Award honors earning, learning

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

KAHUKU — A spirit of entrepreneurship has taken root in this rural Windward community, and now a $25,000 award to the Ko'olauloa Education Alliance Corp. will help it grow.

"(The foundation) said we were doing things that Harry Weinberg would have liked," said Long, who thought that organizations that feed the hungry or cared for invalids would get the honor.

"He loved entrepreneurship. He loved to see people learning to make it on their own."

And that is what the alliance has done by creating Kahuku.org, an online shop and school store specializing in Kahuku school products. The operation earned more than $60,000 in its first months of operation, an unusual accomplishment for a school Web site. Students run the Web site and store, learning marketing, financing, buying and Web management along the way. Profits from the business are split between the school and the organization, which uses its share to continue its educational programs, Long said.

The association plans to build on its success by using part of the Weinberg award to help young entrepreneurs start their own businesses. The money will be used to create a revolving investment fund that students can tap into to start a business. Once a business is successful, it will pay back into the revolving fund, Long said.

The Weinberg money is the second significant award for the alliance in recent months. The James & Abigail Campbell Foundation gave a $50,000 grant to the organization this year to support further development of the entrepreneurship program at Kahuku.

The Web site is the allinace's major project. But it also has been instrumental in the area's School-to-Work program, and now the Step Ahead project, a federally funded program intended to help prepare disadvantaged youths for the work force or college.

Part of the Weinberg award will be used to support Step Ahead at Kahuku and later Waialua High School, she said.

As part of Step Ahead at Kahuku High, Sarah Mitson, 17, is learning to operate a business; Theo Leiataua, 16, is putting his computer skills to work; and Andrew Thompson has discovered his talent in journalism. They earn a wage as they learn.

The students must attend job skills class and learn such things as interviewing techniques, how to fill out job applications and dress for an interview. The students are then paired with businesses that "hire" them for six to eight weeks, a cost that is paid by the alliance, then reimbursed by the government.

"The idea is if they do well the employer picks them up," Long said.

But reimbursement lags behind the actual payment to students, so the alliance will use some of the recent award to create another fund to pay the salaries. Then when government pays, the fund will be reimbursed, she said.

Students say they have gained a lot from the program, including how to deal with people, patience and responsibility.

"The most valuable thing we learn is teamwork," said Leiataua. "It's surprising how much it takes to run a businesses."

The Ko'olauloa Education Alliance has bigger dreams, too, and hopes to someday develop a cottage industry on the Kahuku campus or in the community where students can be employed to make components for other businesses or come up with their own ideas, Long said.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.