Angry Letter

99-065 Kauhale St.

Aiea, Hawaii, 96701

December 16, 2013

Kamehameha Schools Kapalama Campus

1887 Makuakane St.

Honolulu, Hawaii 96817

Dear Kamehameha Schools Kapalama, 

I am not a student attending Kamehameha. I am currently a Sophomore at Moanalua High School, but a few years back, I was fortunate enough to have been able to attend some of the other summer and spring enrichment programs such as Ho’omaka’ika’i Explorations and Ipukukui. I had a great experience attending both and I am very grateful for that opportunity. I am not a student there, but I have an older brother who was recently a 2013 graduate. For all four years since he was accepted as a freshman, the school has been very good and very helpful towards my family and my brother’s success.  From financial aiding to all the opportunities and doors that were opened for my brother, with the help of the programs, clubs, and extra curricular activities they had to offer, my family and I have been very thankful, even to this day. That is why my family and I strive to participate in certain events such as Ho’olaulea as a way to give back to the school.

However, I am very concerned about the admissions policy. I find it very difficult to understand that admissions was offered to a non-Hawaiian to the Maui campus in 2010 when I believe, support and respect the legacy of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop -- her wish and vision to help Hawaiians become good and industrious men and women and also nderstanding her wishes left in her will. Her wishes as to making sure Kamehameha Schools (KS) strives to give preference to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry to the extent permitted by law first.  

If I will never be admitted to the Kamehameha Schools in my 11^th and 12^th grade year, I wish the very best and prefer to know that admissions to those of Hawaiian ancestry to be admitted first to any of the Kamehameha Schools campuses.  I find it very appalling at the acceptance rate per district for the O’ahu Kapalama campus In Although a federal appeals court appeared to have derailed a challenge to Kamehameha Schools’ Hawaiians-only admission policy (Honolulu Star Bulletin, Mar 4, 2010), it is not a guarantee that there will be no other lawsuits in the future. I would like the schools to stand firm and every way to invite a child of Hawaiian ancestry first before a non-Hawaiian.  After the incident of the non-Hawaiian admitee. The only way Kamehameha can avoid the risk may be to eliminate all tuition, the vehicle of the legal argument that the schools discriminate against non-Hawaiians. 

In the Princess’s will as stated as the thirteenth, “Wherever situated unto the trustees below named, their heirs and assigns forever, to hold upon the following trusts, namely: to erect and maintain in the HawaiianIslands two schools, each for boarding and day scholars, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha School.”

  I am very disappointed that Kamehameha Schools has admitted yet another non-native Hawaiian to the school, when there are, indeed, many qualified native Hawaiians who have tried to get in without success. (“Third non-Hawaiian admitted to Kamehameha,” Star-Advertiser, July 10).  Most of these children do well in school, are well-rounded with extracurricular activities such as band and sports, and yet, for whatever reason, they have been declined. I have heard so many sad stories of rejection, so when I hear that non-native Hawaiians have been accepted, I am outraged.

Angry Letter Rough Draft

99-065 Kauhale St.

Aiea, Hawaii, 96701

December 16, 2013

Kamehameha Schools Kapalama Campus

1887 Makuakane St.

Honolulu, Hawaii 96817

Dear Kamehameha Schools Kapalama,

I am not a student attending Kamehameha. I am currently a Sophomore at Moanalua High School, but a few years back, I was fortunate enough to have been able to attend some of the other summer and spring enrichment programs such as Ho’omaka’ika’i Explorations and Ipukukui. I had a great experience attending both and I am very grateful for that opportunity. I am not a student there, but I have an older brother who was recently a 2013 graduate. For all four years since he was accepted as a freshman, the school has been very good and very helpful towards my family and my brother’s success.  From financial aiding to all the opportunities and doors that were opened for my brother, with the help of the programs, clubs, and extra curricular activities they had to offer, my family and I have been very thankful, even to this day. That is why my family and I strive to participate in certain events such as Ho’olaulea as a way to give back to the school.

