ETech Futures for Mana Wahine

Across the US, there are many students and communities who remain underserved. Through the intersectional challenges of economics, race, ethnicity, culture and especially gender in STEM education and work, there are significant challenges for our young women which demand solutions.  Within the Hawaii educational landscape, wahine (women and nonbinary students) face a plethora of obstacles to their success.  Our MIT Gender Equity in STEM Project addresses the dual challenge of STEM education and wahine academic success by creating ETech Futures for Mana Wahine.

The long-recognized gender gap that escalates in middle school is most concerning in that girls perform at or above boys in math and science before middle school.  Research illustrates specific teaching methods enable girls to flourish. Place-based education embodies these educational methods which young girls need to thrive in todays’ STEM world. Place-based learning gives the girls ownership in learning about their community and their environment while motivating them to secure solutions.  These activities emphasize critical thinking, social/community engagement, and direct work with female role models. This academic engagement has been proven successful in subverting this cliff drop of young women’s STEM performance. (UCLA Riggers-Piehl, Ph.D.) As a Harvard study found, the young girls don’t lose their voice they just need the arena where they are encouraged to exercise their voice. (Harvard School of Ed)

The all-girl environment of our Wahine Rising program purposefully elevates critical thinking skills as well as advances the young girls’ desire to engage and become an active part of the community.  Alongside the place-based education of our Environmental Tech for Future Ancestors program, our wahine investigate environmental challenges on Oahu and work with community leaders to identify and design solutions.  They help rejuvenate specific ecosystems, as well as create 21st Century technology-based products based in ancient Hawaiian practices. This place-based STEM education combined with proactive engagement for our young women, empowers our wahine to take charge of their education.  This calculated support inspires our wahine to exercise their voice in academics, to explore their leadership skills, and say yes to STEM leadership.  Rather than let the small number of women in STEM stifle their dreams, our project provides extensive support to overcome intersectional challenges.

While there are no easy answers, the research is clear that there are solutions.  The National Academy of Engineers found that girls were twice as likely to say there were not interested in being engineers.  However, when posited as a question that enquired of their interest in relevant problems and critical thinking, the girls said yes.  Yes, they wanted to design safe water systems. Yes, they wanted to be involved in saving the rainforest. ETech Futures for Mana Wahine emboldens our young women to say Yes that they want to use 21st Century technology to create solutions for our Hawaiian ecosystem.

Our project bolsters the idea of place-based education while placing intentional and academically researched support for our young women.  Engaging in the STEM challenges of their own community, our Solve project can be scaled across the US.

The ETech Futures for Mana Wahine integrates place-based education with intentional support for our young wahine.  Place-based learning strengthens young women’s identity and sense of belonging through a culturally responsive and authentic curriculum. Ownership of the problems and the potential solutions in their own backyard elevates their interest, motivation and desire to take risks in their education.  

With ETech Futures for Mana Wahine, students travel to specific historic and environmentally significant locations across Oahu.  The students research environmental challenges and work with community leaders to identify and design solutions. Students create 21st Century technology-based products based in ancient Hawaiian practices for the restoration of our Hawaiian ecosystem and for the education of the public.  Education and community are inseparable and place-based learning enhances this connection.

Parallel to STEM work, Wahine Rising gather in groups to receive intentional social/emotional learning and to obtaining key academic underpinnings.  In this all-girls setting, we develop critical thinking skills, make using their voice habitual, and purposefully develop leadership skills for their work.  During the first meeting, the students identify challenges in the weeks’ curriculum and the skills needed to ensure their active participation.  During the week, they practice these skills, support each other in the classroom, and then return to Wahine Rising to report back, reflect on successes, and brainstorm alternatives. Utilizing these methods, our Wahine Rising has initiated strong success.

Analogous to the STEM work and Wahine support, community collaboration is essential for our project.  For the past three years, DreamHouse has collaborated with Hui o Ho’ohonua and Ulu A‘e Learning to revitalize both Kapapapuhui Point Park and Puʻu OKapolei.  Through collaboration, the students and community have gained an understanding for the restoration of historic fish ponds, Lokoi‘a.  From a sustainable food supply, to a fertile estuary for seaweed, plankton, and algae, and to the ultimate protection of our near marine shoreline, students are gaining STEM knowledge and acting locally to restore Oahu’s environment while shaping a new path to sustainability. 

