Twelve seniors from Nawahiokalani‘opu‘u in Keaau, the Hawaiian immersion program of Hilo High School, recently were among the first recipients of the state Department of Education’s Seal of Biliteracy award for their proficiency in Hawaiian and English.
Twelve seniors from Nawahiokalani‘opu‘u in Keaau, the Hawaiian immersion program of Hilo High School, recently were among the first recipients of the state Department of Education’s Seal of Biliteracy award for their proficiency in Hawaiian and English.
The Hawaii Seal of Biliteracy medallion was presented to the students during an awards ceremony May 26 at the school.
The students who received the award are Hokulani Fortunato, Summer Germano, Evyn-Bree Helekahi-Kaiwi, Alakai Iaea-Russell, Domonic Jones-Quinn, Rylen Kaniaupio, Jonah Kim, Kaainaoluikalai Lewis, Raelene Moke, Kaleimaluhia Nesbitt, Kiara-Marie Perez and Kaleihalia Tolentino-Perry.
All 12 Nawahi awardees will be enrolled in college this fall, some with scholarships to mainland universities.
“The seal is part of a national movement to award students who are able to speak and write two languages at a high level,” said University of Hawaii at Hilo Hawaiian language professor William H. Wilson, who mentored the Nawahiokalani‘opu‘u students. “This was the largest group of awardees from a single high school and we continue to set national precedent for education through Native American languages under the federal Native American Languages Act.”
“I think many people in the community do not realize that we have a higher rate of high school graduation and college attendance than the state average and that not only do students speak Hawaiian and English they all also study other languages,” Wilson said.
The Board of Education established the Seal of Biliteracy for graduating students who demonstrate a high proficiency in the state’s two official languages (English and Hawaiian) or either of the state’s two official languages and at least one additional language, including American Sign Language.
According to the DOE, the purpose of the Seal of Biliteracy is to:
• Enable students to be college, career and community ready in a global society.
• Establish an educational culture that recognizes and values the wealth of linguistic and cultural diversity students bring to the classroom.
• Support opportunities for study of and increase proficiency in ‘olelo Hawaii (Hawaiian language).
• Encourage partnerships with institutions of higher education and community organizations to increase access to language instruction in a variety of languages.
“The department is grateful for the partnership with Dr. Pila Wilson,” said Suzanne Mulcahy, DOE assistant superintendent, office of curriculum, instruction and student support. “His dedication and commitment was integral to the department’s ability to move forward with a pilot of an online English assessment at Nawahiokalani‘opu‘u.
“Hawaii is the only state to celebrate two official languages, English and Hawaiian. We look forward to even more students being awarded the seal next spring,” she said.
Wilson said a future step for the DOE will be to develop a rigorous Hawaiian assessment for students studying Hawaiian in English schools.