Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Portfolio

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Candidate Background 2

Star-Advertiser staff

Mililani High School gar-nered the most awards amongthe state’s public and privateschools that submitted en-tries for the 45th annualHawaii High School Journal-ism Awards.

“I’m just blown away,” saidApril-Joy McCann, editor inchief of the Trojan Times. “Weput a lot of hard work intowhat we do as a publication.”

The annual awards cere-mony and luncheon were heldWednesday at the Pagoda Ho-tel to recognize Hawaii’s highschools that excelled in jour-nalism. Nineteen schools par-ticipated in two divisions:print and online. Seven wereprivate schools and 12 werepublic schools.

The contest was sponsored

by the Hawaii Publishers As-sociation, the Hono lulu Star-Advertiser and MidWeek.

Mililani High took home 18awards, including first placefor best in state in the print di-vision. The school won thesame award four years ago.

“We take a lot of pride inour work that we put out forthe print division. So comingaway with best in state was anamazing feeling,” McCann, 18,said after the ceremony.

Hawaii Baptist Academywon 14 awards, including state

winner for best website in theonline division. Eunice Sim, ad-viser for the private school’snewspaper and website, EagleEye, said this is HBA’s first yearto have a website.

“I’m really proud of whatthey’ve done,” she said.

“They’ve done really goodwork and are really motivated.They are deserving of theawards.”

The staff of four students atKamehameha Schools Mauiwon 14 awards. Among theschools’ accolades includefirst place for Best in State inthe online division and statewinner for best multimediapresentation for its website,Ka Leo o Na Koa.

Editor Jaylin Kekiwi, 17,said, “It’s pretty exciting, be-cause we honestly didn’tthink we would win much, letalone that much. So it’s great.”

Adviser Kye Haina said sheis proud of her students.

“We really focused on online,” she said. “It’s nice tobe rewarded and recognizedeven though we faced chal-lenges this year.”

B4 >> H O N O L U L U S TA R - A D V E R T I S E R T H U R S DAY 4 / 2 4 / 1 4 >> LOCAL

Mililani High journalistsearn raft of state awards

CandaceCheungEDITOR IN CHIEF

MOANALUA

CandaceHannemanEDITOR IN CHIEF

LAHAINALUNA

CaraPhillipsEDITOR

WAIPAHU

ChaylaNakamotoEDITOR IN CHIEF

KAMEHAMEHA

CourtneyOrtegaEDITOR IN CHIEF

RADFORD

KelaPereiraEDITOR IN CHIEF

MISSION ACADEMY

KennethGoEDITOR IN CHIEF

DAMIEN

Kristen KateTumacderWEBMASTER

SACRED HEARTS

LaurenBarbourONLINE EDITOR

MILILANI

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / [email protected]

Mililani High was named the Best in State inthe print division at the Hawaii High SchoolJournalism Awards ceremony Wednesday atthe Pagoda Hotel. Pictured are adviserChristopher Sato, left, online editor Lauren

Barbour, editor in chief April-Joy McCann andmanaging editor Reagan Paz.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / [email protected]

Kamehameha Schools Maui took the Best inState in the online division. Pictured arejournalism adviser Kye Haina, left, and edi-tor in chief Jaylin Kekiwi.

PRINT PUBLIC SCHOOL PRIVATE SCHOOL STATE WINNER

NEWS WRITING Mililani Kamehameha MililaniFEATURE WRITING Waipahu Hawaii Baptist Hawaii BaptistSPORTS WRITING Lahainaluna Hawaii Baptist Hawaii BaptistEDITORIAL WRITING Kaiser Kamehameha Maui KaiserLAYOUT & DESIGN Mililani Hawaii Baptist Hawaii BaptistPHOTOGRAPHY Mililani Mission Academy Mission AcademyILLUSTRATION Mililani Kamehameha Maui Kamehameha MauiEDITORIAL CARTOON Kaiser Kamehameha KamehamehaBEST SINGLE ISSUE Mililani ‘Iolani Mililani

ONLINE PUBLIC SCHOOL PRIVATE SCHOOL STATE WINNER

NEWS WRITING Mililani Kamehameha Maui Kamehameha MauiFEATURE WRITING Radford Hawaii Baptist Hawaii BaptistSPORTS WRITING Mililani Kamehameha Maui MililaniEDITORIAL WRITING Radford Kamehameha Maui Kamehameha MauiPHOTOGRAPHY Mililani Kamehameha Maui MililaniEDITORIAL CARTOON Mililani ‘Iolani ‘IolaniILLUSTRATION Mililani Kamehameha Maui Kamehameha MauiBEST VIDEO Radford Hawaii Baptist Hawaii BaptistBEST MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION Mililani Kamehameha Maui Kamehameha MauiBEST WEBSITE Mililani Hawaii Baptist Hawaii Baptist

BEST IN STATE

PRINT1. Mililani

2. Kamehameha3. Hawaii Baptist

BEST IN STATE

ONLINE1. Kamehameha Maui

2. Mililani3. Hawaii Baptist

MaileSurSTAFF WRITER

KAMEHAMEHA MAUI

Matthew BeattieCallahanEDITOR IN CHIEF

‘IOLANI

SeanGleasonCO-EDITOR

MCKINLEY

TianzhenNieCO-EDITOR

KAISER

WaldenButaySTAFF WRITER & PHOTOGRAPHER

HAWAII BAPTIST

AlyssaVolivarEDITOR IN CHIEF

KAMEHAMEHA HAWAII

AsiaMadayagEDITOR

LEILEHUA

BaileyBarnesREPORTER

NANAKULI

BriannaRamosCO-EDITOR

CAMPBELL

2 0 1 4 H I G H S C H O O L J O U R N A L I S M

AND THE WINNERS ARE…… in individual print and online categories as selected by a panel of judges. Another panel then picked the state winner.

MOST VALUABLE STAFFERSSelected by the staff and adviser of each school newspaper.

My name is Maile Sur and I am a senior at Kamehameha Schools Maui. In the photos above you can see that I have made journalism my life. From interviews to videos, stories and more, journalism is the center of my world. To the right you can see me as the Most Valuable Staffer for Kamehameha Schools Maui in the Ho-nolulu Star-Advertiser. I was voted in as a first-year staffer.

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Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Table of Contents 3

4 NEWS GATHERING

9 WRITING

20 EDITING

24 DESIGN

32 MULTIMEDIA BROADCAST

35 PHOTO- JOURNALISM

40 WEB

43 LAW AND ETHICS

47 LEADERSHIP AND TEAM BUILDING

50 NEWS LITERACY

55 ENTREPRENEURSHIP

57 WORK FOR OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Table of Contents

All divider photos were taken by me as a showcase of my photography skills.

NEWS GATHERING

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award News Gathering 5

As the amount of technol-ogy continues to rise rapid-ly, the ages of its users gets lower. New technology is embedding itself in the lives of even the youngest gener-ation.

Move over traditional toys, like basketballs and puzzles, and bring on the more modern “cool” stuff.

According to elementary school students at Kame-hameha Schools Maui, that would be iPads, cellphones, and Kindles.

That wasn’t the only thing they said. For some, the an-swers were slightly different.

“I already have those things!” second grader Al-yssa Mateo said, referring to having an iPad and a cell-phone.

Among American chil-dren 0 to 8 years old, 75% have access to some type of mobile device at home, according to Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America, a 2013 study con-ducted by Common Sense Media Research. This study surveyed 1,436 parents of children ages 8 and under.

These Millennials have easy accessibility to technol-ogies that were previously considered luxury or unnec-essary gadgets to genera-tions before.

With the large amount of technology in their homes, it’s no wonder that kids are more interested and think technology is cooler than other traditional toys, and Apple products are at the forefront of the trend.

The Nielsen Company re-ported that iPads, iPods, and iPhones were the first, sec-ond, and third-most wanted items atop children’s Christ-mas wish lists in November 2011. Fourth on the list were computers, which also in-cludes Apple products.

But, the undeniable champion of cool technolo-gy overall is cellphones.

Though the original pur-pose of cellphones was pure-ly for communication, their development into smart-phones has made kids now want them for fun.

Flappy Bird, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and other apps and social media sites were on the “what’s cool” list for KS Maui elementary students.

Many debate the wisdom of giving cellphones and smartphones to children so young.

Time For Kids reports that 12 is the magic age, though 13% of kids ages 6 to 10 already have one, according to a survey by YouthBeat, a youth market report compa-ny of C & R Research.

Nearly half of 144 el-ementary school students surveyed at Kamehameha Schools Maui said they have a cellphone, and of those, 34% said they got their first phone at the age of 7.

“That’s pretty crazy,” ju-nior Chanel Browne said. “Though, times are different now, so kids having cell-phones isn’t that surprising.”

Teens are finding that they’re less surprised that

the stuff that interests teens also interests younger broth-ers and sisters.

Second graders Hanale Kauhaʻahaʻa and Kaleikau-maka Roback, along with first-grader Errol Shee-han, play with toys at the Kamehameha Schools After School Program. They find that toys are “what’s cool.”

But the future isn’t all LED’s and microchips.

One group of boys on re-cess had a different answer to my survey.

“Kids need to get off of electronics and go outside,” third-grader Cade Cagasan said.

When he and his pals were asked what was cool, their answers were soccer, sports and “anything out-doors.”

As things are clearly changing in the world of teens and adults, its easy to see that they’re changing for kids, too.

At the same time, it’s nice to see that some students are still living real life on the playground.

Published March 17, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org

NEWS GATHERING

Our entire staff, com-posed of four people, cre-ated an in-depth media report on the Web turn-ing 25. This piece shows my ability to conduct good interviews, as well as research and reference different studies, such as the one by the Nielsen Company and Common Sense Media Research.

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Technology for toysKids are swapping dolls and dinosaurs for smartphones and tablets

Hawaiʻi born and raised, Matt Kazuma Kinoshita has been surfing for over 30 years. He was previously a professional surfer, earning the title of United States Surfing Champion in 1996. Today, when not fighting fires with the Pā’ia Fire De-partment, he has his own surfboard brand and shapes boards for some of the top surfers in the world, includ-ing Dusty Payne, Ian Walsh, and even Kamehameha Maui’s own, Imaikalani DeVault.

Kinoshita learned the art of shaping from Ben Aipa, a legendary shaper and coach. Aipa was his surf coach when Kinoshita was on the Hawai’i Surf Team.

When Kinoshita became a surf coach himself, he saw kids who didn’t have the most essential piece of equipment — a board — on a daily basis, so he said he decided he would build them boards.

When he was starting out, Kinoshita worked along-side Roger Anderson, who shaped for Gerry Lopez, winner of the Pipeline Mas-ters competition in 1972 and 1973, which, since then, has been renamed the Gerry Lo-pez Pipeline Masters. He also worked with Hawai-ian Island Creations shap-ing boards and sold boards through Hi-Tech Surf Sports.

