 this is ThinkTek or specifically this is the military in Hawaii and the title of our show today is Recognizing Hawaii's Military Children and it's a two o'clock block so we're really interested in doing this on a given Thursday and we have with us Wendy Nakasone-Kolani, we have Hilary Epileloha and we have Angela Leonardo. I get that right you guys. All right now we're gonna place you guys in the spotlight so to speak on how we are taking care of military children dependents in the military bases and specifically at Mokapu which is on the Marine base. I get that right? Yeah okay. It's not easy and the fact is that A, we want to be sure that the families support are men and women in uniform are doing okay and the children of course are part of the families so we want we want everything to be copacetic in the families with the children and so we you know we like to support them so it's you know avoid problems what have you and keep everything together. The other part of that is that Hawaii is not the easiest place to transition to it's different than the continuous 48 or Alaska it's it's different from every other state in fact it's different from every place in the world let me volunteer that statement and so as everybody who wasn't born here you know finds out that when you come here you you have to adjust and everybody who was born here finds out that the people who came here have to adjust so we have to give everybody a reasonable period of and a transitional process so when they come and they go it's not traumatic we want to avoid trauma so let me identify you guys you're all associated with the Mokapu school uh on on a Kanioi base am I right about that everybody here is working in or with the Mokapu school right yes okay and Wendy what do you do in connection with the school? Thank you Jay um so I am an army school lead and officer um my office is located on school field barracks so not the Kanioi Marine Corps base Hawaii schools however um I do have counterpart within um the Department of Defense that is on the Marine Corps base and our duties are the same um we help our families as they transition to and from military installations in Hawaii okay okay and uh you know uh Hillary you you are in the Mokapu school um you're in charge of of transition there in that school right yes um I have the registration here and I run our transition center that we started about four years ago here at Mokapu okay and okay and uh yeah Angela you're you're a military wife and you have children and you benefit by these transitional programs do you also participate in the operation of the of the school any of the schools involved? Yes so I'm both a military spouse I have two children um and I work here at Mokapu Elementary as a grant committee networking coordinator um what we do here is uh we foster a connection between our schools our families and our communities through family engagement activities for white events and we also are in charge of our selling our spirit here so why why do you do that? um we do this to uh bring in more families into our school and to um just have like that connection with the community and our parents and get more parent involvement which we all know is the is the you know great positive connection between the success of our children if their parents are involved obviously it's been a little bit more difficult in recently with COVID but we've been trying our best to have our parents um stay connected with our school why do you do it? I'm sorry? Why do you do it? Why do I do it because um I have seen uh firsthand uh the improvement my children have had um both uh in school educational wise and just socially being involved at school uh my children have improved dramatically I I used to be I used to be work a full-time um employee not at a school obviously my my career was in a different field and I was never around to just be part of my kids school and and anything and so I had the opportunity here to both be part of the school the academics and be closer to my kids and that has um 100 shown improvement with my children oh I interview a lot of parents must envy you they must all be lining up to do what you do so they can be closer to the kids all day am I right? Yes yes and on top of that you know being a parent community networking coordinator or what we call PCNC um it's a pay position here in Hawaii uh you don't find this in um other parts of mainland you know mainland you have PTAs or PTOs here we have the um what's the difference having those uh PTAs or PTOs are the parent um teacher organizations or parent teacher associations they are voluntary parents um volunteer parents who put together fundraisers uh a PCNC like myself we provide all of the activities that we provide or craft anything family engagement wise it's all free of charge we don't have families for that okay so do you actually teach? Myself no I don't I would actually I do teach we are actually in charge of all the volunteers here so all of our parent volunteers or what we call classroom parents every classroom gets to select a classroom parent to come and help the teachers and we train them so when I say we I actually have a partner her name's Tabitha Gray unfortunately she's not in today but we are both in charge of training our volunteer so in that aspect I do teach okay well you're but you're in the classroom and I I guess I'll ask you this too I mean what what sort of things do you need to do uh being in the classroom as a you know as a member of the the school staff that way what do you have to do what things come up that you have to attend to and what do you do to attend to them? Myself yeah since I get to work here I actually get to help out I get to know all of the teachers and faculty