By Ethan Hoppe-Cruz, Wai'anae Program
Today is June 18, the first day of field school, a program that mixes the sciences, Hawaiian culture and conservation all in one, and to be honest a majority of the students are loving it already. To start this amazing learning experience we did an icebreaker to introduce ourselves and even made a ball to help with community circles, (a practice where we all reflect in a safe space), the “community ball”, known as John the Dude. In which we made by stringing cord and sharing a spiritual energy know in Hawaiian as mana. We then proceeded to make an 8 strand braid know as “Aha”. After this we went over the rules of our classrooms, took a few assessments to determine where we were and to cap it all we closed with another community circle and everyone, or at least in the case of this writer, an overwhelming sense of belonging.
Today is June 18, the first day of field school, a program that mixes the sciences, Hawaiian culture and conservation all in one, and to be honest a majority of the students are loving it already. To start this amazing learning experience we did an icebreaker to introduce ourselves and even made a ball to help with community circles, (a practice where we all reflect in a safe space), the “community ball”, known as John the Dude. In which we made by stringing cord and sharing a spiritual energy know in Hawaiian as mana. We then proceeded to make an 8 strand braid know as “Aha”. After this we went over the rules of our classrooms, took a few assessments to determine where we were and to cap it all we closed with another community circle and everyone, or at least in the case of this writer, an overwhelming sense of belonging.