Later, in 1989, the doors of Kazuma Surfboards Hawaiʻi were ready to be opened. By then, his skill and reputation had grown, and Kinoshita’s

“magic” boards were ready to be sold in stores.

So, what is a magic board?On a humid afternoon

earlier this month, I paid a visit to the Kazuma Surf-board shop in Hāʻiku to get the scoop. The board factory, which is located in the same building as the showroom, has windows that allow you to see the magic being made.

In a tiny showroom with boards, pictures and post-ers pasted on the walls, the do-it-all Kazuma Surfboard sales and showroom manag-er, Todd Bernardy, told me all about the board that de-livers.

“All Kazuma boards are magic. A magic board just works, works for you ev-ery time, and it wont let you down,” he said. “I think that’s why Matt [Kinoshita] calls his performance short-board the Milkman — be-cause it always delivers.”

And it obviously must. With sales of between 30,000-50,000 boards with-in the past 28 years, Kazuma surfboards are not your aver-age board.

In addition to offering ready-made boards, Kazu-ma Surfboards is also well known for its custom surf-boards. Kinoshita adjust dif-ferent elements of the board to personalize it to a surfer’s style. Whether you need a board that helps with your cutbacks or airs, Kinoshita knows how to make simple changes to make the board perform the best it can. The coolest part about customiz-

ing a board is that you get to see your board being made from the factory showroom.

Kazuma surfboards go through a 3-5 day process, including everything from shaping to laminating to sanding. It all starts with a blank.

Kinoshita has two CNC, or Computer Numerical Control, machines that he uses to create a comput-er-aided file that cuts the blank into the raw shape. Af-ter a final shaping to smooth it out, he brings the blank to the factory to get fiber-glassed, a 2-day process.

Then, a hot coat of resin and styrene wax is added to make the board water-tight and sand-able. After a final sanding down, it’s good to go.

But this isn’t a walk in the park. This is some danger-ous stuff.

During the shaping pro-cess, inhaling the Methy-lene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) and Toluene diisocy-anate (TDI) dust particles in the foam, can cause asthma and other long-term health consequences. Because of this danger, Kinoshita and the factory employees wear re-breathers and eye protec-tion.

The factory employees also wear gloves for pro-tection from the volatile chemicals in the resin that can cause skin irritation and bleeding in the lungs. Some-times they even tape the gloves so that resin doesn’t get in.

Published August 29, 2014, at Nā Koa.

NEWS GATHERING

When working on my first issue of Nā Koa, I wanted to capture the magic of what happens behind the scenes of a surf shop. I visited the showroom several times to understand the process on how a “magic board” is made. This piece shows my persistence with get-ting all the details right.

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Kazuma: Not Your Average BoardMatt Kinoshita’s line of quality boards brings the “magic” to surfers and the best surf spots around the world


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But, all the work is worth it to produce a wide array of quality surf products. Ka-zuma Surfboards Hawaiʻi doesn’t just sell surfboards. After Kinoshita teamed up with businessman Stefano Maffini 5 to 7 years ago, the company moved into prod-ucts for other watersports, like stand-up paddling and kiteboarding. They have also made connections to sell Ka-zuma products in other parts of the world, such as Brazil, Japan, Europe, and Israel.

KS Maui’s Imaikalani DeVault has been a Kazuma Surfboards Hawaiʻi rider for a long time, but it wasn’t un-til 2009 that Kinoshita asked

DeVault to become a Kazu-ma Surboards team rider. This meant benefits.

Not only do team riders usually get free boards, but they’re also custom-made. DeVault’s boards, Bernardy said, are “usually Milkmen or Oama’s, 18 inches wide, usually between 2.18 and 2.25 inches thick, and they vary in length between 5’8” and 6’8”.”

Team riders get about 10 to 15 boards a year, but once they’re either done or over a board, they bring it back to the factory and trade it in for a new one. The old one gets sold as used in the show-room. Some boards, howev-

er, are worthy of showcas-ing.

In the showroom, there are many photos and items on display that show off the accomplishments of Kazu-ma Surfboards’ riders.

Ian Walsh’s Jaws tow board is on display above the door to the office next to megawave surfer Matt Meola’s shortboard. After DeVault’s recent National Scholastic Surfing Asso-ciation Championship win in California this summer, his board is currently in the showroom and awaiting its time to be put on the wall.

“They’re part of the fabric of the company,” Bernardy

said. Kazuma Surfboards Ha-

wai’i is located in Hāʻiku, Maui, at 375 West Kuiaha Road and is open Mon-day-Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Boards range in price from around $445 for a shortboard to almost $2,000 for a stand-up paddle board. They also sell accessories like fins, leashes, wax, and Kazuma t-shirts.

If you’re passing through Hāʻiku, be sure to stop by to see the birth of some genu-ine surf magic.

Submitted to decide-todrive.org on November 22, 2013, for their maga-zine contest.

NEWS GATHERING

We were sitting in the hot sun on the corner of one of the busier inter-sections on Maui; count-ing every distracted driv-er we could see. It was a long day, but the final graphic worked.

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Unless you’ve been off is-land for the past two months, you can’t have escaped all the talk about GMO’s, or ge-netically engineered organ-isms.

Even on the mainland, major news outlets like U. S. News & World Report and ABC News have picked up the story. But, here on Maui, it’s all too real, and voters will soon be deciding the issue. As the election draws near, some residents are wondering what it all means. Basically, an initiative to place a moratorium — or stop order — on farming of genetically engineered or-ganisms has been put on the November 4 general election ballot. The ballot questions reads as follows:

“Should the proposed ini-tiative prohibiting the cul-tivation or reproduction of genetically engineered or-ganisms within the County of Maui, which may be amend-ed or repealed as to a spe-cific person or entity when required environmental and public health impact studies, public hearings, a two thirds vote and a determination by the County Council that such operation or practice meets certain standards, and which establishes civil and crimi-nal penalties, be adopted for Maui County?”

Say, what? Let’s break it down.

In the Maui County Pro-posed Amendments to the Revised Charter of the County of Maui Public No-tice, Section 1 states, “In Maui County, GE (Genetic Engineering) Operations and Practices include the cul-

tivation of GE seed crops, experimental GE test crops, and extensive pesticide use including the testing of ex-perimental Pesticides and their combinations in what is effectively an outdoor labo-ratory.”

In other words, the initia-tive is calling for a suspen-sion of all GE operations and practices until those practic-es can be proven safe for not only the residents of Maui County, but also the ecolo-gy as well. The initiative is requiring that those farmers who engage in GE research, planting, and cultivation get an Environmental Public Health Impact Statement that would later be reviewed by the County Council for ap-proval. The State of Hawaiʻi Department of Health Office of Environmental Quality Control website states that the purpose of the chapter is to “help stimulate, expand and coordinate efforts to maintain the optimum qual-ity of the State’s environ-ment.”

The purpose of an En-vironmental Public Health Impact Statement, according to the Department of Health Administrative Rules web-site, is to ensure that “all environmental concerns are given appropriate consid-eration in decision making along with economic and technical considerations.”

Once the Impact State-ment is reviewed by the County Council, the public will be invited to attend pub-lic hearings on whether or not genetically engineered organisms meet health and safety standards. Then, a lift-

ing of the moratorium would be put to a vote in Maui County, and two-thirds of the voters would need to ap-prove it in order to re-allow GE organisms.

Violators would be sub-ject to both civil and crim-inal penalties. Section 9 of the Maui County Proposed Amendments to the Revised Charter of the County of Maui Public Notice entitled, “Right of Action for Vio-lations – Attorneys’ Fees,” states that the Department of Environmental Manage-ment “may bring an action in a court of competent juris-diction to enjoin any person or entity from violating this chapter.”

Simply put, if one does not pass the review of the Environmental Public Health Impact Statement by the County Council, one could face civil monetary penalties in amounts of $10,000.00 for a first violation, $25,000.00 for a second violation, or $50,000.00 for a third vio-lation. On top of monetary penalties, one could face jail time.

The wording of the initia-tive is not the only thing that is confusing voters. Some residents aren’t sure which box to check on the ballot.

To clarify, voting “yes” on the ballot would mean you are in agreement with the initiative and want to put a temporary moratorium on genetically engineered or-ganisms. Voting “no” on the ballot means that you are in disagreement with the initia-tive and want to allow con-tinued development of genet-ically engineered organisms

GMO initiative on November ballot begs clarification

Published October 28, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org

NEWS GATHERING

Another journalist and I covered the debate over GMO’s that was occurring on Maui. It was a hot top-ic, so I had to make sure that I stayed unbiased in this piece. The article is vital in my portfolio because it is one of my more researched-based pieces that shows my ver-satility.

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WRITING

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Writing 10

For a 16-year-old, he’s probably been to more countries than the average teen. Actually, he has been to more countries than the average teen, ranging from Bali, to Japan, to Tahiti, to Ecuador, Imaikalani Mark Patrick DeVault has surfed some pretty nice internation-al waves.

Though he is still at a young age, DeVault, “Imai” to his friends, has created quite a name for himself. Though he seems like any typical senior at Kamehame-ha Schools Maui in Pukala-ni, DeVault has seen a life filled with daily trips to the beach, extended vacations due to good swells, and a passport filled with stamps from countries all over the world.

DeVault grew up all over Maui, but likes to call the North Shore home. He surfs all over the islands, but said that his home break is Ho’okipa Beach Park.

DeVault is the second oldest of four, his siblings all being girls. His younger sis-ters, Kawai (15) and Lehiwa (12), used to surf competi-tively as well, but found oth-er interests over the years. They still surf as a family, however, with their father, Patrick DeVault.

Like many profession-al athletes, DeVault started surfing at the young age of 4. Shortly after, he was already testing the waters in compe-titions.

“The first contest I did…was the Keiki contest at the Cove in Kīhei,” DeVault

said. “I was really scared to do it, but my dad told me that if I did, he’d buy me my first custom surfboard. So I did it and lost in my first heat.”

Classmate Tyra Kuia re-members seeing DeVault on the first day of the sixth grade with his sweeping sun-bleached bangs, golden tan and laid-back style. She thought to herself, “He looks like a surfer….” Little did she know, he was going to be one of the best surfers of our generation.

DeVault continued to practice and compete over the years, surfing in contests like the Hard Rock Café State Surfing Champion-ships and the National Scho-lastic Surfing Association Championships, and placing mostly in the top four. At the 2008 NSSA Championships in San Clemente, Calif., however, DeVault placed second in the mini-groms division, his first break into the top three, and in 2011, DeVault won the Hawaiʻi State Surfing Competition. So far this year, DeVault has won his best awards to date.

