KS Kapālama valedictorian earns top academic honors

Jun. 15, 2015

Contributed by Pakalani Bello

There is a common narrative told to students who attend Kamehameha Schools Kapālama that encourages students “to take advantage of everything that KS has to offer.” Many take it to heart, joining clubs, playing sports, taking part in performing arts, etc. But 2015 KSK valedictorian Sierra Kawena Hirayama takes that directive to an extreme.

Throughout her years at KSK, Hirayama has been in the National Honor Society; participated in the STEMPREP Project summer science program; was a member of the deputation, speech and debate, water polo and kayaking teams; and co-founded “Kids for Kids,” a campus club getting students to volunteer in community events with school-aged children.

She has done all of these extracurricular activities and more, while still managing to excel academically, being named a 2015 U.S. Presidential Scholar and a National Merit Award Scholarship finalist, who will attend Stanford in the fall.

“I kind of impulse-join clubs,” says Hirayama. “I joined the speech and debate, I’m the co-president for Kids for Kids, it’s a volunteering club. We try to focus on friends and their families. I’m in National Honor Society, I’m also on the deputation team, and I’ve played water polo since the seventh grade and that was really good for me because it helped me to be more comfortable in my own skin.”

KSK speech teacher Nick Ernst coached Hirayama on the delivery of her valedictorian speech.

“I’m glad that Kawena has taken advantage of all of the different opportunities that we offer at Kamehameha but I do think that she herself is such an interesting character that she’s kind of made herself a wonderful person,” says Ernst.

For being named to the list of U.S. Presidential Scholars, the Kāne‘ohe native will head to Washington D.C. for a ceremony, where she will receive a Presidential Scholar Medallion, on June 21.

“There’s a humility to her that is kind of unique,” says KSK physics teacher Darren Kamalu. “Her abilities don’t walk in front of her and knock you down, she keeps them all contained in a very humble way. I wrote her recommendation and she’s one of the difficult students because the thing that stands out about her is that there are no issues. She comes in, she does her work, she gets it done on time, she has a good handle over what her capabilities are.

“She’s incredibly intelligent,” Ernst adds. “She absorbs information very quickly and is able to process that information, analyze it, and then deliver on it. I was able to observe this as her debate coach and her speech teacher.

“She is quite a quirky character. Unassuming to every nth of the word. She’s incredibly humble. You’d never think, ‘Oh this girl is clearly the smartest person in her class.’ She clearly has the highest GPA, because she’s incredibly personable, just a great character overall.”

Hirayama will attend Stanford University in the fall, where she plans to study neuroscience and looks forward to continuing her adventure into the student life of building relationships and memorable experiences.

“Just knowing that I’m going to have those kinds of experiences at Stanford, where everybody is amazing in their own way, I really like having that perspective on life,” Hirayama says. “That I’m not the best at everything and I’m probably not the best at anything, actually, but it’s fun just knowing that all of these people will support me so that I can be better at the very least.”

“I think that she’s going to become actually, quite a significant player, not just in the Stanford community, but hopefully, and I believe she will be coming back and paying back to the Kamehameha ʻohana and the Hawaiian community here, and the state of Hawaiʻi and I think we’ll see her come back here as a very significant, powerful force,” Kamalu adds.

“I appreciate Kawena and how she’s able to challenge herself and then challenge me to be a better teacher,” says Ernst. “She’s taught me that even when students do come with an extraordinary amount of talent, they still want to be pushed; they still want to be challenged. As a teacher, it is refreshing to see students who still thirst and crave for knowledge and the challenge.”

“I just like showing people that you don’t have to be any one category,” explains Hirayama. “You could be as many categories as you want, and you can totally be more than you are at any point, like you’re never quite there; you’re never quite perfect. But that doesn’t mean you should stop trying to be better.”

In addition to being named a 2015 U.S. Presidential Scholar, Hirayama is a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist. The KS Kapālama valedictorian will attend Stanford University in the fall, where she plans to study neuroscience.

Water polo is among the many extracurricular activities Hirayama takes part in. Her other activities include being a member of the deputation, speech and debate teams.