A college education is a big investment in money, time, energy, and resources for any high school graduate. For the Pacific Islander students who are afforded the chance to leave the relative calm of their home islands in pursuit of a college degree, this experience is both a privilege and a daunting task. It brings honor to the family, but can also become a collective shame for failure to attain the degree.
This reflection is meant for newly graduated high school students from the Pacific Island regions. It is partly based on my own experience as a Micronesian who left a small island in Chuuk to get an education in Guam, New York, and California. It is also informed by the discussions, surveys, and focus groups with Pacific Islander students at University of Hawaii at Hilo. It is not meant to be exhaustive. It serves as a starting point for further discussion during the Pacific Islander Summer Bridge Program at UH Hilo.
So, what can an old Pacific Islander educator tell the new generation of Pacific Islander college students? Here are my top 7:
1) Get Your Bearings Before You Leave the Island
Going to college is like launching your canoe on a 4-year seafaring expedition with you as the master navigator, the paluwlap. Our disciplined ancestors who traversed this vast blue liquid continent known as the Pacific Ocean, knew their destination and filled their canoes with provisions before starting a journey. Your modern day provisions might include some concepts:
a. You no longer control time; time will now control your life.
b. You are in charge of your journey; take control of it
c. You will run out of provisions along the way; check your pride and flag down a passing ship to ask for help
d. You will encounter strong winds, powerful currents, calm seas with no wind blowing, giant waves that prevent you from making progress; keep on paddling
e. You are no longer learning how to navigate; you are expected to navigate.
f. Your humility is your power; assert that power to get things done
g. The ocean you’re traversing is heavily traveled by all sorts of canoes, speedboats, yatchs, tankers that are faster and more well resourced (and even prettier); don’t compare yourself with them or you’ll lose focus on your unique qualities.
2) Seek Out Resources on Campus
The operative word is “seek”; you are the master navigator of your own canoe; no one will seek you out to give you the resources. College is when you have to grow up almost instantly with a Can-Do-American attitude. You have to peel off the external layers of our island cultures of humility, which can stand in the way of taking initiatives. Take advantage of any bridge program that is open to you for they help transition you from your high school years to your college career. Pay the small fee to attend your college’s new student orientation program; it’s a great investment in your preparation to succeed in higher education. Seek the free services offered by the international student services, tutoring center, peer mentoring through a minority student services, financial assistance through your financial aid office, writing through the writing center on campus. Contact your Pacific Islander Student Center.
3) Meet with Your Advisor
Your advisor is a faculty or staff member assigned to you to guide your explorations through the academic options available to you. The role of your advisor is to assist you in the process. Although academic advising is not mandatory, it is in your best interest that you meet with your advisor and build a relationship with them your first semester on campus. It is imperative that students with declared majors meet with faculty advisors to go over course selection and sequencing in the majors. Undeclared students are assigned to professional advisors usually in some kind of Advising Center until they have officially declared their majors.
4) Check Your Pride on the Shore & Ask for Help Early
We are a proud people in the Pacific. That pride has its proper place in our culture, but must be checked when you are in college. There are people on college campuses whose jobs are to help you succeed in college. Seek them out and get their help. You cannot afford to let your Pacific Island pride get in the way of your success. And you must ask for help early in the semester or it will be too late. As soon as you feel that you are behind, make an appointment with your professor or at the tutoring center to get the help you need.
5) Self-Discipline is not Selfish
In our laid back close-knit Pacific Island cultures, we value spending time with people in our villages, church groups, clan obligations, family responsibilities, and social group of friends. Our self-worth is often measured by the degree to which we fulfill our communal responsibilities. You may be away from your communities, but in college you simply pick up other groups who demand your involvement. Your elders are now the faculty, staff, and work supervisors; church members might be your classmates. Your 2 friends back home are now replaced by your 400 Facebook “friends,” your nuclear family are your roommates and members of your student organization are your new extended family. All of these groups will demand set time with them. In college, you will need to learn how to strengthen your self-discipline to say, “No, thanks, I need to study!” Master those simple words and you will not only help yourself, but the rest of the students in your groups who need a culture of discipline to succeed too.
6) Passing Time or Passing Classes
A typical day in the Pacific was clocked by the rising and the setting of the sun. Your typical high school day was controlled by the bell and the constant promptings of teachers, guidance counselors, parents, and maybe even the principal. Your typical college day is now focused on the demands of passing your courses often without the constant affirmations of teachers, counselors, or your family. Each 24-hour day in college is a jumble of small decisions, which connect to each other to form a chain of success. I guarantee you will need a calendar / organizer to keep track of all your activities to avoid missing one of these links. The more missing links you have the less chance you have to reach your goal. And you have to do all of these while managing homesickness, culture shock, long study hours, note-taking skills, noisy apartments or neighbors, tests, papers, deadlines, jobs, social networking, research, group work, making money, paying your bills, fieldtrips, sports, socializing, shopping, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, getting tutoring, and exercises. If you ever feel that your typical college day resembles the slow mode of passing time back home, then you need to check yourself. Chances are you are letting time pass by without passing your classes. You have to learn to manage your priorities to succeed in college.
7) Respect Your Elders, But Interact with Your Professors
Pacific Island cultures are rooted in the respect of our elders. The cultural power dynamic prevents youth from interacting directly with the elders as such interaction might be considered disrespectful. In college, your professors expect you to come and see them during their office hours. They want you to succeed in their classes. In fact, most professors have extra points for students who make time to come and get help during their office hours or ask questions in class. They may seem intimidating, but that may be because of our own cultural upbringing. You need to overcome that quickly…on day one and see your teachers as companions on your expedition. Their role is to provide you with the information you need to succeed when you get to shore (graduation). As the master navigator of your canoe, get your bearings from them regularly. To avoid them completely is actually disrespectful of their role, expectations, and expertise.