In April, he took home team gold when he went with the Hawaiʻi Junior Surf Team to the shores of Ecuador for the International Surfing Association World Junior Championship. Teams from all over the world, including France, Brazil and Australia, were there to claim the title of World Champion.

Individually, DeVault placed 4th and won a copper medal in the Boys Under-18 division against Peru’s Luc-

ca Mesina and Brazil’s Elivelton Santos and Luan Wood.

A few months later, DeVault got the call every surfer dreams of. Surf pho-tographer Seth de Roulet asked him if he wanted travel to Indonesia with the Moniz brothers, Noa Mizuno, Benji Brand and Kaulana Apo to be shot for Surfing Maga-zine. Without hesitation, he said, “Yes.” So, DeVault and the rest of the crew spent two weeks on a boat surfing the Mentawai Islands.

“We’re going to be in a surf movie,” he said, “and in Surfing Magazine’s next is-sue we have a whole spread.”

After the shoot, DeVault met up with the Kame-hameha Schools tri-campus Surf Team to compete at the NSSA Championship in Dana Point, Calif. Here, he won his first national ti-tle, the NSSA Open Mens Champion. Not only did he win the title and the medal, but his first-place finish also contributed a ton of points to the overall score.

“It felt really great to fi-nally win a national title,” DeVault said. “I’ve been competing in the NSSA nearly my entire life.”

This was the seventh time that DeVault had competed in the NSSA Interscholastic Championship, but the first time medaling. He was the only representative of KS Maui, but he said he “wasn’t alone out there.”

“Not just one [person pushed me throughout the competition]. The entire

team helped me, and we all got along really well,” he said.

DeVault has compete many times and at many beaches around the world, but most of the time he has compet-ed individually, which he is more comfortable doing. Still, he says that he prefers competing with a team.

Teammate Cayla Moore (17), from the Kapālama campus, also placed first in her division. After placing fourth in the NSSA National Championship twice before, this third time was a charm for Moore. Not only did she win first place in the High School Varsity Girls divi-sion, she also contributed 18 points to the team by win-ning all of her heats.

“Winning the national ti-tle was so amazing…. It’s hard to describe the feeling but I will cherish that feeling for the rest of my life,” she said.

But the competition wasn’t a breeze. Moore faced defending champion, Maddie Peterson (16), who had also placed fourth for Team USA at the world com-petition. Luckily for Moore, she was in her element with many of her fellow team-mates from the Kamehame-ha Kapālama Surf Team.

Also contributing to the win were seniors Charlie Akao and Kealohi Sabate, both in shortboard. With these young superstars, the Kamehameha Surf Team won their first national surf-ing title.

But life isn’t all waves,

Imaikalani DeVault


wax, and winning, DeVault still has to go to school, even if it is less than willingly.

“I wasn’t even supposed to go to high school, I was just supposed to surf and fo-cus on the World Tour,” he said, “but my parents want-ed me to at least get a high school education.”

With the start of senior year, that means completing senior project, submitting college applications, apply-ing for scholarships, and maintaining a good grade point average, and though he

will be joining everyone in the college application pro-cess, DeVault has different plans for the future.

“[After high school I plan] to still compete and make it to the World Tour,” DeVault said. “You have to qualify, so that’s what I’d be doing, and my parents are really supportive of that.”

His mom, Raina DeVault, said, “Imaikalani was fortu-nate enough to find his pas-sion and know exactly what he wanted to do with his life... and he makes sure his

academics are taken care of in order to achieve his true goals. He has full support from myself and his dad, as well as the proper guidance to make the life choices that would best suit him.”

The Association of Surf-ing Professionals World Championship Tour of Surf-ing is an elite competition consisting of the best profes-sional surfers. In total, there are over 400. DeVault is cur-rently at 120 on that list.

If things don’t work out on the competition side, he

wants a career on the cor-porate side of surfing by becoming a coach or a team manager.

With all that he’s accom-plished at 16, who knows what 17 will hold? Imaikala-ni DeVault is a powerhouse surfer who is ready to rip into an even better year of surfing.

“Only a surfer knows the feeling,” he said, trying to explain his love of the sport, “but once you do, it’s the best feeling in the world.”


WRITING

When writing this piece I wanted the reader to be captivated by who Imaikalani DeVault is, and see how incredible of a surfer he is; even at such a young age. I take a lot of pride in this story because it was my first in-depth feature. It was also the opening story for the first issue of the maga-zine Nā Koa that I edited.

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Growing up with a board in hand and the ocean as their playground, these boys don’t know a life without surfing. Travelling the world while getting to do the one thing they love, these groms—kids under 15 who shred waves—are ready for the next level of surfing.

Axel Rosenblad, a 7th grad-er at Kalama Intermediate School in Makawao, Maui, has a passion for surfing like no other. With wins under his belt like 1st place at the National Scholastic Surfing Association Hawai’i in both Explorer Menehune Division and Open Boys Division, he’s got a bright future...after he gets over a little bump in the road, that is.

For Rosenblad, the past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. While doing what he loves best at Ho’oki-pa Beach Park on August 11, 2014, Rosenblad’s femur met a 10-foot longboard on one of the bigger waves.

“I was paddling out and a kooky guy was kind of next to me,” Rosenblad said. “He started paddling in front of me, and I told him to watch out, but when the wave hit, he lost control of his board.”

Rosenblad was surfing with his friend, Ty Simpson and Ty’s little sister. So when the whole accident went down, they were the only ones out there to help him.

“At first it felt like a bruise; it wasn’t that bad,” Rosenblad said. “But once I came up and got air, it imme-diately felt like a lot of pain,

and I could feel my bone.”Simpson helped Rosen-

blad get onto the very long-board that had run Rosen-blad over and paddled him in to shore. There, beachgoers helped and called 911.

On call was Matt Kinoshi-ta, the owner of Kazuma Surfboards.

“It’s scary [getting calls about accidents at Ho’oki-pa] in a way because I know it’s somebody that I know,” Kinoshita said. “I’m always thinking, “Who could it be?’”

But, Kinoshita said he was also glad that he was the one working when they got the call because he knows Rosenblad and thought his presence could comfort him.

After getting to Maui Memorial Medical Center’s emergency room, Rosen-blad was put back in the ambulance and taken to the airport. From there, he was medevaced to Kaiser Per-manente Moanalua Medical Center and Clinic on O’ahu.

The next day, Rosenblad underwent two-and-a-half hours of surgery. The sur-geons inserted a metal plate and six pins to keep the bone straight. After surgery, the pain got worse. Rosenblad said it felt like he “got run over by a car, and the car just stayed there.”

Rosenblad has been on O’ahu with his mom, Jen-nifer, and they don’t quite know when they’ll be able to travel. He has been doing a lot of physical therapy, and as soon as Rosenblad is able

to sit in a chair, they can get on a plane and come back to Maui.

The pain and being laid out on his back for weeks hasn’t changed Rosenblad’s mind about surfing.

“I wouldn’t say I’m scared to go surf,” he said, “but I’m definitely going to be more careful with all the kooks.”

But at least one good thing came out of it — his mother bought him an iPad to help him cope with his physical therapy.

In a post on Facebook she said, “It was brutal. I don’t usually do things like that, but this was an exeption.”

Another grom who is getting a lot of attention is Jackson Bunch, a 5th grader at Doris Todd Academy in Pā’ia, Maui. At the age of 3, Bunch was inspired to begin surfing by his dad, Jack, and two years later, the younger Bunch started competing. His first contest was Ian Walsh’s Menehune May-hem at Ho’okipa Beach Park in Pāʻia, Maui. Since then, however, Bunch has com-peted in many other cmpeti-tions, including the National Scholastic Surfing Champi-onships, the Volcom Harbor Contest, Surfing America USA Championships and the Hawai’i Surfing Association Championships, placing in the top 3 in all of them. This year, Bunch won his best awards to date.

Over the summer, Bunch competed in the NSSA Championships against surf-ers like Jett Schilling, 2013

The next generation of professional surfers is here, and they are already both shaking up and being shaken up by the surf world. It’s

The Grom Life


WRITING

The day that I was sup-posed to photograph Axel Rosenblad for this feature, he broke his fe-mur... Talk about a set back. But we all pushed through to change the angle of his part in the feature, and in the end, I was happy about it.

”

“


West Coast Champion, and Billabong’s Brodi Sale. De-spite the tough competition, Bunch showed well. In the Explorer Super Groms divi-sion, Bunch won first with a score of 16.93 over Sale’s 15.54. Schilling, howev-er, slipped past Bunch with a point difference of 0.04 points.

The win in Hunting-ton Beach, California was Bunch’s greatest accom-plishment.

“I was stoked,” Bunch said.

Most recently though, Bunch competed in the Vol-com Qualifying Series Puff-erfish Surf Series at Lāhaina Harbor, Maui, on August 16, 2014. He won first in the Squids division and got a ton of goodies from Volcom.

Bunch is sponsored by Volcom, along with Dakine, Oakley, Hi-Tech Surf and Sports, Base Wetsuits, Mina-mi Surfboards and Vertra.

“I got the sponsorsorships by just surfing my best,” Bunch said.

Though most kids his age have a lot of other activities that could steal them away from surfing, Bunch says he “never wanted to do any-thing else.” Well, except for boxing that is.

Twice a week Bunch goes to the Alfred “Flako” Bo-teilho Sr. Gymnasium, also known as Pā’ia Gym, and boxes for cross-training.

With such a killer career so far, there’s no saying what’s in store for him next.

His advice for other up-and-coming groms:

“Never give up. Try your best and have fun. Go big.”

Photo courtesy of DOOMA PHOTOSBunch catches some air on his Minami board during a fun surf sesh at Honomanu Bay with friends.

Photo courtesy of AXEL ROSENBLADAxel Rosenblad of Makawao, Maui, shows off his first place trophy at the National Scholastic Surfing Association competition in Dana Point, Calif.


In two hours on one day, Maui students picked up more than 14,000 cigarette butts from Maui beaches, and on the next, they pre-sented them to the county government.

Students came from all over, Sunday, January 12, to get “Butts Off Our Beaches,” in a cigarette butt-oriented beach clean-up, whose pur-pose is to try to ban tobacco from Maui County beaches.

“This actually started as just a little project in my government class, and then it turned into this,” said Gina Marzo, junior at Maui Pre-paratory Academy. Marzo is the student leader of the campaign.

The campaign is a com-bination effort, including Marzo, Maui Peparatory’s Student Activities Coordi-nator Andrew O’Riordan, the Maui District Student Council Organization (MD-SCO), the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawai’i, Oʻahu-based Sustainable Coastlines, the Surfrider Foundation Maui, and Com-munity Work Day/Mālama Maui Nui.

Because of the harmful effects of cigarettes, not only to bodies, but to the environ-ment as well, Maui County students teamed up for this two-day event in hopes of getting the Maui County Council to pass a policy to ban tobacco from beaches.