and staff here and so in in time they need help I can come by we actually have limited the amount of volunteers that we have on campus it's not the same as it was last year this year the only volunteers that are allowed and approved to come to our campus are the parent volunteers that I train and some of those parents are unable to come in because they have smaller children so anytime that a teacher or anyone here it needs assistance I can run over and help them out okay it's sure you're doing what you're training others to do so what is the training like what is the training like what are you training them in? Well we train a lot of different aspects but this year has been different obviously we've been doing it all virtually uh usually years prior we did this in person so we would have them come to our campus and train now it's been done virtually and myself it was the first time I used a Zoom meeting so it was great so we teach school safety so you know um compliance and the use of electronics um just how to conduct yourself in class correct and not only how to dress how to you know how to properly dress at a school camp and also provide them a badge that shows that they're a visitor that way we can see them from far that they are a visitor and they're just not a stranger in our campus they are physically in the school building this is not a virtual this is in the school building correct so when they so you teach them about COVID and masks and distancing too correct so we do that's the new that's a new subject we have to add in our training of course of course well Hilary I mean you know you are very interesting to me because you see it happening you see it coming and going and let me start with the flip side okay that is you're trying to make a soft landing for people you're trying to prepare them for you know a new school life so to speak um and I guess my question is ready for a hard question uh my question is what happens if you weren't there what happens to a transition that is not handled oh that's a tough one um I don't know what would happen um I would hope that my students that I prepare or that other people that they can see the aloha through me and if I weren't on campus that they could continue sharing that aloha that I tried to share with our family so what okay you you are you one on one or one on the class you're in the class trying to teach instruct familiarize these kids uh so our transition center here at mocapu I have aloha ambassadors so I have 24 aloha ambassadors that I work with um it's more of an after school club but the students I see them in the morning we do tours to welcome students to our school and then we do uh could we distribute goodbye kits to the students that are leaving we I try to train or instill the aloha spirit in my students so that way as they're labeled or their names are aloha ambassadors I want to make sure that they are able to live live aloha and to share it so we like to make it fun and inviting and I always try to explain to my students how the importance of making friends and making people feel welcome because at some point they were that new student when they came to our school uh our students are here for anywhere between two to three years and so at some point I've met every student that have come that come through or their families and so I want them to be able to to be able to share that so I just had a conversation with my student yesterday and he's like oh I remember when I got my tour so I want them to be able to share what they learn um from that tour and then so we meet weekly I meet with my students and it's a good connection it's all about connection it's all about relationships so I believe once I get that good connection with my students I want them to be able to foster that same connection with other students here at our school how many are we talking about how many students at our school how many so this week we had about this week alone we had about 15 kids that started at our school okay in total 15 yes so on tap so that's um rather for this part into our school year uh we've had uh at least in the last three weeks about 30 kids that started at our school that just moved here from um we've had North Carolina from Florida from California so it's good to hear um to meet these students and hear their experiences and kind of make them feel welcomed and make them know that we are here for them so I think that for me is the best the the biggest thing and so that's why I love my job I can see that it's all three of you I can see that so um yeah I think what I hear you saying is that there's a certain Hawaiian culture environment that you want to create for these kids you want to teach them how life here in these islands you know is different and better so do they come with a need for that and what I mean is you know I mean we've been talking about race issues on the mainland at all and and I always come away with the feeling that Hawaii is way better in dealing with the with race and then you know diversity than anywhere in the country um do they come with with rough edges that you have to smooth out and that's so much so um the great thing is once these students start hearing about our culture um I want to highlight our third grade in particular this year we actually had a couple weeks ago uh our one of our community partners came to our campus to Pongkalo for our students and for them to be able to see things like this happening they want to learn more um right before this I was actually teaching about Kukulu o Kalani which is a Hawaiian star compass for our third grade class um this week we talked about the moon phases so Kalana Mahina so Hawaiian culture is alive and well on our campus and it's nice to