Wai'anae thankful for LCC campus
By James Gonser
Advertiser Leeward Bureau
WAI'ANAE — After raising her family, Helen Bred decided to go back to school and get her high school diploma. As proud as she is of that accomplishment, Bred is not stopping there and now wants a college degree. At 60 years old, she has entered Leeward Community College-Wai'anae as its oldest freshman.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
"Helen is struggling, but she is not giving up. She will make it," said school coordinator Dean Garrett. "Usually the only ones that are not successful are the ones that give up."
Janet Coelho, center, teaches an English reading and writing class at Leeward Community College's Wai'anae branch. Of the school's 250 students, about 75 percent are women.
Now a great-grandmother, Bred hopes to earn her associate's degree at Wai'anae and go on to earn a bachelor's degree. She would like to set an example for young people on the coast and find a job.
"If this school was not here, I couldn't go," Bred said. "I wish they had more variety, but I'm thankful we have this school."
Leeward Community College at Wai'anae is the only public higher education facility along the coast. It offers a full range of liberal arts courses as well as business, teaching and nursing programs from its busy second-floor campus near Wai'anae Mall. The main Leeward Community College campus is in Pearl City.
"Most people don't think that going 25 or 30 miles to school is prohibitive," Garrett said. "But for some people who don't have transportation or are single parents, having a facility out here where they can at least enter into higher education is important."
Linda Miguel, education director of the Wai'anae Health Academy at LCC, said the Leeward Coast is geographically and academically isolated, and there are many socioeconomic barriers for students to overcome.
"Making it through a program and earning a certificate is a major event out here," Miguel said. "The hardest step for many is walking through the door for the first time."
Most of the 250 students at the college branch, O'ahu's smallest, are "adult learners," Garrett said. About 75 percent are women and more than 50 percent are Hawaiian or part Hawaiian.
With a limited library, small computer lab and only basic educational tools, the school will offer 40 core courses in the fall, working with a staff of about 20 teachers.
The college branch has been operating for almost 20 years on the coast, moving from offices in the satellite city hall to a converted warehouse to its present location 10 years ago.
Since the health academy opened in 1992, more than 700 students have graduated from the nursing assistant, health aide, community health and medical assisting vocational programs, Miguel said.
The health academy works in conjunction with Kapi'olani Community College and the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, and 62 percent of its graduates are employed in their field and 24 percent are continuing their education, Miguel said.
Health academy students are mostly women with an average age of 32 1/2, eight years older than the average in the state college system. Many choose the health profession after taking care of sick relatives, Miguel said.
The college also offers the Ka Lama O Ke Kaiaula Education Academy, which opened in 1998.
The program is designed to improve education on the Leeward Coast by recruiting and training elementary school teachers from the area who will then teach in local schools.
The low number of resident teachers has contributed to a high teacher turnover rate, an absence of role models in the community and less cultural understanding between teachers and their students, parents and the community, said Larrilynn Holu-Tamashiro, the academy's community counselor and coordinator.
The students earn associate's degrees in Wai'anae and then move on to education programs at the University of Hawai'i. Six students are on track to earn degrees at UH-Manoa next May, and two will graduate from UH-West O'ahu. All are expected to seek teaching positions in Wai'anae schools.
"Out here, people really appreciate the chance to take college courses," Garrett said. "Many deal with issues of low self-esteem, family abuse, drug use and poverty. They are trying. They are really trying. It is very gratifying."
