sensibilities and competencies, we have ideas and practices that are hewed on tolerance and understanding.
We have people who are skilled in industry and in the professions, we have people who are willing to take part in national development that is not only economic but also human and humane.
These are grand ideals—but all these are at the base of what the UH Manoa Experience is all about.
For several years, we at the University of Hawaii Ilokano Language, Literature, and Culture Program have taken part in this yearly gathering and re-gathering of cultural workers, educators, college students, high school students, and community members and partners.
At the UH Manoa Experience, high students and their parents are given the opportunity to understand what college life is all about.
Booths—some call them tents—are put up, and each both represents a number of the academic programs offered by UH Manoa.
Some other institutions outside the UH System also come to participate, which widens, and enriches, the scope of this academic experience.
The intent is to familiarize the high school students with options for college life, options that given the right mix of interest and abilities, might have help them choose their own career path.
We expect, therefore, a bunch of high school students particularly those with high English Language Literacy population to come and take part in this academic get-together.
Several of the lead participants in the UH Manoa Experience are various programs of the University’s Student for Excellence Equity and Diversity such as the Office for Multicultural Student Services (OMSS) through its Challenge Grant, and the GEAR-Up.
Two public high schools where Ilokano is taught as part of their World Languages curricular offerings have signed up to participate: Waipahu High School and Farrington High School.
The UH Ilokano Program has benefited much from the UH Manoa Experience. Through it, the Program has been able to reach out to many students who have come to take part in this one-day gathering.
In a more particular way, the UH Ilokano Program has been able to draw students across the various program of the University to its Indo-Pacific courses, such as Philippine Critical Discourses, Modern Philippine Film, Philippine Critical Discourses, Philippine Cultural Mapping, Modern Philippine Drama, Philippine Popular Culture, and Philippine Diasporic Literatures.
For those contemplating of going to college, the 2012 UH Manoa Experience is an opportunity for you to see what it takes to go to college, and get out of it with your own college degree.
Mark you calendar, please: February 25, at 9:00 AM, at the UH Manoa grounds.
Observer/
Feb 2012
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