see our students wanting to learn more it's nice to hear them the conversation happening that they can make that connection when we when I taught them the word in Lima for number five she was like oh Lima that's also hand you know they can make those connections for our culture and so my goal and my the number one thing I want to do is as we share this with our students I want them to take it home and share it with their families and they continue as they continue to share it with their families once they leave Hawaii they can share it all around the world and they can take that spirit with them everywhere so you know hearing that hearing those um a student like I had a student move to Okinawa and so to know that she's still dancing hula in Okinawa that's that one is my heart because she's still taking Hawaii everywhere she goes I'm very touched by that you know we did a show in uh in Kona Kona Maoka at Kalei Hei White Kei Hei High School and if you know that high school and you know it's a very diverse high school and there are Pacific Islanders there um and um your point about the teaching the kids so they can teach their parents is so important and the principle there I think his name is Murakami a wonderful man um that's exactly what he does he teaches the kids so they can teach their parents and everybody benefits it's a very a lot I think to do yeah well let's talk to you Wendy um you know what is there are other places other than Mokapu I guess you said that was on Schofield and you're there um how are they different are they all the same and how do you coordinate them great question so yes we have many military impacted schools in our state um primarily of course throughout our island of Oahu but every school that has a military connected student in them we consider military impacted and so when you look at all the public schools across our island we probably have more than 150 military impacted public schools here and um you know Hilary and Angela they're at Mokapu elementary school but we also have other schools that are on other installations um that of course are highly military impacted but we also have schools outside the gates that are also military impacted because we have many many military families not living on the installation right and so it's important for these schools to provide services and programs like Angela and Hilary both provide at Mokapu and do you go outside do you go to these other schools and talk to the faculty and the students there absolutely absolutely and you know I'm we where I'm a part of a scheme at um Schofield and I have counterparts so we also have schoolies and officers for the Marine Corps base and Joint Base for Harbor Hickam so there's a team of us and um which makes it a little easier and enjoyable right so we do go out to the schools we talk to staff just like Hilary and Angela um we kind of give kind of like a sense of professional development um military cultural awareness um and really we're we're great partners yeah oh that sounds wonderful now compare for me the way this is done in Hawaii and the way it's done on the mainland is it done on the mainland I mean if I'm going from Ohio to Minnesota uh do I need a transitional assist over there so we had there are schoolies question no that's a great question and a great point so that a lot of even military families are not aware of schoolies and officers and the reality is is that there's a schoolies and officer and our academic flow so we're often referred to as flows but we're super slow um but we do there's flows across the world and so the purpose of that is very intentional of course to assist all of these families as they transition into and out of many installations worldwide that they have that support in definitely indeed oh of course if I go to say Europe or Asia with my family I do need transition over there because otherwise it could be traumatic for me not to understand what's happening around me so are you a social worker Wendy are you a teacher what brought you into this field so my background is in education and so I was with the Hawaii Department of Education and then um and then I this job this position kind of just happened and I looked into it and um really you know I'm born and raised here and I always knew that of course the military installations in our state right I knew of them I knew of school field my dad worked at Pearl Harbor so I had a really just general basic knowledge but when I looked more into it and what kind of impact the military has on our state and in our community and in our local community too I wanted to be a part of it and so um then that's exactly what I did and with my background in education I this this position is ideal for me I can see that we can all see that all our viewers all at the same time can see that Angela you know one thing about kids is you gotta love them and um these are these are uh what what grade kids are in the school I just want to get a handle on that this this not doesn't include a high school does it include a junior high school elementary where are we um here on our military base and we have a elementary school which runs for pre-kindergarten all the way to sixth grade they're very impressionable these kids and what happens you know what they learn about for the whole other example um you know that sticks with them the rest of their lives they will never forget their experience here in Hawaii um but I guess my question is uh what is the difference if you can answer me it between a military kid who's been around the world because you know as Hillary said he's on two or three years and that's it and you're moving on that's the way it goes and people who move on in their lives and have different experiences