However, I am very concerned about the admissions policy. I find it very difficult to understand that admissions was offered to a non-Hawaiian to the Maui campus in 2010 when I believe, support and respect the legacy of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop -- her wish and vision to help Hawaiians become good and industrious men and women. If I will never be admitted to the Kamehameha Schools in my 11^th and 12^th grade year, I wish the very best and prefer to know that admissions to those of Hawaiian ancestry to be admitted first to any of the Kamehameha Schools campuses.  I find it very appalling at the acceptance rate per district for the O’ahu Kapalama campus In Although a federal appeals court appeared to have derailed a challenge to Kamehameha Schools’ Hawaiians-only admission policy (Honolulu Star Bulletin, Mar 4, 2010), it is not a guarantee that there will be no other lawsuits in the future.

I would like the schools to stand firm and every way to invite a child of Hawaiian ancestry first before a non-Hawaiian.  After the incident of the non-Hawaiian admitee. The only way Kamehameha can avoid the risk may be to eliminate all tuition, the vehicle of the legal argument that the schools discriminate against non-Hawaiians.
  Although the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the lawsuits against the Kamehameha Schools to remain anonymous  ned about the fact as a Native Hawaiian high school student as myself,understanding Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s wish and vision to help Hawaiians become good and industrious men and women through education and also understanding her wishes left in her will, In keeping with it her wishes, I understand Kamehameha Schools (KS) strives to give preference to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry to the extent permitted by law. In the Princess’s will as stated as the thirteenth, “Wherever situated unto the trustees below named, their heirs and assigns forever, to hold upon the following trusts, namely: to erect and maintain in the HawaiianIslands two schools, each for boarding and day scholars, one for boys and one for girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha School.”

I am very disappointed that Kamehameha Schools has admitted yet another non-native Hawaiian to the school, when there are, indeed, many qualified native Hawaiians who have tried to get in without success. (“Third non-Hawaiian admitted to Kamehameha,” Star-Advertiser, July 10). I wholeheartedly agree with Wise Nicola Sr., and join in his concern about the school’s future admission policies and what that means in regard to the intent of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s will.

Native Hawaiians must always have preference. Like Mr. Nicola’s children, family and friends of mine have also tried repeatedly to get their children into Kamehameha, and have the only necessary “qualification”—they are native Hawaiians—and yet they have not been accepted into a school created for them.

Most of these children do well in school, are well-rounded with extracurricular activities such as band and sports, and yet, for whatever reason, they have been declined. I have heard so many sad stories of rejection, so when I hear that non-native Hawaiians have been accepted, I am outraged.

Risky Business Final - Underage Drinking & Teenage Pregnancies

One of the biggest, most controversial issues in society today all around the world is Teenage Pregnancy. Many people have their own perceptions on the issue whether they are against it, or whether they support and accept the fact. Teen pregnancy is something that affects over one million young teens. For some, these pregnancies are planned, but for most, they are unplanned. As a teenager, high school is where a lot of peer pressures are surrounding them. Teens take risks, but sometimes those risks are the worst choices they can make. Experimenting with alcohol is one of those “peer pressures.” Drinking and the use of narcotics have a large impact on the judgment of the teen before the pre-pregnancy state comes about and that is why underage drinking has been blamed to be one of the major reasons for the increase in teenage pregnancies over these past years.


