Homeland: Pohnpei High School: Waiakea High School College: UH Manoa Major: Pacific Island Studies Status: Graduated Pursuing: Bachelors Degree
“My goals will further the legacy of Dr. Joakim “Jojo” Peter in that by learning more about what he has contributed for our community, I can further his dreams of a better life for our people. I want to be like Jojo one day.”
– Makana Delara
Community Service
As a student of Pohnpeian and Palauan ancestry, I attended multiple Pacific Islander Youth Career/Empowerment Day events at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. When I moved to Oʻahu to attend college, I became further connected with Pacific Islander communities by volunteering at We Are Oceania, helping with the 2018 Micronesian Youth Summit at UH Mānoa. In 2020, as a part of my PACS 202 and PACS 301 classes with Dr. Lola Bautista and Dr. Julie Walsh, I completed my service learning at the Pālolo ʻOhana Learning Center, where I tutored our Pacific Islander youth with homework, manners, and working together. Also as a part of my Senior Capstone with Dr. Lola Bautista, I interned at the Celebrate Micronesia Festival with Dr. Mary Hattori as my site supervisor. I was put in charge of creating social media posts and tracking social media analytics, as well as planning the upcoming 2021 Celebrate Micronesia Festival at Bishop Museum. This allowed for the opportunity to obtain a paid position as an Events Assistant as a part of the Pacific Islands Development Program at East-West Center. Taking a look at all of the volunteer and community service projects I have contributed to throughout my college career, I have gained a much better understanding of our people. I have learned that in our sea of islands, all of our people are connected in many ways, through culture, through community, and through each other. There is so much that I have learned, but there is still so much to learn. So I believe that if I am an A+Jojo Scholar, it will allow me to continue my journey to learning more about our community and working with them to make a change.
Leadership Experience
Throughout my college career, I was able to connect with local communities and be a role model for our Pacific Islander youth in many ways. Volunteering at the Pālolo ʻOhana Learning Center allowed me to learn more about our Pacific Islander youth in the diaspora. I was just helping out on my free time at the afterschool program, but I could tell how much role models, such as myself, were positively influencing the children. Though my time with POLC was cut short due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I emailed my supervisors to say thank you for all that they have allowed me to do, with helping out the children, and I would like to share what they said to me: “I can go on and on lol… but most of all I would like to Thank you for making a big impact in our children’s lives at the Learning Center. The children always ask is Uncle Makana coming today and when i tell them not today that look sad but when i tell them Uncle is here today they had a BIG SMILE ON THERE FACE that how i know that you made an impact in there life so i thank you for that.” This really touched my heart, and going back, it makes me sad that I am no longer working with the children at POLC anymore. Moving forward, as a part of my Events Assistant position at East-West Center, I was put in charge of running the social media accounts for the Celebrate Micronesia Festival. Before I started working there, all we had was a Facebook page. But I decided that we needed to connect with other online communities by creating an Instagram and Twitter pages for the festival. And since then, our Instagram page has been reached by 797 people, with almost 1,000 content interactions! In the last 28 days, our Twitter page reached 20.6K tweet impressions, with 527 profile visits! This definitely shows the amount of people we are reaching, that we likely weren’t reaching before creating these accounts. Overall, I believe that my experiences as a leader have not only helped our community, but it has impacted my life by making me a better role model for our Pacific Islander youth.
Legacy Goals
There is much that inspires me about the late Dr. Joakim “Jojo” Peter and his contribution to our COFA community. Through my senior capstone research, I learned that he was a well-known educator and activist from Chuuk, and an alumnus of UH Mānoa (PhD, Department of Special Education). Dr. Peter was a tireless advocate for the Micronesian community in Hawai‘i and beyond. He founded, co-founded, and worked with numerous organizations including We Are Oceania, Compact of Free Association Community Advocacy Network (COFA-CAN), Compact of Free Association Community Leadership Advocacy Network (COFA-CLAN), and Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL). Dr. Peter has done so much for our community, and it inspires me to do more for our community as well. His journal article titled “The Computer and the Canoe: Web-Based Communities Across the Pacific Islands” was one of the main reasons to why I decided to write a research paper on how increased online tools and activities address issues of identity and educational success for Pacific Islanders in diaspora. My favorite quote from that reading was when he stated that “the canoe is conceptualized as waʻa, a vessel that brings life (e.g., access to food, medical care), so too is the human body also referred to as waʻa. Could the computer also be viewed metaphorically as waʻa, bringing and sharing life to dispersed communities in the best sense?” This relates to my personal goal of having a better connection with my Pacific Islander heritage. I want to make a difference for the lives of Pacific Islanders, a change for the better, especially with all of the hate and discrimination continuing to plague our peoples. Currently I am just an Events Assistant, however one day I would like to become an aspiring Pacific Islander, making real changes for our people. My goals will further the legacy of Dr. Joakim “Jojo” Peter in that by learning more about what he has contributed for our community, I can further his dreams of a better life for our people. I want to be like Jojo one day.