Mayor Alan Arakawa said, “Cigarette butts are the number one most lit-tered item at our beaches and parks [also, they are] not biodegradable and are toxic to both marine life and the

environment.”The island-wide beach

clean-up went from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Sunday. Stu-dents from all high schools, including Maui Preparato-ry Academy, Kamehameha Schools Maui, St. Anthony, Lāhainaluna, Baldwin, and Maui High Schools, gath-ered at different beaches to participate.

Local smokers enjoying their day at the beach did not seem to have any opposition to a possible ban.

“I hate people who leave their cigarette butts on the beaches,” said Phil, a local smoker who declined to pro-vide a last name. “As long as smokers take care of their butts, it should be fine.”

In addition to picking up butts, students passed out mini, closable ashtrays that smokers could use on the go. They could store their butts in the ashtray, and then throw them away later.

The beaches involved were Sugar Beach, Kahu-lui Harbor, Wai’ehu Beach, Baldwin Beach, Pāʻia Bay, Papalaua Beach Park, Hāna Bay, Big Beach, Ka’ana-pali Beach, Olowalu, and Hanakao’o Beach.

“We’re all a part of one big community,” KS Maui sophomore Pono Pu’u-Rob-inson said. “We all have to do our part and keep it clean. We can’t ruin it now.”

It’s not just the act of smoking that is bugging residents, it is the harmful effects on others from the secondhand smoke, as well as the litter left behind.

According to the Ameri-can Cancer Society, second-

hand smoke contains over 7,000 chemical compounds. Of those, 250 are known to be harmful and 69 are known to cause cancer. Many of these compounds are con-tained in the butts, which come into contact with the sand on the beaches and the hands of curious children.

Dropping a cigarette on the beach is considered lit-tering, which in Hawaiʻi is a petty misdemeanor. That means a fine of $100 or more for just one cigarette butt. Along with that, vio-lators are required to partake in a minimum of four hours of community service, but citations for cigarette butt littering are rare.

Butts off Our Beaches is taking a different approach to the problem by seeking a ban on smoking on Maui’s beaches. No smoking, no smoke, no butts.

Maui is not the first Ha-waiian island to face the is-sue of smoking on beaches.

In 2008, the Big Island took the first step by ban-ning smoking and tobacco use at all county beaches, parks and recreational facil-ities. This past month, O’ahu did the same for Ala Moana Beach Park. The remaining parks are under state juris-diction.

The penalty for a first misdemeanor offense is a $100 fee. It doubles for a second offense in the same year, and each offense after that will cost $500. Police departments on both islands are responsible for enforcing the ban.

Students and members of the campaign came to

Students urge County to get butts off beaches

Published January 21, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org

WRITING

This piece was the first community event I cov-ered. This is one of my better news articles be-cause it highlights my abilities to find stories in the community and write about them. Also, the feedback I received from this piece was supportive and showed me that my work can make a differ-ence.

”

“


the County Administration Building to tally all of the cigarette butts on Monday, Jan. 13, at 3:30 p.m., the sec-ond part of the campaign.

The breakdown of the butts collected were as fol-lows:

Sugar Beach: 2,240Kahului Harbor: 2,527Waiʻehu Beach: 327Baldwin Beach: 2, 633Pāʻia Bay: 145Hāna Bay: 280Big Beach: 222Kaʻanapali Beach: 651Olowalu: 3,160Hanakaoʻo Beach: 1,574In total, 14,130 cigarette

butts were collected from Maui beaches.

Maui County council members came down to see the results. Among them were Councilmen Michael Victorino, Bill Mederios and Joe Fontanilla and repre-sentatives from the Mayor’s office, Mike Molina, Zeke Kalua and John Buck.

“To see young people tak-ing a pro-active approach to first of all, clean our beach-es of the stench of cigarette butts, but more importantly, taking an active role in try-ing to prevent things like this from happening, is fantas-tic,” Victorino said.

Former Councilman Mo-lina read a proclamation from Mayor Alan Araka-wa designating January 13, 2014, as “Butts Off Our Beaches” Day.

The varsity cheerleaders won the state championship for the second year in a row at the 2014 Zippy’s Cheer-leading Championships at the Blaisdell Arena on Sat-urday, November 15. KS Maui placed first in the medium division with a score of 350.75, getting the highest score out of all the teams in both divisions. Besides being the ones to cheer and dance with at sporting events, the varsity cheerleaders are also a threat on the cheer floor. Not only did they win the state competition, they also took the Maui Interscholas-tic League title for the fourth consecutive year. “We focused on staying on top,” senior captain Haliʻa Kekuewa said, “We wanted to prove that we weren’t a

fluke last year, and we didn’t win by luck.” The team competed against schools like Kaiser High School, Moanalua High School, and their sister cam-pus, Kamehameha Schools Kapālama, who placed third, fourth, and fifth. “The first word that comes to mind is proud,” Kekuewa said, “I’m proud of my team for pushing through… we definitely proved who is the best.” Though they placed first at the National Cheerleaders Association Senior and Ju-nior High School National Competition last year, KS Maui will not be attending this year due to an agree-ment last year with adminis-tration that it would not be a yearly trip.

The KSM Warriors with the championship trophy and NCA mascots after the award ceremony at the 2014 NCA National Championships in Dallas, Texas at the Dallas Convention Center. (Photo Courtesy of Mrs. Lokelani Patrick)

Cheerleaders pull of ‘trifecta’; take league, state, national titles

Published January 29, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org

WRITING

Though I didn’t get to go on this trip with the cheerleaders, I was close with them journalistical-ly because I covered their entire journey to the na-tional title. This article was chosen for my port-folio because it shows my versatility with sports writing.

”

“


The KS Maui campus went back to school for the 2014-2015 school year to-day. After all of the morning announcements, students re-ported to class meetings and briefings on one the biggest change: Macs.

For nine years, the KS Maui campus has been mostly an all PC campus, with the exception of Apple products being utilized in some of the arts classes, like Digital Video Production and Music Technology.

However, the sister campuses, Kapālama and Kea’au, had transitioned to Macs a few years ago. The Kapālama campus, in fact, has been an all-Mac campus since the beginning of their one-to-one computer pro-gram.

When serious discus-sions about the possibility of switching began two years ago, high school teachers at-tended presentations by both Dell and Apple representa-tives.

Along with the fact that the rest of the students in the Kamehameha Schools sys-tem are already on the Apple platform, Ms. Kelly Cua, the High School Instructional Technology Specialist, said that a major reason for the change was “preference.”

After the presentations, the majority of teachers said they preferred Apple over Dell, setting in motion the switch.

“One of the main rea-sons why it’s a good thing [we switched to Macs] is with the switch to Macs we

were able to get additional funding for training profes-sional development for the teachers,” Ms. Cua said. “It’s a good opportunity for the teachers to not only have training provided to them but also move forward with more 21st Century integra-tion into their classrooms.”

Though it may be diffi-cult for students to adapt to a new system, Ms. Cua said that there are many benefits to the new system and that “Macs are more geared to-wards education.”

Along with the difficulty of adapting to a new system, students were also troubled by many of the new rules and features that come with the new Macs.

This year each student was given a hard cover case as well as a carrying case to protect their laptops. Unlike in past years, students will not be allowed to buy their own cases or covers, and the cases that are provided must be used at all times to pre-vent damage.

“If [students] are respon-sible in using [the laptops] then we’re not going to have problems,” Mr. Delatori said. “If [students] make bad choices, then [they] get con-sequences from it.”

Another drastic change is that chargers are no lon-ger allowed on campus. The reason behind this was that in previous years, many chargers were lost or stolen, so leaving chargers at home should reduce the amount of those problems. The lap-tops have extended life bat-

teries that should last a stu-dent all day without having to recharge, provided that they bring it to school fully charged in the morning.

One of the new features that surprised many students was that with the Apple IDs and the Macs, teachers are allowed to view any indi-vidual’s computer at any time. Through this program, called LanSchool, teachers and staff can conduct ran-dom laptop checks through-out the year that will moni-tor the websites students are looking at, the apps they are downloading, and whether or not the student is using the computer for strictly ed-ucational purposes.

But LanSchool is not just for looking for contraband. Teachers will also be able to use their own laptops to cut into a student’s laptop and demonstrate how to do things, such as edit a pho-to, solve a problem, or use a program.

Though there are many new changes this year, stu-dents are excited about the new Macs and the new year.

“[The Macs] are nicer and brand-new, and the cases are probably the best part,” ju-nior Quinn Williams said.

As for damages or techni-cal difficulties, students are still able to visit Ms. Fuji-wara in the laptop room.

Aside from the big change to Apple computers, the first day brought other activities as well.

To start off the day, Kahu Kalani Wong led a convoca-tion in which administrators

Published August 4, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org

WRITING

Coming back after a long summer of not writ-ing news pieces, this was my first story of the year. This article allowed me to do in-depth research on campus that gave our student community more knowledge into why we switched to Macs.

”

“

KS Maui transitions to Macs


welcomed the student body back, and this year’s stu-dent body president, Halia Kekuewa, also said a few words.

Midday, a team of stu-dents from the Keaʻau cam-pus shared some presenta-tions about ethical use of technology and use of tech-nology tools, like Google.

After lunch, the day end-ed with presentations by four alumni, who urged stu-dents to take advantage of the opportunities they have and to exemplify this year’s school theme, “E maikaʻi a paʻahana.”

Senior Brandy Takiguchi waits patiently as she creates her Apple ID for her new Mac laptop. All students re-ceived brand new devices through the schoolwide PC to Mac switch this year. Today, August 4, 2014, was the first day of school at KS Maui for the 2014-15 school year.

All students were taken through a tutorial to learn how to create their own Apple IDs as well as learn how the Macs work.


While I was sitting at my morning snack table the oth-er day, a couple of friends and I started talking about whether one needs college to be successful.

The outcome: we agreed to disagree.

In Sociology, we are taught to look at society as a whole, rather than through anecdotal evidence. Anec-dotal evidence would be those times in which some-one would say, “But wait, I know someone who blah, blah, blah.”

While having this discus-sion, many of us could come up with anecdotal evidence that showed we all knew people who were able to make it into a job and earn good money right out of high school; however, look-ing at the statistics, it’s clear to see college is the best way to go.

Sorry, Dad, but I’m out of here!

There has never been a time when I ever even thought about not attending college, and in the U.S., col-lege has become the norm for graduating seniors.

Among my classmates, only a handful are still on the fence about it.

From the class of 2014, 93% of seniors went to col-lege. For this year’s senior class, Ms. Moala, grade 12 counselor, said she and the other counselors are expect-ing the same outcome.

As an alternative to col-lege, some students serve in the military; however, the amount of students who

choose college after high school still greatly out-weighs those who go into the workforce.

