The King Kekaulike High School Alumni Association is proud to present its 2nd annual scholarship!

The KKHS Alumni Association Scholarship is for $1000 awarded to a graduating KKHS student attending a university or community college in Hawaii or on the U.S. mainland. There may also be circumstances where two (2) $500 scholarships are awarded to two (2) graduating KKHS students attending a university or community college in Hawaii or on the U.S. mainland.

The student must be a U.S. citizen and a legal resident of Hawaii. This scholarship is non-­transferable and need not be repaid. It is a one-­year grant sent directly to the university or community college in two installments.

The completed application must be received by Ronnie Kihara in G-­206 no later than Friday, March 3, 2017 at 2:00PM. No exceptions will be made.

Click here to for the application.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact KKHS Alumni Association President at troyhashimoto@gmail.com.

CLICK HERE to view past recipients.

King Kekaulike High School is proud to present the Senior Projects for the Class of 2017. These projects are mandatory components for their senior classes. Each senior is asked to choose a topic and produce a paper, product, portfolio, and presentation to showcase their academic capabilities. Students have selected a wide variety of topics, some of which include fishing, fashion design, tattooing, renewable energy, surfing, hunting, performing arts, music, video production, cooking, and more.

Congratulations to seniors Devynn Kochi and Kayla Hackett for being awarded the 2016 King Kekaulike High School Alumni Association Scholarship.

Devynn plans to attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa and major in Asian Studies and minor in Japanese and Korean Language. In the future, she hopes to work with international affairs to enhance the connection between foreign countries. At KKHS, she formed a Japanese Wizards team to compete in the state-wide J-wiz competition. KKHS placed as the top public school score and was the second place winners. In her junior year, she was crowned queen of the 62nd Annual Chrysanthemum Festival.

Kayla was one the senior classes 12 valedictorians and for four years participated in cross country, soccer and track. She received the athletic scholar award for having the highest GPA on the Kekaulike Girls Varsity Soccer Team. She is an AVID tutor, helping students work through problems, which has brought her much enjoyment. In the future, she hopes to become an elementary school teacher.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2015 King Kekaulike High School Alumni of the Year.

The award was created by Class of 2014 student, Joebelle Bonete, who wanted a way of memorializing the achievements of alumni and sharing it with the Kekaulike community was through an annual award. Yearly awards already exist for a Kekaulike Teacher of the Year, Class of the Year, and Student of the Year and an Alumni of the Year award seemed only natural.

Bonete took on the award as her senior project and laid the foundational components for the award, which focuses on recognizing individuals who have demonstrated unique accomplishments following graduation from Kekaulike.

Her hope was that the Alumni of the Year would not only inspire up and coming students to think big in what they can accomplish in their future, but also showcase the value of a Kekaulike education.

Requirements include:
– At least 5 years since graduating from King Kekaulike H.S.
– Current info provided to committee (i.e. valid phone number and/or email)
– A member of the KKHS Alumni Association
– A nomination recommending why they should be named Alumni of the Year.

Nominations are being accepted until Wednesday, April 8, 2015.

The inaugural winner was Dallas Nagata White, a 2004 graduate. Her profile can be found here.

An era has ended at King Kekaulike High School. After 20 years of serving as principal, Susan Scofield retired on December 30, capping off an accomplished career of nearly 44 years in education.

She played a vital role in shaping the heart and soul of Kekaulike, and it began even before any buildings on the campus were ever completed.

King Kekaulike saw its start with just Scofield in an office at Kalama Intermediate where she met her first class of freshman when they were still eighth graders.

“The first graduating class was unique. They were always the oldest in the school,” she said. They had to start traditions and create a sense of place, and how to properly act and behave without anyone before them to follow.

Creating a new high school takes time, and Scofield was it in for the long haul.

She put in the energy and time, many times being the first one to school and the last one to leave.

As a result, Kekaulike slowly began to gain a strong footing, shaping itself into a unique place and establishing its own traditions, from homecoming activities to senior projects. Scofield even can be credited with the founding of this alumni association.