different places travel broadens and travel broadens kids do so what kinds of things do you see what kind of how kind how impressionable are they and how different are they from a kid who has only grown up in one place well um I can definitely say I my kids have actually been on both ends even though we were a military impacted family my husband's in the Navy he's been in the Navy for almost 23 years um we about it wasn't up to about four years ago that we actually had our first move so we were lucky enough to stay in California for a long period of time and we did not live on base we lived off base so my children went to a non-military impacted school and so my children really never were exposed to having to move until four years ago when we had to up and move to Japan uh very different different you know culture different surroundings different just the language itself was there a slow there I'm sorry was there a slow there this hello there was a slow yeah there was a slow in Japan and she helped us tremendously because we had never moved you know we we go to Japan our kids had to leave their friends behind we had to leave our family it was all new to them so having a team like the slow the school liaison officers or trans coordinators like Hilary has helped my children tremendously because and myself as well because not not not only are we you know moving across the world we're also having to move to a new new place new people we don't know anyone and just having that support has helped my children they probably come home and teach you things that they learned right they did in Japan my children learn how to um how to play the taiko drums okay they also were involved in learning some Japanese words and so they would teach all invaluable for their whole lives to have that so Hilary you know one of the thing I was though with an organization with a former coast guard officer um organization with the coast guard you know which was very concerned about military spouses who stayed at home um while their uh spouses were at sea and uh that was the stress on the family of course you know you know it's not rocket science to know that um and the question I I put to you is uh do you see the fallout of that in in the course of organizing these transitional programs because a kid whose uh whose dad has been away um on a submarine or a ship what have you such as maybe Angela's husband um you know that's it's a different experience for that kid and he may need to you know to be grounded somehow um because his family is incomplete while one of his parents is traveling on you know far away places do you see that and how do you deal with it um here at our school we want our students to have that safe person a safe adult um we want to be there for them knowing that if you need us you know even if mom if it's best mom at home that you have a safe adult here in our campus so that's one thing that's super important to our principal that each of our students have that safe person that they could identify on our campus um we also have deployment kits that we might think about to our students if we know that they are having um that issue or that separation from deployment so we want to have that support we do have support on our campus uh we have a wonderful counseling team we also have our mflap team which is a military family life counselors and they are here and they're able to to connect with our students and they're able to share resources we also have what is called focus um focus is families overcoming under stress it's a it's a focus project and military bases have this this group and they provide resilience training to teach these these families well not only the kids but the families on how to be resilient people uh offer practical skills so they can identify those feelings and they have someone to talk to so we have great partners in our military community here that we can share these resources with our family um like our mflap and focus project that I've worked with specifically at our campus yeah I see this as a great what do you want to call it a benefit of being in the service uh there are a lot of perks to being in the service it's a great career great life and this is not only a safety net for trouble that your family might have and transitioning to a different location and base but it's also you know it's a good experience and it protects the family what you're doing and I think people should appreciate that Wendy I want to talk to you about the you know the resilience of the program if you've been with it for a while then you must ask yourself uh how how how firmly embedded is it in you know the Department of Defense um and is it is it funded uh to the point where you know it doesn't call for more funding I don't know the answer to that um and it's future uh it's obviously a tremendous benefit um to the families involved um to to the community of Hawaii we want these kids to have good transition we want them to understand we want them to love our state and our culture um so it's it's got tremendous benefit all around the question is uh how how sustainable is it within DoD how well funded is it what is its future you have any idea about that you ever think about that can you talk about that with me absolutely and you know that's a great point because when you talk about support programs and services and resources available you always if it's a good thing you always want it to for it to be sustainable and I can tell you that the transition program the support that we have here in Hawaii and across the world is so important I mean you know Angela as a as a spouse mentioned it and how helpful it was and so I've been doing this for more than 10 years as a school liaison officer and so