College is a time for young adults to go out and live life on their own. It’s a time to experience the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s a chance for us Millennials to experience life and eventual-ly create a successful future.

For me, college is the best choice.

Not only will I be earning a degree, but in the future, I will be making more than my peers who only receive their high school diplomas.

Granted, not all college graduates are employed and on their way to lifetime suc-cess. Some college gradu-ates do return home after earning their degrees.

In an article by Adam Davidson for the New York Times entitled It’s Official: The Boomerang Kids Won’t Leave, Davidson said that “one in five people in their 20s and early 30s is current-ly living with his or her par-ents.”

To add to that, 60 percent of those people receive fi-nancial assistance from their parents.

Annie Kasinecz, a 27-year-old graduate of Loyola University Chicago, is quoted in the article and says that she is “doing the sensible thing by living rent-free as she plans her next ca-reer move.”

However, with the dis-parity in annual incomes for college graduates and those who only earned a high

school diploma, the college choice is a no-brainer for me. Don’t we all want to make the most money we can?

I’m pretty sure we’d all say yes.

Just look at the 21 mil-lion Americans attending college. But wait, how many of these attendees actually graduate from college?

According to the National Center for Education Statis-tics, “The 2012 graduation rate for first-time, full-time undergraduate students who began their pursuit of a bachelor’s degree at a 4-year institution in fall 2006 was 59%.” That means, of the 21 million Americans attending college now, only about 10 million will actually gradu-ate.

Hmm... I think I’ll chance it. You have to “risk it for the biscuit,” right?

If finances are an issue for your family, you’re not alone. That’s why colleges and other foundations across the nation have scholarships, grants, and loans.

If you’re too lazy to fill out the applications and scholarships, grow up. A lifetime of success is worth a couple hours of your time.

If you think the money you can make by working right now sounds like a great deal, and you’re getting a big promotion or catching a break, weigh your options. Statistics show that annual-ly, college graduates make more than those with only a high school diploma.

In addition, statistics

Published March 6, 2015, in Ka Leo o Nā Koa

WRITING

Though we usually write about college in our Senior Edition issues, I wrote this piece to put to rest the question, “Is college really worth it?” It showcases my ability to write a commentary article about a topic that is relevant to our reader-ship.

”

“

College calls, I’m out of here!


show that those who go right into the workforce after high school—though they may be making more than their peers at first—take longer to rise to the top, and their “top” isn’t actually the top because they often don’t have the educational re-quirements to advance to the highest-paying positions.

With time, college-edu-cated workers will overtake their high school graduate peers in earnings.

In fact, the report reveals that 86% of those surveyed got a career or career-track job after obtaining a college education. In comparison, only 57% of people surveyed were able to obtain a career or career-track job with just a high school diploma.

Long story short: go to college, folks, and stay until you get a degree. Or don’t. You decide.

Published March 6, 2015, in Ka Leo o Nā Koa

WRITING

Though this isn’t a writ-ing piece, I wanted to include it in this section because it accompanied the set of college stories. I wanted to show that it’s harder for high school graduates to get money if they don’t continue onto college.

“

EDITING

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Editing 21

WAILUKU -- Covered in dirt, paint, greenery, and sweat, students of Kame-hameha Schools Maui surely did a lot. About 56 students from the Arts and Commu-nication academy, along with the academy faculty members, went on a service learning project to Ka Hale a Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center today, October 18, 2013.

Their mission was to as-sist with the community gar-den already in place.

The garden was started by a non-profit organization, Mālama Maui Nui, previ-ously known as Communi-ty Work Day, in late 2011, after the Center for Disease Control gave them a grant. The purpose of the grant was to reduce health disparities for Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders and low-income communities.

“We call it a ‘communi-ty empowerment garden,’” Melissa Connelly said. She, along with Rebekah Uccel-lini, are the two main Māla-ma Maui Nui representatives working on the garden. The garden was made to create community access to organ-ic fruit and vegetables as well as to bring the commu-nity together.

At the start of the proj-ect, people told Ms. Connel-

ly that the irrigation ditch, which now houses the gar-den, was infertile. To the skeptics’ surprise, it is flour-ishing.

Over the past two years, different groups have volun-teered their time to help the garden grow.

There are many aspects to the garden, such as a vegeta-ble terrace, a Native Hawai-ian hillside filled with native plants and a culinary bed with a variety of herbs.

Iain Armitage, a senior at KSM, has a personal con-nection to the project. He had previously worked with Mālama Maui Nui during his junior year while com-pleting his internship. For his senior project, Armitage said he wanted to work with the organization again.

He said, “It’s cool to see everyone I know from school out here, working and lending a hand to help out the community.”

Today, the students spread out into different groups to help with specific tasks. The tasks included working on earth bags to build the veg-etable terrace, painting the garden shed with a botani-cal mural and a chalkboard, planting Native Hawaiian plants, preparing the culi-nary bed for future planting, working on planting and

painting for the Keiki Zone, and painting signs to go with all of the plants and herbs in the garden.

Kumu Kapulani Anto-nio, academy team leader, said that she hopes that the students will feel good after taking a step back from all of their hard work to see the impact they made.

Many of the students con-firmed her hope.

“It felt good to take a break from everything we do for ourselves, and give back to the community,” junior Kaiani Kiaha said.

The other two acade-mies at Kamehameha Maui also went on service learn-ing projects. The Business and Information Technolo-gy academy went to Kīhei Community Center to in-teract with the elderly, and the Science and Natural Resources academy went to Pu’u Kukui Watershed to do various beach and shoreline activities.

Meanwhile, the ninth and tenth grade students re-mained on campus attending classes in a modified sched-ule that included a midday break for attending two different workshops on Ha-waiian topics as part of the k-12 semiannual Pōʻalima ʻUlaʻula activities.

A & C academy adds to growing garden at Ka Hale a Ke Ola


EDITING

I included this article in my portfolio because it is one of my stronger pieces when it comes to structure and AP style. This story was written for our website, a medium I write for the most.

”

“

Click on the link below to view the video on Editing:

https://vimeo.com/119402788



EDITING This is our First Draft Revision sheet. I fill out one of these sheets for every draft a first-year staff member turns in. For our newspaper I handle just the news writers, but for our magazine I handle all drafts. ”“

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Editing 23

EDITING These First Draft Revision sheets show my abilities to edit stories. For each story I make sure the angle is clear, the lead makes sense, there are enough interviews and the sources are credible, and that it is written in AP Style.“ ”

DESIGN

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Design 25

Published August 29, 2014, in Nā Koa

Published November 1, 2014, in Nā Koa

Published January 26, 2015, in Nā Koa

DESIGN

I am most proud of the Nā Koa covers I created. I am in charge of all pho-tos for the magazine. I al-ways put the best photo on the cover, so they are my most prized posses-sions. These covers are an integral part to who I am as a photographer and designer.

”

“ Nā Koa digital magazine covers

Published August 29, 2014, in Nā Koa

“

Published November 13, 2013, at kaleoonakoa.org


Published January 15, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org ”

“ DESIGN

I chose to include graph-ics I made for my “Forev-er a Fashionista” blog be-cause they show off my use of Photoshop, along with my knowledge of typography.

DESIGN

I included this layout from my first issue of Nā Koa because it is a design we chose to continue in each issue. The circle is also a common compo-nent in all issues.

”


“ DESIGN

These two graphics dis-play my abilities to work with Photoshop and graphic design, as well as utilize the P.A.R.C design principles. In the bottom graphic, even though it is done in greyscale, I used proximity to show what statistic went with which visual image. In the top graphic, I used the contrasting color green to allude to the older versions of text on the web. In both graphics repetition with the color scheme is used to show a correlation throughout the piece.

Published March 17, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org.

Main graphic for our “Tech state of mind” long-form report.

The graphic above shows the percentages of devices in each household surveyed by Common Sense Media Research made for an in-depth media package “Tech state of mind: The Web turns 25.” According to Common Sense Media Research study, Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America, 75% of children have access to some type of mobile device at home.Published March 17,

2014, at kaleoonakoa.org

”


DESIGN

This was my initial shot at doing layout during my first year (something only second-year stu-dents do). I wanted the graphic to allude to the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and its icon-ic poster. I used Photo-shop to create cut outs for this layout.

”

“

DESIGN

When working on the senior issue for our news-paper, I wanted to in-clude something fun that was also interactive. Our students do crossword and Sudoku puzzles, so I created my edition of Col-lege Life. One example of a space says, “Greek life chose you, roll again.”

”

“

Published February 28, 2014, in Ka Leo o Nā Koa

Published May 9, 2014, in Ka Leo o Nā Koa


DESIGN

After reading Tim Har-rower’s The Newspaper Designer’s Handbook, I have figured out how to lay out pages that are both aesthetically pleas-ing and follow the rules of design. This layout encompasses all that I’ve learned and is one of my best traditional layouts.

”

“Published September 26, 2014, in Ka Leo o Nā Koa


DESIGN

This story, written in Hawaiian by one of our staff members, is about a group of Maori students who came to visit our campus. I wanted their outgoing personalities and care for tradition to be evident in the photo-graphs I selected, as well in the layout they were presented in.

”

“

Published September 26, 2014, in Ka Leo o Nā Koa


“ DESIGN

Being that we were short staffed my first year in journalism—there were three of us—our first try at publication was the Decide to Drive National Magazine Contest. I was not that familiar with Adobe Photoshop, so this cover allowed me to test my skills with cut outs and color schemes. After winning the na-tional contest, of which hundreds of submissions were received, posters and magazines were made by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). Seeing the cover I designed all over campus felt great.

”Submitted to decide-todrive.org on November 22, 2013, for their dis-tracted driving magazine contest. Juniors (left to right) Moana Astronomo, Cody Fushikoshi Wago, and Shai Ibara pose with their keys for the cover of this publication. Note: Layout to accom-panying story was not done by me.


“ DESIGN

Ms. Linda Barrington, 2013 Carl Towley Award winner, has come to speak with my journal-ism class twice. On her most recent visit she gave us a handout to make infographics. I wanted to create my own to make myself more well-rounded, as well as give a visual representa-tion to the piece I wrote. These colors also flowed throughout the publica-tion to show a correlation between all college piec-es. This infographic is the best I have created.

”Published March 6, 2015, in Ka Leo o Nā Koa

This infographic was made to show the statis-tics of going to college vs. not going to college, as well as the statistics on not graduating. It went with three other articles entitled “Money matters,” “College calls, I’m out of here!” and “College debt on the rise.”

MULTIMEDIA BROADCAST

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Multimedia Broadcast 33

Published January 21, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.og

“ MULTIMEDIA

The “Beaches” video is essential to my portfo-lio because it is the best example of my ability to make videos for news stories. It was informa-tive and well received in the community. The cheerleading video is my best for sports. I highlighted their talent, their spirit and their ex-citement when winning.