In 2013, under her leadership, Kekaulike was named one of 11 “Best High Schools in Hawaii,” by the U.S. News & World Report and one of 10 Hawaii schools in the Washington Post’s annual index of “America’s Most Challenging High Schools”.

As she ends her tenure at Kekaulike, there is a sense of excitement for her next chapter in life.

Susan Scofield and Clarence Rivers at a retirement assembly. December 2014.

“There comes a time when you begin to realize that you are getting old and gotta do things,” she said.

Travel is at the top of her mind, especially without having to think about work.

Her mother turns 90 and she wants to spend quality time with her, taking her more often to the ninth-island, Las Vegas, to meet up with family.

“I want to become more healthy and eat better”, she said, describing herself as having “one of the worst eating habits.”

Most importantly, she wants to spend time to really clean her house, after years of putting it on the backburner.

When asked what she won’t miss, she quickly responded, “getting 2 a.m. calls from the police and having to hurry to campus because of alarms going off or some type of vandalism.”

However, even as she leaves the school, its future is still top of mind.

“I look forward to the new auditorium being constructed.” It will be another source of pride for the school and has been a long time in the planning phase.

The master plan called for the auditorium to be located in the quad near the cafeteria, but was relocated to its current location near the locker rooms when it was decided that a pool, as originally planned, would unlikely be built.

“I was worried about having a pool on campus, but now we will have an auditorium that will be easily accessible to the public,” she said.

With a whole new chapter of life in front of her, she now has visions of eating french fries and champaign in retirement. “Champaign is always the best,” she exclaims with her classic smile and laugh.

Mrs. Scofield will be truly missed and we will be forever grateful for all of her tremendous contributions.

Scofield with members of the KKHS Alumni Association, December 2014.

Aloha Na Ali’i Alumni,

Many of you reading this may be wondering what exactly the King Kekaulike High School Alumni Association is about. What is the purpose? Who is behind it? How can I get involved?

Let us preface these answers by rightfully acknowledging that this has been a vision of a few King Kekaulike H.S. administrators and alumni who wanted to bring the concept of an alumni association to fruition. Mahalo for the gentle nudge and we hope this vision will become a successful and beneficial relationship between alumni, current King Kekaulike High School students and the surrounding community.

The formation of our alumni association is in its infancy. We have met once a quarter to get a feel of the type of organization we would like to become. Creating an association from the ground-up has its challenges. Creating a solid foundation to build upon is critical and is one of the reasons we have taken our time in developing a framework that will allow for growth. In our meetings it has been easy to get lost in conversations, talking about all the impactful things we would like to participate in and how we can help today’s students in varying capacities. Out of those creative (and sometimes meandering) conversations, we managed to form an executive board, draft a set of governing by-laws, and participate in our first service project (working the food booth at King Kekaulike’s graduation).

The mission of the King Kekaulike Alumni Association is to engage, connect and celebrate the alumni and friends of King Kekaulike High School and work to build lifelong relationships that support the future of our high school.

Aside from the building of relationships between the alumni association and current high school students, the alumni association aims to re-connect with our own alumni and create events to gather and socialize. King Kekaulike has now graduated 14 classes, translating to thousands of alumni. If we can come together for not only good company, but to be a piece of a greater whole, the impact we can have is great. One of the most important things we can do is provide scholarships for students entering various forms of post high school education. The ability to help someone pursue their dreams in today’s challenging environment is powerful and necessary.

Those of us that have volunteered our time and energy to build this association have all come from a variety of graduating classes and fields of work. From teachers to politics to construction, our diversity is our strength. We look forward to expanding this association, adding varying perspectives and creative thinking. What has brought us together thus far is a shared belief that our alma mater is a good school. King Kekaulike has a quality administration, caring and capable educators and faculty, and a bright student body. We have come together to reconnect with all of you, as well as champion the successes of the students and faculty and become another pillar of support for those who seek it.

If you are interested in joining the King Kekaulike High School Alumni Association please visit our website at www.kkhsalumni.org and like our Facebook page www.facebook.com/KKHSAlumni