Kamehameha Schools launches preschool scholarships
Advertiser Staff
Kamehameha Schools this week launched a new scholarship program to encourage Native Hawaiian parents to enroll their children in preschool.
Pauahi Keiki Scholars will allow the estate to expand its reach by using nonprofit schools outside the Kamehameha Schools system.
There are an estimated 6,000 4-year-olds of Native Hawaiian ancestry in the state. Kamehameha-run preschools currently reach 1,254 students at 31 sites statewide.
The new scholarship program should add at least 115 students to that number, the estate believes.
To be eligible for the program, applicants must be:
- Of Hawaiian ancestry.
- A Hawai'i resident.
- In financial need.
- Accepted into an approved preschool program.
- 4 years old by Dec. 31 of the year of the award.
To maintain the scholarship, parents must:
- Make sure their children have at least 85 percent attendance.
- Attend all scheduled parent conferences.
- Participate in at least one parent workshop.
- Do at least three hours of volunteer work at the preschool each quarter.
- Attend a financial aid orientation workshop.
Kamehameha Schools will announce a schedule of workshops soon on how to apply.
For more information, parents and preschool providers can call 842-8216 or send an e-mail to finaid@ksbe.edu. From the Neighbor Islands, call (800) 842-4682, ext. 8216 or 8217.
Kamehameha Schools, a multibillion-dollar trust, was created in 1884 by the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha I, and tasked with educating children of Hawaiian ancestry.
Kamehameha preschools is already the state's second-largest provider of preschool services, after Head Start. The trust plans to expand to reach 11,000 children within five years and all 30,000 Native Hawaiian children in 15 years.