”


Click on the link and the link symbol to access the “Cheer three-peat! Warriors leave it all on mat” video: http://vimeo.com/78448357

Click on the link and the link symbol to access the “Butts Off Our Beaches” video: http://vimeo.com/89453371

http://vimeo.com/78448357


Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Multimedia Broadcast 34

Published October 18, 2013, at kaleoonakoa.og

“ MULTIMEDIA

I chose to add these two videos to my portfolio because they both high-light community service events that I, myself, as well as my classmates took part in. These two videos were necessary to include because they cov-er a variety of shots and feature voice-overs that show my ability to make quality videos.

”


Click on the link and the link symbol to access the “Kalaupapa” video: http://vimeo.com/89356327

Click on the link and the link symbol to access the “Ka Hale A Ke Ola Service Learn-ing Project” video: http://vimeo.com/77272975




PHOTOJOURNALISM

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Photojournalism 36

“ PHOTOJOURNALISM

In our community there is a photographer named Matthew Thayer. For our journalism program we have a Matthew Thayer checklist, which includes a variety of shots: scene setters, portraits, candids and more. This gallery has every shot from the Matthew Thayer check-list.

”

Published May 3, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org

Sarah Catugal, a sophomore, performs with the Zenshin Daiko group.

Elijah Won and Kamaile Pahukoa pound kalo into poi during the 10th Annual Hoʻolauleʻa today, May 3, 2014, at the Kamehameha Schools Maui Campus.

Click here to view the full

gallery at kaleoonakoa.org!

http://kaleoonakoa.org/entertainment/2014/05/03/ks-maui-pulls-off-successful-hoʻolauleʻa/#prettyPhoto


Published September 25, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org

“ PHOTOJOURNALISM Gym lighting is tough to work with, but with a switch in aperture, I was able to capture this moment. The movement of everyone in the photo shows the hype of the event. I also like that I shot this using rule-of-thirds rather than a cen-tered focus point. Since it was a pre-sea-son football game, it was scheduled earlier, and the lighting was perfect.

”

Published August 11, 2013, at kaleoonakoa.org

Junior Joshua Hiwatashi runs the ball with pressure from the Monarch defense during a pre-season game at Kana’iaupuni Stadium on August 10, 2013. The KS Warriors lost 29-21.

Senior football captain Chase Newton carries first grader Kamahaʻo Akima across the finish line during a relay race at Kahekili Gymnasium yesterday, September 24. The high school’s fall sports captains were at the lower campuses to bond with the younger students and promote the homecoming game this Saturday at 7 p.m.



“ PHOTOJOURNALISM

I’ve always been into sports, so my first year on staff I signed up to cover a lot of them. The rivalry between the War-riors and the Lunas was evident in the game, and I wanted to portray the determination from the Warriors with this shot. I was laying on my stom-ach, on the wet floor, with my camera just a few cen-timeters off the ground, under a bench. It was worth it.

”

Published February 2, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org

Senior Mikaele Kane swims the breast stroke during the mens 200-yard medley relay at the MIL competition, Feb. 1, 2014, at Kīhei Aquatic Center. The Maui Warriors came in first place for this event.

Warrior junior Mia Czerwinski takes a shot early on in the first quarter before she was ejected during the Luna’s 7-6 victory over the Warriors on Tuesday, March 11, 2014 at the Pi’ilani Aquatic Center.



Kamaile Pahukoa and Leimakamae Kea paint signs that label the native plants in the garden at Ka Hale a Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center in Wailuku. The students were there as part of the arts and communications academy team’s day of service.

Juniors Kale’a Borling and Destinee Murray plant native plants on the hillside in the community garden at Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Center, October 18, 2013. The students from the Arts and Communication academy went on a service learning project to assist Mālama Maui Nui on the garden and in the keiki areas.

“ PHOTOJOURNALISM

Community service is a big part of who I am, so I wanted to include this gallery of photos. The lighting on this day was perfect and added to the quality of my im-ages. These are some of my best and I like that I played with angles to give a variety of shots.

”Click here to view

the full gallery at

kaleoonakoa.org

http://kaleoonakoa.org/news/2013/10/18/a-c-academy-adds-to-growing-garden-at-ka-hale-a-ke-ola/#prettyPhoto

WEB

Click on the link and the link symbol to access the “Tech State of Mind” video: http://vimeo.com/89275472


Click on the link and the link symbol to access the “Sophomores celebrate Mar-di Gras” full story including photos and video: http://kaleoonakoa.org/stu-dent-life/2014/02/02/sophomores-celebrate-mardi-gras/

Published February 2, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org

“ WEB

Versatility in journalism is essential. In the top video I covered the Soph-omore Banquet, which highlights my ability to cover entertainment events. The lower vid-eo, “Tech State of Mind,“ shows that I can be pro-fessional and deliver a long-form news video.

”

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Web 41


http://kaleoonakoa.org/student-life/2014/02/02/sophomores-celebrate-mardi-gras/

http://kaleoonakoa.org/student-life/2014/02/02/sophomores-celebrate-mardi-gras/

Click on the link and the link symbol to access the “GMO’s: Should they stay or should they go” pro/con opinion piece with photos and video: http://kaleoonakoa.org/opinions/2014/10/28/gmo-initiative-on-november-ballot-begs-clarification/

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Web 42

“ WEB

My fellow editor and I worked together to cre-ate a pro/con opinion piece on the genetically modified organism de-bate on Maui. As writers we felt that the best way to display our stories would be through a long-form report so that read-ers would have an easy time viewing each story. It also allows for all the information on the topic to be in one area. This is my best example of opinion writing, be-cause I was able to state my position and back it up with research and facts from the legislation.


”

http://kaleoonakoa.org/opinions/2014/10/28/gmo-initiative-on-november-ballot-begs-clarification/

http://kaleoonakoa.org/opinions/2014/10/28/gmo-initiative-on-november-ballot-begs-clarification/

LAW AND ETHICS

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Law and Ethics 44

“ LAW AND ETHICS

As the editor-in-chief, I am always double check-ing things. In this case, I was responsible for get-ting a photo to accompa-ny one of my journalist’s stories. After receiving Mr. Short’s response, we had to re-edit the story we were planning on pub-lishing. Because we were on such a short deadline, we could not re-write the entire story to feature the NoShark device. We did our best to make known that the ESDS device was now known as NoShark.

”


This is the email I received from the President of the company we wanted to feature as a follow up to an email I had previously sent regarding photo usage.

The photo above is the story that we ran in our most recent issue of Nā Koa, featuring the ESDS device.


The Fine PrintWire Services: Some material courtesy of American Society of Newspaper Editors/ MCT Campus High School Newspaper Services.

Editorial Policy: The staff of Ka Leo o Nā Koa is dedicated to objective and bal-anced coverage of campus and commu-nity news. We wel-come comments, cor-rections, suggestions, and letters.

To have your letter considered for pub-lication, limit the text to 100 words or less, include full name and grade, and email to: [email protected]. Letters may be edited for length and propriety.

Disclaimer:Ka Leo o Nā Koa is a student publica-tion of the journalism class of Kamehame-ha Schools Maui. The views expressed rep-resent the views of the individual student writer and editors and does not reflect the views of KSM, KSBE, or its affiliations.

“ LAW AND ETHICS

For our three publications we have a strict set of guidelines for publishing. I am con-tinuously reviewing our policies; making sure we are always publishing according to them. In one case, when our Headmaster asked us if our quotes were verified, our pol-icy to require comment identification on a survey validated that the quotes we used were correct. ”


‘Final Countdown’ brings bittersweet emotions at senior ball

Published April 6, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org

LAW AND ETHICS

Because I attend a pri-vate school, there are restrictions on me as a journalist. One restric-tion is that we have prior review on all of our arti-cles. At this event there were a few incidents involving alcohol that I thought were the main story. However, knowing our restrictions with prior review, my hands were tied by private school policies, and I reported a tame, non-controversial version of the truth.

”

“The seniors dined and

danced at their last formal social event, the Senior Ball, last night at King Kamehameha Golf Club.

Decorations were James Bond inspired, with black tie swag bags, cards and diamonds around the center, and the stu-dents were referred to as “agents.”

“It’s a James Bond-su-per-spy-Austin Powers theme,” said class adviser Ms. Kalena Laepa’a.

The theme was chosen by the senior class officers because they “wanted to do something that hasn’t been done before,” she said.

Food was catered by the King Kamehameha

Golf Club and included a buffet of salad, noodles, prime rib, fish, chicken, and steamed vegetables. For dessert, there was an assortment of pies.

Music played through-out dinner, and once ev-eryone was done, the lights went off and the dancing began.

Though at first the floor was empty and the danc-ing was off to a slow start, it eventually filled up. The DJ played favorite songs and also songs by request.

Once the dance floor was crowded, it stayed that way until the very last song.

The theme of the night was “The Final Count-down,” referring to the se-

niors’ countdown to grad-uation.

“It’s bittersweet,” said senior class president Shaina Hipolito. “I’m happy that it’s over with, but it’s kind of sad be-cause it’s our last one.”

With only a couple of months left until the end of the school year, and, of course, graduation, it was an enjoyable night for all. As the “final countdown” to graduation begins, this is one event the seniors can check off their lists. Graduation, here they come!

“Sending off my ba-bies!... It’s going to be hard,” Ms. Laepa’a said. “I’m going to miss this class a lot.”

Mele Ah You, Mitchel Dutro, Lucas Park and Emma Yen arrive dressed in formal spy-theme dress at Final Countdown, the senior ball, last night, April 5, 2014, at the King Kamehameha Golf Club.

LEADERSHIP AND TEAM BUILDING

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Leadership and Team Building 48

LEADERSHIP

Our journalism staff strives to bring diversity to all three of our publi-cations: our newspaper Ka Leo o Nā Koa, our magazine Nā Koa, and our website kaleoona-koa.org. This includes news, sports, Hawaiian culture articles, opinion pieces, and features. As an editor this year, I try to make sure that my writers and reporters can communicate with me. I am always available to answer their questions, or pass on questions to our adviser. Click on the link here to view the video highlight-ing my leadership roles in class: https://vimeo.com/119402791

”

“



Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Leadership and Team Building 49

TEAM BUILDING

With interviews to con-duct, videos to record, pictures to take, and sto-ries to write, it sometimes can be too much for just one journalist. Here at Ka Leo o Nā Koa I know that I can count on any one of my fellow writers to help me with any piece. Since we spend so much time together on deadline days and jobs out in the field, it is nice to also get together at restaurants like Outback Steakhouse, Flatbread Pizza Compa-ny, or at Journalism Day on Oʻahu.

