A pāʻina with purpose: Kamehameha Schools students bring classroom learning to community

July 6, 2026

Kamehameha Schools Hawaiʻi haumāna transformed Lehua Restaurant at ʻImiloa into a fully immersive ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi dining experience to end the school year — welcoming, serving and entertaining nearly 100 guests entirely in the Hawaiian language.

The second annual ʻAhaʻaina Aloha ʻŌlelo challenged advanced ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi students to apply years of classroom learning. From greeting diners and explaining menu items to delivering speeches and performing mele and hula, the evening pushed them to use ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi naturally and in community.

Because for their kumu Maikalani Glendon-Baclig, the most meaningful learning happens in real life.

“I wanted to give the haumāna a platform outside of the confines of our four walls,” Glendon-Baclig said. “I was looking for something that they could actually relate to and they all got excited about because in Hawaiʻi, pāʻina is an important part of our culture — our ʻohana.”

The affair grew out of classroom conversations about what gatherings and celebrations look like across different ʻohana and communities. Throughout the semester, haumāna explored the many layers of hosting an ʻahaʻaina from hospitality and protocol to food preparation and performance.

In collaboration with the owners and staff of Lehua Restaurant, haumāna engaged in an ʻāina to ʻōpū huakaʻi to better understand the life cycle of food from Kaunamano Farm to the restaurant table and the intentionality, aloha, and kuleana involved in feeding community. They researched ingredients, practiced describing dishes in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, and participated in mini hospitality workshops. They also taste-tested menu items, helped curate the evening’s program and prepared for the spontaneous conversations to come. By the time the culminating dinner arrived in the final weeks of the school year, students weren’t just studying hoʻokipa and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. They were living it.

Building off last year’s inaugural dinner, this year’s event expanded into a larger collaboration with the campus band, Hawaiian ensemble and art department, adding student performances and student artwork that was transformed into keepsakes for guests. For Kamaka Masuko, who served throughout the evening, the occasion became an important reflection of how far his ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi journey has come.

“It showed me … my proficiency in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi,” Masuko said. “It showed me after 11 straight years of Hawaiian classes how good I have become at speaking and understanding — not just scripts and translating, but real, face-to-face conversations.”

Throughout the night, students had to think on their feet and problem solve, taking orders, explaining dishes, guiding activities and engaging guests entirely in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. For those who took to the stage, the festivities reinforced the emotional and communal power of language. Student speaker and co-hostess Wehiwaalani Gapero said speaking before a packed room challenged her to become more intentional in how she communicated.

“You have to dig deeper into your vocabulary and use emotion to evoke emotion from your audience,” Gapero said. “A lot of the audience responded really well to what I was saying and that ultimately helped me gain more confidence.”

Beyond building fluency, the experience also pushed haumāna to deepen their connections to identity, culture and community. For Kahua Dunton, that growth was especially visible. During last year’s inaugural dinner, she became so overwhelmed by the social demands of interviewing guests that she spent much of the evening quietly crocheting in the corner, according to her kumu.

This year, however, Dunton returned to perform a solo mele — entertaining and even joking with guests, displaying the kind of natural exchange Glendon-Baclig said marks a whole different level of language proficiency.

“My grandparents don’t know ʻōlelo. They don’t know a lot of things that other people know about their families and it’s sad,” Kahua said. “But I want to rebuild that connection because it feels really good when I’m there and I’m talking to people or learning songs. I feel much more grounded.”

From greeting and seating guests to preparing fine-dining cuisine and clearing tables, haumāna learned firsthand what it takes to create a worthwhile pāʻina. Student chef Paliku Padilla said there was no slacking in the kitchen and that they “really had to put effort and aloha” into it. Meanwhile, front-of-house students like Laʻiākea Baclig were responsible for setting the high standard from the moment guests arrived, welcoming them with lei and makana.

“Seeing everybody speaking with people that they didn’t exactly know on their table and making new connections and friends — it was amazing,” Baclig said.

For Glendon-Baclig, those moments of growth, whether in the kitchen, on stage or in conversation, are exactly why these kind of opportunities matter. More than a final project, the ʻAhaʻaina Aloha ʻŌlelo is about creating meaningful spaces for haumāna to live the language beyond the classroom and see themselves within it.

“These opportunities are bigger than just the classroom,” Glendon-Baclig said. “To be able to hear them really articulate their learning and that whole experience … it was very heartfelt. It’s such a huge win.”