Makana Delara
Meet the Scholars
Sponsor a Scholar
Makana Delara
A+JOJO SCHOLAR
Homeland: Pohnpei
High School: Waiakea High School
College: UH Manoa
Major: Pacific Island Studies
Status: Graduated
Pursuing: Bachelors Degree
Community Service
As a student of Pohnpeian and Palauan ancestry, I attended multiple Pacific Islander Youth Career/Empowerment Day events at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. When I moved to Oʻahu to attend college, I became further connected with Pacific Islander communities by volunteering at We Are Oceania, helping with the 2018 Micronesian Youth Summit at UH Mānoa. In 2020, as a part of my PACS 202 and PACS 301 classes with Dr. Lola Bautista and Dr. Julie Walsh, I completed my service learning at the Pālolo ʻOhana Learning Center, where I tutored our Pacific Islander youth with homework, manners, and working together. Also as a part of my Senior Capstone with Dr. Lola Bautista, I interned at the Celebrate Micronesia Festival with Dr. Mary Hattori as my site supervisor. I was put in charge of creating social media posts and tracking social media analytics, as well as planning the upcoming 2021 Celebrate Micronesia Festival at Bishop Museum. This allowed for the opportunity to obtain a paid position as an Events Assistant as a part of the Pacific Islands Development Program at East-West Center. Taking a look at all of the volunteer and community service projects I have contributed to throughout my college career, I have gained a much better understanding of our people. I have learned that in our sea of islands, all of our people are connected in many ways, through culture, through community, and through each other. There is so much that I have learned, but there is still so much to learn. So I believe that if I am an A+Jojo Scholar, it will allow me to continue my journey to learning more about our community and working with them to make a change.
Leadership Experience
Throughout my college career, I was able to connect with local communities and be a role model for our Pacific Islander youth in many ways. Volunteering at the Pālolo ʻOhana Learning Center allowed me to learn more about our Pacific Islander youth in the diaspora. I was just helping out on my free time at the afterschool program, but I could tell how much role models, such as myself, were positively influencing the children. Though my time with POLC was cut short due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I emailed my supervisors to say thank you for all that they have allowed me to do, with helping out the children, and I would like to share what they said to me: “I can go on and on lol… but most of all I would like to Thank you for making a big impact in our children’s lives at the Learning Center. The children always ask is Uncle Makana coming today and when i tell them not today that look sad but when i tell them Uncle is here today they had a BIG SMILE ON THERE FACE that how i know that you made an impact in there life so i thank you for that.” This really touched my heart, and going back, it makes me sad that I am no longer working with the children at POLC anymore. Moving forward, as a part of my Events Assistant position at East-West Center, I was put in charge of running the social media accounts for the Celebrate Micronesia Festival. Before I started working there, all we had was a Facebook page. But I decided that we needed to connect with other online communities by creating an Instagram and Twitter pages for the festival. And since then, our Instagram page has been reached by 797 people, with almost 1,000 content interactions! In the last 28 days, our Twitter page reached 20.6K tweet impressions, with 527 profile visits! This definitely shows the amount of people we are reaching, that we likely weren’t reaching before creating these accounts. Overall, I believe that my experiences as a leader have not only helped our community, but it has impacted my life by making me a better role model for our Pacific Islander youth.
Legacy Goals
There is much that inspires me about the late Dr. Joakim “Jojo” Peter and his contribution to our COFA community. Through my senior capstone research, I learned that he was a well-known educator and activist from Chuuk, and an alumnus of UH Mānoa (PhD, Department of Special Education). Dr. Peter was a tireless advocate for the Micronesian community in Hawai‘i and beyond. He founded, co-founded, and worked with numerous organizations including We Are Oceania, Compact of Free Association Community Advocacy Network (COFA-CAN), Compact of Free Association Community Leadership Advocacy Network (COFA-CLAN), and Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL). Dr. Peter has done so much for our community, and it inspires me to do more for our community as well. His journal article titled “The Computer and the Canoe: Web-Based Communities Across the Pacific Islands” was one of the main reasons to why I decided to write a research paper on how increased online tools and activities address issues of identity and educational success for Pacific Islanders in diaspora. My favorite quote from that reading was when he stated that “the canoe is conceptualized as waʻa, a vessel that brings life (e.g., access to food, medical care), so too is the human body also referred to as waʻa. Could the computer also be viewed metaphorically as waʻa, bringing and sharing life to dispersed communities in the best sense?” This relates to my personal goal of having a better connection with my Pacific Islander heritage. I want to make a difference for the lives of Pacific Islanders, a change for the better, especially with all of the hate and discrimination continuing to plague our peoples. Currently I am just an Events Assistant, however one day I would like to become an aspiring Pacific Islander, making real changes for our people. My goals will further the legacy of Dr. Joakim “Jojo” Peter in that by learning more about what he has contributed for our community, I can further his dreams of a better life for our people. I want to be like Jojo one day.