”

“

NEWS LITERACY

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award News Literacy 51

“ NEWS LITERACY

During our first draft process, the features ed-itor and I review all of our staffers’ drafts. We sit down with the reporters and go over each draft ei-ther telling them to find a new angle, interview someone more reliable, or fix their lead. While on the job, I nor-mally use my phone to record interviews, but other times I will use a note pad or in this case my planner.

”

Published December 12, 2014, in Ka Leo o Nā Koa

These are some notes that I took during interviews and surveys I took for the “Tech State of Mind” long-form report. In total there were over 8 interviews conducted, and over 100 students were surveyed.

Click on the link and the link symbol to access the “News Literacy” video: https://vimeo.com/119402790




“Oh there’s choke sharks over here” were the first words 18-year-old Kevyn Yokote said to me when I got out of my car and looked at the ocean in front of us. Great. Just what I wanted to hear before we entered Ma’alaea Harbor to do this photo shoot.

Many in Hawai’i love to play in the waves, but for Yokote, it goes much deeper than that—like 40 feet deep-er.

“I love that I get to experi-ence a part of the world that not many people get to see,” Yokote says.

Yokote and his family freedive, a form of deep un-derwater diving that doesn’t require a breathing appara-tus. Like many locals, they combine freediving with spearfishing, catching fish using spearguns and slings.

From uku to ‘omilu to ono and more, Yokote has a long list of memorable catch-es. The biggest, though: a 30-pound ono.

“We woke up early, may-be like 5:15 a.m., and went to Ma’alaea. We have a spot right outside of Ma’alaea Harbor that always has ono’s, ” Yokote said.

Since Kevyn has good luck with catching fish quickly, his brother Sean wanted to go in the water first—without him. After two hours, he got to try his hand at it.

“Maybe like five minutes after I got in the water, all the ono’s came in. One came within five feet of me, and I took the midbody shot. It took me down and around for about five minutes, un-

til my brother’s friend Chad took the second shot. It was crazy,” Yokote said.

The spears that fisherman shoot at their targets are tied to portable buoys. Once the spear finds its target, the fisherman hangs onto the float so as not to lose the fish while waiting for it to tire or succumb to a second shot. This is how the div-ers are dragged and pulled through the ocean. When the fish tires enough, the fisher-man will dive and render it senseless to pull it out of the water. After landing the ono, the Yokote’s enjoyed the fish for many days.

That dive was in Ma’alaea, Maui, just one of the many locations Yokote has test-ed, but Ni’ihau and Ka’ula Rock, an island southwest of Ni’ihau, are two he’s waiting to cross off his bucket list.

“I want to see what Ha-waiian reefs are supposed to look like,” he said.

A typical dive for Yokote starts at home. He checks the wind and swell online, texts some friends to see if they’re up for it, and then sets his alarm for the next morning. When he gets underwater, “It’s another world.”

“When I dive, I feel like I’m on an adventure, but I also feel like I’m at home; I have inner peace,” Yokote said.

That made one of us. Unlike him, I was not at

peace in any way. As we headed out for our dive, I stumbled over my fins, my mask was fogging up, and the repeated sound of Kevyn’s voice in my head saying “choke sharks” kept

freaking me out. Since he spends almost

every weekend diving, you would think he’d have racked up a bunch of awards, but Yokote says, “It’s just a hobby for now.” Even though he’s only entered two competitions and won none, his hobby puts him in touch with some pretty amazing divers—the coolest: Kimi Werner.

Yokote met Werner in the first-annual 2008 Roi Round-up, a grassroots div-ing tournament to help save Hawaiian waters and reefs from invasive species, espe-cially roi, which was initi-ated by Maui County, Maui Sporting Goods, and local fisherman Darrell Tanaka.

Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

Yokote partnered with his brother, Sean, and though they didn’t place, he said meeting Werner made it worth it.

“Until then, I didn’t know there were any good female free divers, but she proved otherwise,” Yokote said.

This grassroots movement is what sparked Yokote’s in-terest in the environmental impact of commercial fish-ing and litter on Hawaii’s environment.

“I love the marine ecosys-tem, and I wanted to learn more about it,” Yokote said. “I have been diving for a few years, and I can see the neg-ative impact of [commercial fishing and cigarette litter.]”

This obsession with the ocean started when Yokote was nine years old, going diving with his dad, Russel Yokote. Being the youngest

Into the deep blue


NEWS LITERACY

Though we are taught to leave our own person-al bias out of the story, in this feature I felt it would be more relateable and easy to read if readers could see how easy-going Kevyn is when he dives. I wanted the readers to envision themselves be-ing in my fearful position going into the deep blue. This angle adds to the feature and was well re-ceived.

”

“


of three, Kevyn enjoys go-ing out for bonding not only with his dad, but also with his two older brothers Lee (33) and Sean (30).

“[My biggest role mod-els] are my brothers,” Yokote said. “I dive with them the most.”

After our dive, Yokote posed for this feature for me. His wet hair and sandy fins glistened in the morning light, and I could see in his eyes that the ocean is a spe-cial place for him.

Yokote volunteers at the Department of Land and Natural Resources Commu-nity Fisheries Enforcement Unit and Makai Watch, or-ganizations that promote the importance of educating the

public about Hawai’i fishing regulations. This gives him the opportunity to see first-hand the harm that has been done to Hawai’i’s waters.

Yokote focused his high school senior project on en-vironmental factors affect-ing Hawai’i water, includ-ing commercial fishing and cigarette litter, by making a public service announce-ment on cigarette litter. The video shows the amount of pollution cigarette litter causes on the land and sea, and how the fish you bring home could be affected by it. To view the video go to http://bitly.com/1GBRJKm.

“I feel like people don’t respect the ocean enough or not in the right way,” Yokote

said. “It makes me sad to think of how people are kill-ing the environment.”

Though his senior project is over, his senior year isn’t.

With his last semester of school to finish, college ap-plications, and scholarships, it’s amazing that he even finds the time for diving, but he’s trying to get as much of it in as he can before it’s off to the continental U.S. in the fall.

“One day, I would like to be a professional, competi-tive free diver,” Yokote said. “I still need to enter some competitions and make some connections in the div-ing community.”

Until then, however, he’s going to be studying marine

biology, hopefully, at the University of Oregon.

Although he doesn’t know much about the Ore-gon diving scene, for a de-voted diver such as he, one can be sure that he will fig-ure out a way to get back in the water.

“I dive because the feeling that comes over me when I dive is unexplainable, Yo-kote said. “There’s nothing like it.”

Though I put myself in this story, I really wanted readers to see that I got in there with him. This is a photo I took of myself during our dive in Maʻalaea Harbor, Maui. I also tweeted this photo to create a hype for our upcoming issue.


For a town that has changed so little, Kalaupapa can change you so much.

Kalaupapa, Moloka’i, a town that sprang up for the quarantine of leprosy pa-tients in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, was known for being plagued with sadness, but for the residents of Kalaupa-pa and those who visit, that description does not even scratch the surface of its transformational power.

“You find part of your-self you didn’t know you had,” resident Ioane Ho’omanawanui said. She came to Kalaupapa in 1991 to be a medical administra-tor at the care center.

Richard Miller, who works for the National Park Service as a historic preser-vationist, said, “Shortly after stepping off the plane you start to realize this isn’t like any other place you’ve ever been.”

Miller came to Kalaupapa ten years ago to help a res-toration team. He continues to help with the preservation of Kalaupapa by working on homes and grave sites.

“It’s pretty much impossi-ble to be here without feel-ing the place,” Richard Mill-er said.

Kahu Kalani Wong, along with kahu from the Kapāla-ma and Keaʻau campuses, takes a group of students to Kalaupapa every year.

“It’s a great learning lab-oratory,” he said. “Students get to know the history of the place, get to know the patients and the challenges they face, as well as the joys they had.”

Five students from the Maui campus, senior Aaron Morton and juniors Kaiani Kiaha, Regina Kuhia, Spen-cer Shiraishi, and myself, were met by seniors Kamue-la Makue and Jonah Hoshino from Kapālama, and seniors Sam Bader and Jonah Chiq-uita from Kea’au went to Kalaupapa during Fall Break to serve the community.

They led Sunday service at Kana’ana Hou Church and cleaned the church yard and the garden of patient Winnie Harada. In total, the students filled over 106 garbage bags with green waste during their visit, October 4-9.

Patient caretaker Edwin Lelepali said that it’s “up to you guys [the students] to take care of the place after they [the patients] are gone.”

At one point, there were about 1,200 men, women and children who were quar-antined there to prevent the spread of Hansen’s disease. Now, only ten patients re-main.

After the last of them passes, the State of Hawai’i will release control over the Kalaupapa colony, and the National Park Service will take over preserving the land.

Mr. Lelepali or “Uncle Pali” said that he doesn’t want Kalaupapa to be known as a sad place.

“We lived life just like you guys do. We had fun just like you guys do,” he said.

He told the students about the many activities that res-idents participated in, in-cluding baseball, badmin-ton, football, and volleyball

(Uncle Pali’s favorite) and choirs and bands. To this day, members of the com-munity gather to play vol-leyball on Wednesdays and Saturdays with Uncle Pali as the referee.

Many of the students said that they could feel a deep connection to Kalaupapa.

Junior Regina Kuhia said that building relationships with the patients changed her because they gave her “the responsibility of doc-umenting and sharing their life stories for future gener-ations so that the history of Kalaupapa will not be for-gotten.”

For myself, I felt I had a calling to come and serve the people of Kalaupapa. To my surprise, this calling was deeper than to just serve the community, it was to serve my family.

Kamuela Makue and I, surprisingly, were able to connect with family mem-bers. I visited the house of my great aunt and uncle as well as the grave site of my great, great uncle. I had not even known that I had ances-tors there.

From the very first day, I knew why I was brought there. Physically, I was there to help the residents. Spiritu-ally, they were there to help me.

Moloka’i transforms student visitors


NEWS LITERACY

We are taught to leave ourselves out of the sto-ry. In this case, however, I was going on the Ka-laupapa trip so it would be best that I wrote the story. At the same time, I felt that my experience was important to include.

”

“

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Entrepreneurship 56

ENTREPRENEUERSHIP

Social media are changing the journalism world, and according to our Issuu statistics, so is technology. With the print newspaper we reach our readers at school; comprised of about 500 high school students. With technology, however, we are able to connect with several thousands in the community to promote our three publications. See-ing that many of our readers are teens, I use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to post stories and updates about upcoming publications. This has increased our readership by hundreds. Though technology is becoming more important in journalism, at Ka Leo o Nā Koa we still like to hand deliver each of our newspapers to classes to promote our program. ”

“

WORK FOR OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Work for Other Publications—The Maui News 58

Published October 14, 2014, in The Maui News and at mauinews.com

“OTHER PUBLICATIONS

The Maui News has asked to use my photos or have someone from our class take photos for them. Every time they’ve asked, I have volun-teered. I love taking pho-tos and it’s an opportu-nity to get my name out. It’s also rewarding know-ing that Maui’s main newspaper relies on my photography.