you know in the past decade or so um these programs um and these support systems have been in place and they have grown um so not only have they been sustained but I I I think they've grown they've gathered traction a lot of traction across the world and um you know I think yes funding you know is always part of the the puzzle but I think most importantly is to have the right people in the room um you know when you when you talk about these programs and services people like Angela and Hilary there's there's many of them across the world Jay and they are there the far majority it's not all of them are there because they want to be there they're dedicating their time their experiences you know their effort everything because they want to be there um and I think that's the most invaluable thing yeah now you asked about funding yes absolutely there is a financial piece to it and I can tell you for a lot of the schools here they're applying for grants you know I mean just just really that's what it comes on outside of DOD yes yes and I can't I do want to say that the Department of Defense does offer grants as well and the Department of Education here in Hawaii and across the mainland have applied and received funding from the Department of Defense great yeah okay well it sounds robust and it should be robust you know I mean you can tell President Biden is you know he's pulling out of Afghanistan but there are issues on the Russian border you know that are threatening and and who knows where our troops will be going who knows where uh you know our what our bases will be doing and thus our families you know so we've got to we've got to stay nimble about that and you guys have got to stay nimble about it who knows but let me ask you about purple day and the reason I'm asking you about this Hillary is that you you're wearing purple so April is month of the military child um month of the military child was started in 1986 by the then Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger um it is to celebrate the children who didn't choose this lifestyle but they were born into it and they have to stay strong so having support systems like us then we have to celebrate our students and we have to celebrate our children um our military impacted are tricky because they play such an important role in their family um so just to kind of talk about the month of uh Angela will tell you why it's purple but I will tell you the dandelion um is actually the official flower for our military children um it is a dandelion because military children are like the dandelion they can put down roots almost anywhere they are impossible to destroy and they adapt easily and can survive. You better all worked out. I do military children bloom everywhere the wind carries them and they stand ready to fly into freezes to take them into new adventures like coming to Hawaii so um dandelion is the official flower for month of the military child that's wonderful okay we're about out of time Angela you get to close I want to know what you've been doing with purple day I also want to know what message you want to leave with our viewers oh perfect yes so like Hillary had mentioned we were purple on the month of April to celebrate the month of the military child um it's the common it's common known that for month of the military military child the color purple is supposed to it symbolizes uh all the military branches combine so when you take the navy blue army green air force blue marine red and course postcard blue it all combines stir it up into purple purple so we we uh you know so we were purple here every Wednesday um wait a minute you're also wearing purple wait a minute Wendy's also wearing purple yes we're all wearing purple um and next week we will be celebrating our purple update which will be here we'll celebrate both Wednesday and Thursday April 21st and 22nd one of the activities we have scheduled for our school at mocapul elementary is we have invited a couple of special guests we have our the base commanding officer Colonel Cumparacas will be joining us and a couple of other active duty members from the area and they will be welcoming our keiki or our children at morning drop-off and we'll be holding signs and cheering them and just making them feel special um because we are a hybrid program we have that your children coming part time we will be hosting it both Wednesday and Thursday so all children get to get celebrated on drop-off oh that's great and they will remember all their lives don't they it is and we've also had a spirit week last week where you know every day was a different thing for our children uh for them to celebrate so we have millet we had military monday so had to wear anything military related uh then we had home of the brave Tuesday which was where a t-shirt or something from a place that you've lived in before uh we wore t-shirts from japan my my daughter and I and then we had purple up Wednesday so anything purple went was fair and then pcs thing is crazy thursday so it's just the crazy hair day crazy socks crazy anything you know just to celebrate the house what fun it's crazy and then on our friday was patriots and pajama day so that's what you guys you guys must love what you're doing you must love being around them and making their lives better not only here now and in their duty you know the tourism duty in Hawaii but but for the rest of them on uh we're out of time angela i want to thank you very much for coming around illy i want to thank you very much really enjoyed your contribution to this public conversation and wendy thank you so much for your service and for your your help in helping us to understand these things hello hot to all of you guys thank you so much thanks day