Businesses help teach
Big Island students

A conference prepares high school
students for the working world

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By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

HILO >> Attending a conference on preparing students for work, Keaau High School student Paul Morton sported green-tinted hair.

Would green hair make it hard to get a job? Morton was under no illusions. If he were applying for work, the green would be gone, he said.

Morton knows the realities, but some other students don't understand the basics like showing up for work on time, said former Big Island schools Superintendent Alan Garson.

Since 1990, Big Island business people have cooperated to bring the real world of work into the classroom in a program called Business-Education Partnership, cooperating with the state Labor Department.

Last Thursday, business people, educators and students held a student learning conference by doing group projects guided by business people.

"They do something so they can see visible results," said Alan Okinaka, formerly with GTE Hawaiian Telephone. A cookbook project may sound easy, but students discover it takes teamwork, he said.

Some of the projects are similar to evening activities of Junior Achievement in which students set up and run real, for-profit companies, said Okinaka, president of the local Junior Achievement board.

But business help doesn't necessarily mean a business project. Keaau High School student Tesia Perez, designated public relations person for the school's Environmental and Spatial Technology program, gave the example of student Jenah Oshiro creating a computer model of the Shinmachi area of Hilo before it was wiped out by the 1960 tsunami.

The workplace is changing, and business people want students who are prepared for it, Okinaka said. "They want critical thinking skills," he said.

For management, yes, but also for truck drivers?

"I wouldn't want to be on the highway if truck drivers didn't have critical thinking skills," Okinaka answered.

Business people also work on the basics. "If you dress sloppy or speak pidgin, I'm not going to hire you," said former department store manager Irene Nagao.

Some kids say they never heard that before, Garson said. Their teachers tell them they've said that for years. When a businessperson says it, they finally hear it, he said.