”

Sophomore Kanilea Nomura hits it past the Spartan defense at a “Dig Pink” match at Seabury Hall School on October 14, 2014. Other photos featured also taken by me are be-low.

Published September 27, 2013, in The Maui News and at mauinews.com

Kamehameha’s Victoria Kunishi (left) and Patricia Batoon meet King Kekaulike’s Trey Freitas at the net.

Kamehameha Schools Maui players celebrate after defeating King Kekaulike 18-25, 25-16, 25-12, 22, 25, 15-7 on Thursday at Kaʻulaheanuiokamoku Gymnasium.



When it comes to sports, especially for The Maui News, I really push myself to capture shots that people haven’t seen before. These two pho-tos embody who I am as a sports photographer, because the top photo captures the team’s emo-tions of their monumen-tal win, and the bottom photo shows off a killer block made by the team. This block, along with others, is what won the game, so to feature that was vital.

”

Published November 25, 2014, in The Maui News and at mauinews.com

Jacob Shiffler (center), a Kamaliʻi Elementary School 3rd-grader, raises his hand to ask a question during Victorino’s speech.

Boston Red Sox outfielder Shane Victorino addresses a group of Maui youths Mon-day at War Memorial Gym in Wailuku. Victorino, a St. Anthony High School grad-uate, was to have conducted a clinic, but rain prompted a change in plan - though attendees still heard a speech and received autographs from the two-time All-Star.



Left: Wailuku Elementary School 2nd-grader Camryn Nakamura prepares to throw during Monday’s event. Right: Shane Victorino addresses Maui County youths Monday outside War Memorial Gym in Wailuku (Photo was used in follow-up story on Victorino published in The Maui News and at mauinews.com on November 30, 2014.)

Victorino signs the back of Waihee Elementary School 5th-grader Faith Williams’ shirt.


Usually when The Maui News asks me to cover an event, I don’t worry about it. On this occasion, however, I was worried. Due to a storm, the event changed from a baseball clinic to a quick Q and A. The venue had almost no lighting, and because the sun was going down I had to improvise.

”

Published October 14, 2014, in The Maui News and at mauinews.com


This was my first pho-tograh published in The Maui News. I am proud of this image because I had shot it for my school newspaper, but when The Maui News saw my photos they asked to use them. It was my first professional opportunity, and I am very proud of my accomplishment.

Kamehameha Schools Maui’s Chase Newton passed for 153 yards in a 29-21 loss to Damien Memorial School on Aug. 10.”


Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Work for Other Publications—Valley Isle Soccer Academy 63

This year’s VIS Academy College Prep Camp,which featured nine NCAA Division I and II college coaches, set the stage for four young play-ers from Maui who will be signing letters of intent to play college soccer next fall.

The 2014 College Prep Camp was held from June 2-6, 2014 at Eddie Tam Memorial Park in Makawao, Hawaii, and featured coaching staff from Dominican Univer-sity of California, Loyola Marymount University, Gonzaga University, Ha-waiʻi Pacific University, University of Nevada Las Vegas, St. Mary’s College California, Idaho State University, and Seattle Pacific University. Also among the college coach-es were club coaches from the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) clubs, Soreno SC and S.C. del Sol.

During the Camp, high school players were split into four teams: two girls teams and two boys teams. Throughout the week the teams worked with all of the coaches, and at the end of the week a showcase game was held.

After this summer’s camp, however, four Maui seniors were given the op-portunity to play college soccer. Nikolina Musto (‘97) and Kenya Sherman (’97) from King Kekau-like High School regis-tered for the camp hoping to develop their skill and get exposure to collegiate level coaching. For Sher-man, this was her first col-lege soccer camp, so she was “unsure of what to expect.” But, when Head Coach Alison Gibson from Idaho State Univer-sity offered her a full-ride scholarship to play at ISU for 4 years, she could not have been happier.

“I plan to play soccer at ISU next year and study Pre-Med,” Sherman said. “It goes to show that these camps really work.”

It was not just the girls who got the attention of the college coaches. During the camp, both Micah Alo (’97) from Kamehameha Schools Maui and Micah Tateishi (’97) from King Kekaulike High School bonded well with Domini-can University of Califor-nia’s Kelly Coffey.

“I really bonded with [Coach Kelly] and felt he was a really good coach

overall,” Tateishi said. “He really knew what he was talking about.”

Shortly after the camp, Tateishi kept in contact with Coach Kelly who offered Tateishi a schol-arship to play for Domini-can University of Califor-nia. Tateishi wasn’t the only one. After the camp, both Alo and Tateishi took an official visit to the Do-minican campus, where Alo was also offered a scholarship. Alo plans to attend Dominican Univer-sity of California in the fall, whereas Tateishi has chosen to commit to Notre Dame de Namur.

The 2015 College Prep Soccer Camp will be held from June 8-12, 2015. For more information contact VIS Academy Director of Coaching, Aleksander Filipovic at [email protected] or check the “Soccer Camps” tab.

Published Novmember 29, 2014, at valleyislesoc-cer.com

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Besides being a journal-ist, I also play club and varsity soccer. Two of my coaches, Aleksander and Rebecca Filipovic, saw my potential in writing and asked if I would be willing to do a couple of freelance stories for their new website. Because the event had already taken place, and the story was primarily on the fact that these four athletes were given scholarships, it was difficult to conduct interviews. I was on vaca-tion during this time, as well as on publication for our school newspaper, so it gave me the opportuni-ty to see how journalists in the field work under pressure and away from the office.

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College Prep Camp Sets the Stage Four aspiring high school soccer players from Maui received college scholarships from VIS Academy’s 2014 College Prep Camp

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Work for Other Publications—Rotary District 5000 64

Over 60 Maui students attended the 14th annual Camp RYLA sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Maui, January 23-25, at the YMCA Camp Keʻanae.

“Camp RYLA was a fab-ulous opportunity for all of the students who attended to expand our networks and be-come better leaders,” KSM sophomore Sky Chun-Mat-sukawa said.

Though it rained for al-most the entire duration of the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards camp, that didn’t stop campers from having fun indoors and out.

At Camp RYLA, camp-ers are put into “ohana’s,” or groups, that have two to three senior facilitators. This was the first year that the

camp was primarily student run.

“We made the decision last year to increase the number of student facilita-tors and decrease the number of adult facilitators so that the students had a chance to teach and be the role mod-els,” said Joanne Laird, Ro-tary Youth Service Chair for District 5000. “It is the most powerful thing I have seen in my 8 years of doing Camp RYLA.”

Three of the 27 student facilitators were from KS Maui: seniors Sarah Reyes, Brandy Takiguchi and my-self.

“It was really cool to be a part of the first student-run RYLA,” Reyes said. “It made me more confident as

a leader and allowed me to grow into my leadership po-sitions.”

The purpose of Camp RYLA is to train future lead-ers and offer the skills and tools to make a difference in the world.

On the first night, camp-ers, as well as facilitators, participated in ice breakers to get to know one anoth-er. This allowed campers to switch out of their “ohana’s” to meet other people. On top of that, each group per-formed a skit that correlat-ed to one of the 15 Nuggets of Leadership, which are leadership rules to live by. Among these rules are things such as “trust is a must” and “group thinking is better than individual thinking.”

Published February 1, 2015, at in the Rotary Dis-trict 5000 Newsletter

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

When I had originally written this story, I did not intend for the Rotary District 5000 to use it in its newsletter. I had writ-ten this story with the only intention of it going on our web publication kaleoonakoa.org. After marketing the story on Facebook and with Ro-tarians, I was fortunate enough to be asked to use this story in the dis-trict newsletter. It is a nice feeling to know that your work is being put out into the world for others in the community to enjoy.

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Camp RYLA transforms student leaders

Sophomores Teʻa Monden and Uʻilani Gibbs pose for a photo at the loʻi after a mud fight.

Campers took these lead-ership nuggets and incor-porated them into activities over the entire weekend.

On Saturday, the students were divided into two large groups to do community service at two different loʻi kalo, or taro patches. The reason for this was because at last year’s camp, students said that they would have enjoyed more community service.

My group was taken to Aunty Gladys Kanoa’s patches in Keʻanae. “Aunty Gladys” told the group about the loʻi, what they would be doing, and a few safety pre-cautions. Everyone had to wear socks or shoes in the loʻi so that they wouldn’t cut their feet on the invasive snails; however, this led to a few problems. A few stu-dents lost their socks in the

mud, and one camper, Jac-cie Hisashima from King Kekaulike High School, lost her entire shoe.

“I really liked those shoes,” Hisashima said. While at the loʻi, students pulled weeds and stomped on the mud to make it easier to plant in, but, of course, it’s not a day at the loʻi without a mud fight, too.

Once everyone was show-ered and back at the YMCA, it was back to team-build-ing exercises indoors and out. Inside, students learned about the 4-Way Test; a test that all Rotarians judge their actions by. The 4-Way Test states: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? And, will it be beneficial to all concerned? The 4-Way Test can be ap-plied to all situations to help

one make the right decisions. While outside, campers

played soccer and ultimate Frisbee and participated in leadership activities that in-volved effective communi-cation.

That night, campers got into groups and talked about their “sparks.” Facilitators explained that a spark is something one is passion-ate about and wants to do something about to make a difference. Once everyone shared their sparks, they wrote them down on a pieces of paper and put them on the “spark wall.” The group also got to watch a performance by aerial dancer Lexi Justus, the daughter of the YMCA Camp Keʻanae owners.

“It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” Taki-guchi said, “and she’s only 13!”

On Sunday there was a Leadership Speed Dating activity where Rotarians from the community came to share their experiences and give advice to the future leaders, the campers.

“My favorite part was meeting the various RYLA club members and asking them questions relating to their successes,” Chun-Mat-sukawa said. “They are liv-ing proof that we can and will make it.”

After that, each attendee was given a certificate and a RYLA pin in a graduation ceremony.

“Go out and make a dif-ference. Take the skills, take everything, and go change somebody’s life,” Laird said.

Published also on January 26, 2014, at kaleoonakoa.org

Aunty Gladys Kanoa explains to the group the do’s and don’ts for in and around the loʻi.

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Award Work for Other Publications—Rotary District 5000 65

VISIT

kaleoonakoa.orgclick on ‘STAFF’ then ‘MAILE SUR’

for my full list of published pieces

issuu.com/mailesurfor a few of my photography samples

issuu.com/kaleoonakoafor all issues of Ka Leo o Nā Koa

http://www.kaleoonakoa.org

http://www.issuu.com/mailesur

http://www.issuu.com/mailesur

Documents

Maile Sur JEA Journalist of the Year Portfolio