          The Office of Adolescent Health has stated that there were 29.4 births for every 1,000 adolescent females within ages 15-19, or 305,420 babies born to females in this age group in the year of 2012. Three in ten American teenage girls will get pregnant at least once before reaching age 20. That is at least 750,000 teen pregnancies that occur every year. Although majority of people around the world look at teenage pregnancies as a negative thing, with teenage pregnancies being such a controversial issue all around the world, there is always going to be that group of people that also do accept and support teen pregnancies in our society. While the group that is against teenage pregnancies is believing that underage drinking is the major reason as to why the rate of teen pregnancies has increased, the other group of people who support the issue have all the right to argue that underage drinking is not the major cause of the increase. One may argue that because of many various reasons. Research points out that the number of causes of teenage pregnancies are still fairly debatable, so technically, one may not be granted the right to blame the increase on just one thing in particular. In this case, underage drinking. Aside from the increase in pregnancies being looked at as the biggest problem in the world, research proves that the causes of such and the giving birth process is NOT the only thing people around the world are getting heated up about. It has been proven that abortions are actually a much bigger deal. As stated in prolifeacrossamerica.org, abortions are legal in America through all nine months of pregnancy. Over 1.3 million legal abortions occur in America each year. The total number of abortions in the U.S. from 1973-2011 was 54.5 million plus. Updated July 26, 2012, http://all.orgpointed out that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Guttmacher Institute, there were 234 abortions per 1,000 live births, 1.2 million abortions per year, 3,288 abortions per day, 137 abortions per hour, nine abortions every four minutes, and one abortion every 26 seconds.

However, aside from that on a more positive  note, http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov stated that adolescent pregnancy and babies being born to adolescents have dropped since reaching an all time high in 1990 due to the increased use of contraceptions such as condoms. Teenage pregnancies are still now and always will be a big concern in society, but a 2001 survey mentioned that over the past decade, the number of sexually active teens has declined from 54 to 46 percent. Let's just hope that it stays that way.
Those who may look at the issue the way that I do would come out and state how they too feel that teen pregnancies is linked to what is referred to today as "binge drinking" or very heavy drinking.

Risky Business ROUGH DRAFT

Teenage Pregnancy& Underage Drinking

The Office of Adolescent Health has stated that there were 29.4 births for every 1,000 adolescent females within ages 15-19, or 305,420 babies born to females in this age group in the year of 2012. Three in ten American teenage girls will get pregnant at least once before hitting age 20. That is at least 750,000 teen pregnancies every year. One of the biggest, most controversial issues in society today all around the world is Teenage Pregnancy. Many people have their own perceptions on the issue whether they are against it, or whether they support and accept the fact. Teen pregnancy is something that affects over one million young teens. For some, these pregnancies are planned, but for most, 85% of pregnancies are unplanned. As a teenager, high school is where a lot of peer pressures are surrounding them. Teens take risks, but sometimes those risks are the worst choices they could make. Experimenting with alcohol is one of those “peer pressures.” Drinking and the use of narcotics have a large impact on the judgment of the teen before the pre-pregnancy comes about and that is why underage drinking has been blamed to be the major reason for the increase in teenage pregnancies over these past years.

Although majority of people around the world look at teenage pregnancies as a negative thing, with teenage pregnancies being such a controversial issue all around the world, there is always going to be that group of people that does not accept the fact and that group of people that does accept the fact. While the group that is against teenage pregnancies is believing that underage drinking is the major reason as to why the rate of teen pregnancies has increased, the other group of people who support the issue have all the right to argue that underage drinking is not the major cause of the increase. One may argue that because of many various reasons. Research points out that the number of causes of teenage pregnancies are still fairly debatable, so technically, one may not be granted the right to blame the increase on just one thing in particular. In this case, underage drinking. Aside from the increase in pregnancies being looked at as the biggest problem in the world, research proves that the causes of such and the giving birth process is NOT the only thing people around the world are getting heated up about. It has been proven that abortions are actually a much bigger deal. As stated in prolifeacrossamerica.org, abortions are legal in America through all nine months of pregnancy. Over 1.3 million legal abortions occur in America each year. The total number of abortions in the U.S. from 1973-2011 was 54.5 million plus. Updated July 26, 2012, http://all.org pointed out that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Guttmacher Institute, there were 234 abortions per 1,000 live births, 1.2 million abortions per year, 3,288 abortions per day, 137 abortions per hour, nine abortions every four minutes, and one abortion every 26 seconds. However, aside from that, on a more positive note, http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov stated that adolescent pregnancy and babies being born to adolescents have dropped since reaching an all time high in 1990 due to the increased use of contraceptions such as condoms. Teenage pregnancies are still now and always will be a big concern in society, but a 2001 survey mentioned that over the past decade, the number of sexually active teens has declined from 54 to 46 percent. Let's just hope that it stays that way.
Those who may look at the issue the way that I do would come out and state how they too feel that teen pregnancies is linked to what is referred to today as "binge drinking" or very heavy drinking.

