Are they in the wrong academy?
multi-talented students are good fit anywhere
Photo by Courtesy of Keola Paredes
For his senior project, Keola Paredes took donated soccer cleats from Maui to Bolivia, where kids there can borrow them from a soccer academy he plans to start up with his uncle, who’s a former professional soccer player. With his leadership skills, why isn’t Paredes in the Business and Leadership Academy?
When sophomores choose an academy they consider a lot of factors, such as their interests, abilities, and career plans. Whatever academy and endorsement a student chooses determines a lot about what their high school experience will be like.
Some students are so multi-talented that they could be successful in more than one academy.
Here are three seniors who admit they could have made it in another academy:
Keola Paredes
Paredes is in the Arts and Communications Academy, endorsing in media arts, but this student’s senior project definitely shows that he has abilities that would shine in the Business and Leadership Academy.
For his project, Paredes collected soccer shoe and equipment donations from around Maui to bring to Bolivia. His uncle there wanted to open a soccer academy and had the land to do so; however, the missing ingredient was the soccer equipment.
In response, Paredes took about 100 pairs of soccer cleats to the country to be used by Bolivian children.
“It’s going to work like a bowling alley,” Paredes said, “so the kids come, they borrow the shoes, and they return them when they’re done, so as many kids [who need it] can use the shoes.”
Paredes demonstrated good business skills by organizing and carrying out the donation drive and having a willingness to make a difference.
Despite having these traits of a leader, Paredes has chosen the media arts in order get out visual messages about what’s going on in the world. In fact, he’s working on a short film segment on his project.
“The only way that you can really understand a problem and care about it is to see it firsthand,” he said.
Although Paredes believes in the effectiveness of media, he says he still has an interest in business. He plans to study marketing and business in college and says that if he doesn’t become a soccer coach, his back-up job would be sports marketing.
Jordan Marciel
Marciel is in the Information Technology Academy, but would fit nicely into the Arts and Communications Academy in the music endorsement. He has been playing the ʻukulele since the 6th grade, where he took the ʻUkulele I class under Mr. Rama Camarillo.
After that, Marciel wanted to expand his skills on the instrument and turned to YouTube, songbooks, and audio recordings to broaden his horizons.
“I took on a bunch of my learning by myself,” he said.
In his sophomore year, Marciel took another ʻukulele class from Kumu Kalei Aarona-Lorenzo. He learned more basic skills there and then wanted to pick up a guitar that was in the class and give it a try. Read about Kamehameha Maui’s guitar class that started this year. Since then, he has bought his own guitar and has been teaching himself how to play at home.
Although Marciel has thought about a career in music, he thinks that there’s a higher chance of success in the field of technology.
“I can do more things with a computer than I can with an instrument,” he said.
Kiana Nemoto-Oshita
Nemoto-Oshita is in the Business and Leadership Academy, but her talents in art would make her the perfect fit in the Arts and Communications Academy.
Although Nemoto-Oshita says that she has been drawing since she was little, she only started “making real art” in her freshman year. She has taken Art Studio and will be taking Drawing and Painting next semester, but she also draws on her own. She posts pictures of some of her art on Instagram.
Kiana’s main interest lies in realism, mirroring what she sees in photographs or real life.
Nemoto-Oshita said that she went into Business and Leadership because she thought it would bring her more success in the future.
“At the time we had to decide what academy we wanted to go into, I didn’t even think of pursuing art as a career,” she said. “I didn’t think I would be able to make a living off of it.”
But now, Kiana is considering her options in the field she has a passion for and says that she might want to become an art teacher.
“I definitely think more about art now,” she said.
Overall, these students show that they can be talented in many areas and don’t let themselves be restricted by the names of their academies.
