Top Teachers
Saturday, June 28, 1997
Name: Malia Melemai
Age: 34
Position: Teacher, Kula Kaiapuni O Maui
Education: University of Hawaii-Manoa
Pastimes: Reading, cooking
Malia Melemai remembers taking a trip to Kahoolawe in 1988 that changed her life. Speaking to further a culture
Melemai met native Hawaiian friends who were committed not only to restoring the former target island but also to their native culture.
"They spoke Hawaiian, and they kind of got me interested in speaking Hawaiian again," said Melemai, a teacher at the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program at Paia School.
Principal Ione Isobe says Melemai has been instrumental in the success of the program, serving as mentor to student teachers who have later taught Hawaiian language. "Malia seeks opportunities that will enable her to be a better teacher and model for her students," Isobe said.
Melemai said students in the immersion program develop a sensitivity toward other cultures as they acquire an understanding of their own. "They want to learn more languages, too."
Melemai remembers her parents and grandparents speaking Hawaiian in their home.
She enjoyed cultivating a group of friends who gathered regularly to speak in Hawaiian.
"It was just like an ohana kind of setting for learning Hawaiian."
Melemai believes the Hawaiian immersion program is helping develop a new generation of well-rounded Hawaiian leaders.
"The new generation of leaders will have a sense of being Hawaiian and speaking it."
Gary Kubota, Star-Bulletin