 

COLLEGE ESSAY

Stanford University: “Some students have a background or story that is central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”

 
           “Stay true to who you are. Do what you want to do; be who you want to be,” my parents would always say to me. Growing up to be the youngest of two, the baby sister to a big brother, always had its up’s and down’s. Sometimes you feel as if you are not receiving equal treatment or love from your parents as your older sibling is. In your childhood years, the feeling of needing to live up to your older sibling does not really occur to you. In those carefree, no need to worry years, you are pretty much just going about your daily life, not knowing what kind of success you are achieving or even what you have to go up against. As you get older, moving up from grade level to grade level, you slowly start to understand the concept as to how difficult having an older sibling and trying to be just like them so you do not disappoint your parents, can be. Many people may have other opinions and perspectives on this, but overall according to my story, I can say that being the younger sibling and always being in the shadow of your older sibling is not always the easiest role to play.

            Three years apart; there was not a really big age gap in between. For years and years, I was always trapped in the shadow of my older brother. My brother was the student-athlete type. He always averaged around at least a 3.4-3.6 GPA for each quarter throughout his middle school years and a 3.6-3.8 GPA in his high school years. I cannot recall a time where he ever had a GPA lower than a 3.3. He was the “greater than average” type of student. Taking Pre-Algebra as a 7^th grader, then being pushed up to Algebra in the 8^th grade and never scoring lower than a B, and also balancing out all the extra curricular activities he participated in along with that. His extra curricular activities such as baseball, basketball, tackle and flag football, chorus, etc. My older brother was always so on top of everything. Along with that, as he was approaching his high school career, he was fortunate enough to get into Kamehameha Schools Kapalama as a freshman. Being the all around student-athlete that he was, he did so many great things throughout his four years at Kamehameha. There was him… and then there was me.

As he was a freshman, I was in the 6^th grade, and as he was a sophomore, I was in the 7^th grade. In all my elementary and middle schools years, even though we would fuss and fight, at the end of the day, I was always so excited to come home knowing that I had an older brother that I could be that supportive little sister for. However, as I approached my 8^th grade year, as I started getting more serious about my athletic career as a volleyball player, once in a while, I could feel my states of mind slowly changing. By that I mean that because both and my brother and I were starting to take our athletic careers much more serious, I started to feel as if I was in competition with him as to see who can make mom and dad prouder.

As an 8^th grader, my brother was in his third year of high school. He was a junior at this time. Junior year for him was a pretty big deal. His priorities revolved around college and football. My brother was always the one to make all the achievements in the family. He was very intelligent, very wise, very athletic. He could play pretty much anything and he wouldn’t even have to try hard. It was like he did everything right, like he never made any mistakes. Whereas me, it felt like I was the complete opposite.

My grades were not always the best, I will admit that. My highest GPA within middle school and high school, from 8^th grade to my sophomore year, would probably be a 3.6, but that was one time. And that was my highest. My average cumulative GPA as of my sophomore year was at least a 3.3. I got distracted fairly easily; I had what my dad liked to refer to as a “scatter brain” because I could not keep my mind set on just one thing at a time. Unlike my brother who barely ever had a hard time in majority of his core classes, I struggled a lot with my Science and English common core classes and as the stubborn teenager that I was, I did not always make the right choices and the wisest decisions either. I was never the best student, nor the “perfect” daughter that my parents wanted. At least that is how I felt. I was always second best.

