Increasing post-secondary educational success is a key component to achieving a thriving lāhui in which learners are enabled to make good life and career choices. Kamehameha Scholars helps create systemic changes that can improve the educational well-being of Native Hawaiians in areas such as graduating high school on time, boosting enrollment in college, and increasing on-time college graduation rates – outcomes vital to producing even more local and global leaders.
In a first-of-its-kind national honor for a community education program, the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) has selected Kamehameha Scholars as a Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP). Kamehameha Scholars will be recognized at a ceremony during ASCA’s annual conference in Denver, Colo., on July 10, 2017.
The RAMP designation, recognizes programs that are committed to delivering a comprehensive, data-driven school counseling program and an exemplary educational environment. Since the program’s inception, more than 650 schools have been designated as RAMP recipients.
Kamehameha Scholars is a statewide KS community education program for students across Hawai‘i that assists public and private high school students in attaining higher education goals. The program’s staff includes ten counselors from O‘ahu, East and West Hawai‘i, Maui and Kaua‘i.
“This recognition is a great honor,” says Kūamahi Community Education Managing Director Waiʻaleʻale Sarsona. Kūamahi is a division within Kamehameha Schools’ Community Engagement and Resources Group, which focuses on connecting KS and community resources to address educational needs specific to individual communities.
“As a year-round career guidance and college-prep program, Kamehameha Scholars plays an important role in creating systemic changes that can improve the educational well-being of Native Hawaiians in areas such as graduating high school on time, boosting enrollment in college, and increasing on-time college graduation rates,” Sarsona adds. “With these outcomes, we believe Hawai‘i will produce even more local and global leaders. It’s what drives our investment in this program.”
Kamehameha Scholars was created in 2003 as part of Kamehameha Schools’ community outreach efforts to serve more Native Hawaiian youth, and helps students from public and private schools statewide match their skills and interests with colleges and career options.
“This year’s RAMP honorees have shown their commitment to students and the school counseling profession,” says Jill Cook, ASCA assistant director. “These programs used data to drive their program development and implementation so all students can achieve success. RAMP designation distinguishes these programs and encourages school counselors nationwide to strive for excellence.”
Adds Kamehameha Scholars Program Manager Lovina Hudson: “As a data-driven program, Kamehameha Scholars uses data that helps us continue to evolve as an effective school counseling program. We see where our students need additional services and where they are surpassing their goals, and program changes can be made accordingly.”
The Kamehameha Scholars program is open to students in grades 9-12 who reside on the islands of Hawai‘i, O‘ahu, Maui, and Kaua‘i. In school year 2015-16, the program served a total of 720 students who represented most of the private and public schools across the state. Charter and home-school students were also in the program.
For more information on Kamehameha Scholars, log on to https://apps.ksbe.edu/kscholars/.
Strategic Plan 2020
SP 2020 is a five-year strategic plan that will guide Kamehameha Schools from 2015 to 2020. The plan marks a starting point toward KS’ vision 2040, which envisions success for all Native Hawaiian learners. These collaborative efforts will help to support Goal 1 of SP2020 – delivering world-class, culture-based education through a network of Native Hawaiian schools, inclusive of our KS schools and Native Hawaiian charter and immersion schools.
Inside Kamehameha Scholars
Kamehameha Scholars is not a traditional brick-and-mortar school program, but provides a counseling curriculum to students based upon ASCA’s National Model. Students enter the application-based program by attending an orientation during the summer prior to their first year in the program. Workshops and other counseling activities are held during non-school times – primarily weekends, evenings, and school intersessions – throughout the year.
The program’s targeted outcomes include:
• Increase on-time high school graduation rates.
• Increase college readiness.
• Increase college aspirations.
• Increase postsecondary enrollment rates.
In striving to reach those outcomes, the program’s data includes statistics that so far show Kamehameha Scholars graduates are:
• Graduating from high school on time at a much higher rate than Native Hawaiians in the state of Hawai‘i as a whole (100 percent vs. 72 percent) and higher than the overall graduation rate for the state of Hawai‘i (80 percent).”
• Continuing to be accepted into college at a high rate. In school year 2014-15, 96 percent of scholars were accepted into a postsecondary institution. That number was 97 percent in the previous school year.
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