I could understand if my parents would give my brother the extra treatment because he was the older one and because he was the more obedient one, and also because his high school career would soon be coming to an end, but it got to the point where I felt worthless and I just gave up on trying to make them proud. Every time I made an achievement in school, every time I was happy with myself for feeling like I finally did something right, it was barely ever acknowledged. If it was, it would be acknowledged for maybe a few minutes, and then my parents would either change the subject to something my brother did, connect it back to him in some way, or make it seem like they had no interest in what I had to say, so I just gave up. I tried really hard not to let all that get to me. I just went about my ways and about my own life. I stopped sharing with them what I was up to, how I was doing in school, the kinds of projects I had going on, the types of roles I played in school, the things that might have been bothering me, the other future achievements I made, etc. I felt as if I was nothing but a disappointment to my family.
Just like how my brother played football, basketball, and volleyball for his school, I was a volleyball player for mine. I played school volleyball and club volleyball. As of my sophomore year, I would have been playing volleyball for a total of nine years. There is nothing that I have more passion and love for than volleyball. I loved the hype in the game, the competition. I loved the challenges that I went through which made me the player that I am today. Volleyball was my escape from everything in my outside life. All the problems, all the heartache, everything else other people had to say about me, and so on. It was my escape. I loved the lessons that came from stepping on that court and putting my effort into a team. I was always a team player, but at the end of the day, I was not playing to make anyone else proud, but myself. I was playing to challenge myself to be better than I think because it was the only thing that I felt I was really good at.

"COMING OF AGE" Final

 "It will get better, don't worry too much!" I would constantly tell myself. "It is nothing but a tiny sprain or twist. Nothing is torn, you'll be fine! You'll be back on that court in no time!" 

   I was always known to be the clumsy one on the team. I was always known as the clumsy one on and off the court. Just going about my daily life, I was always the clumsy one. I would trip over my own shoes, I would spill things all over the place, I would get so many sprains, twists, even fractures in my body. Majority of the amount of sprains and twists were from giving my all into the sport that I love.
   I got so many injuries from the very sport that I loved. I lived for volleyball. Volleyball was what my life revolved around. Infact, I can actually say that my life was on that court. Without volleyball, I would be so lost. There is no where else where I felt the most comfort and freedom in my entire life. I say this now because I did not realize my love and passion for the sport till what I thought was just another sprain or strain, turned into a wake up call for me.

   When in the very times of doubt, everyone should understand that things might be a bit easier to deal with when you keep your attitude and your mindset positive.  However, tearing any kind of ligament that is needed to play as a very important supporting role in your everyday life is not always the best thing to have to deal with ever in your life. And it's hard to stay positive about that. It's very difficult to cope with, believe it or not.

   Through tears and pain, and doubt and fear, constantly trying to remind myself, "It will get better Skye, don't worry, you'll be okay!" soon turned into, "I don't really know anymore... I really don't."

   Having it being your ninth year playing a sport that you really do love and the fact that this certain sport has become a huge part of you over the years, you would not want to get caught in a situation that either stops or slows down your streak after all the hard work and dedication you put in. For most hardcore and rather serious athletes, they are all pretty much injury prone. Whether it be a big injury or a small one, no matter how much they work out to make sure they are fit enough to not get hurt, no matter how careful they are, no matter how much extra supporting accessories they use to keep them from getting hurt, once or twice in their athletic career, they are bound to get some kind of injury eventually. 
   When I started to get serious about my volleyball career, I eventually always got injured while I played. , April 18, 2013      
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of Mice and Men Photoshop

WHO I AM (Metaphor Poem Draft)

I am a book.
Sometimes hard to understand,
Hard to figure out,
Hard to analyze, 
Difficult to open up, thinking,
"What's so interesting about that?"
But I have a story.

A story unknown,
A moral unrecognized until the end,
And guess what?
Rarely ever does the end get reached.
A message hidden and only uncovered if
You're willing to read between the lines.
A piece of simplicity obscured by the vail of words here,
Words there,
Words everywhere.
A piece of simplicity that rarely does anyone
Ever give a chance.
A chance to see who I really am
And what I'm really made of.
A chance to understand me.
My story.
but no.

Rarely ever does anyone flip open the cover
To actually understand.
Just from the synopsis on the back cover,
Everyone thinks they know the story completely.
So they go ahead
and judge. 
Criticize.
Scrutinize.
And sadly,
they will never know.