Learning to use web development to highlight the knowledge of their ancestors empowers their connection to their community and empowers their desire to engage in STEM. With placed-based learning, students develop educational apps and multimedia tools to bring historical Loko i’a to life.  Through digital storytelling, they work to illustrate the history of ‘Ewa Beach and the value of intertidal zones and seaweed to nearshore marine health.  With their digital storytelling and their work to educate, they contribute to a sustainable coastline and preserve Hawaiian culture.

By offering coordinate and coeducational opportunities, DreamHouse wahine build confidence and internal strength in their all-girls communities while voicing their academic prowess in the coeducational environment.  Allowing these environments to exist side-by-side, our wahine exercise their voice.  As they grapple with the STEM projects, students return to Wahine Rising for support and to reassess how to move forward.

Utilizing technologies within the cultural and community driven curriculum, Mana Wahine are becoming passionate STEM leaders and stewards over the local environment and over their own lives.

For DreamHouse, success is defined and created by access.  Our solution serves those young women denied access for intersectional reasons.  Young Native Hawaiian women face many obstacles when pursuing an education and especially pursuing an education in STEM.  Along with gender, race, and ethnic bias, cultural bias represents a significant issue our young women must battle. Our solution supports them in the multifaceted battle and helps all the young women who face these intersectional biases. 

DreamHouse 'Ewa Beach is a collaboratively built public charter school educating traditionally underserved students on Oahu. Most of the wahine at DreamHouse will be the first in their families to attend university and 90% of the students identify as Native Hawaiian, Filipino, Hispanic, Asian-American, African-America, or 2 or more races.  Within just 3 years of opening, we are serving 400 students in grades 6-9th with an additional 100 students and 10th grade in Fall 2023.  Families within the community contributed to the 7-year process of developing our vision, they see the value as we progress, and we have a waiting list to receive admission into DreamHouse of well over 240 families.  We believe that public schools, our communities, and our youth are essential conduits for the sustainability of our island.  ETech Futures for Mana Wahine serves the young wahine, their immediate ‘Ewa Beach community as well as the larger community of Oahu.  Through continued dialogue, student seminars, and community workshops we continue to engage our community in the process of creating a solution.

To develop our solution, we have an ‘Ohana engagement coordinator who helps to connect families and school. We host monthly parent meetings with the purpose to help with student and school activities. We also host parent development sessions where we invite families to learn about progressive education practices like Indigenous knowledge and restorative justice. We have had community events that brought people together like a mother's day fair and health and wellness fair as well as academic seminars, portfolio demonstrations, and “I am a leader” end of year conferences.

There are significant challenges in our educational system and in the development of our local Hawaiian economy.  In 2019-20 Code.org published statistics that emphasized the need for access. They reported that 25% of students across the Hawaiian Islands had access to a computer science class. Furthermore, only 30 AP Computer Science exams were taken by Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students and only 34% of all test takers were women. Wahine Rising and STEM education is vital for our Mana Wahine archetype. 

ETech Futures for Mana Wahine is changing the narrative.  Prior to taking our computer science course at DreamHouse last year, 90% of students had little experience learning computer science. After 1 term of taking this course, 78% of students say they might be interested in pursuing a job in computer science, 78% of students say they “loved” computer science, and 94% of students believe that “computer science is for anyone”.  With this short introduction into computer science alongside the support of Wahine Rising, our young women took the knowledge and fashioned a groundswell of enthusiasm.

With intentional support our young women are becoming leaders and academic success stories.

DreamHouse’s Computer Science program represents the hub of our activities and our place-based education is the driving force of our curriculum. The 2023 DOE Charter School Teacher of the Year, Cerina Livaudais is the lead teacher of our Environmental Tech for Future Ancestors Project and Amber Pomaikalani Leon Guerrero is the lead teacher/administrator for Wahine Rising. Amber was chosen to be in the selective Nexus Fellowship which supports school administrators to become social change leaders.  Together Cerina and Amber are a formidable team for ETech Futures for Mana Wahine.  

In 2023, all teachers in the 6-10th grade will contribute to ETech Futures for Mana Wahine in the classrooms, at local sites, as well as with Wahine Rising. As our coaches reflect the diversity of the community and the school demographics, their work in and outside of the classroom is extremely important for the students.  They are exceedingly well positioned to bring our vision to the students and the community.  Always interested in deepening their impact, seven DreamHouse coaches have been accepted into Teach for America’s Rural School Leadership Academy.  With TFA Rural Leadership our coaches are gaining nationwide exposure to innovative practices and are actively demonstrating the importance of developing leadership skills.   Chief Academic Officer, Ryan Mandado is also part of the Nexus Fellowship and is actively leading the school in this innovative approach.

The educational team reflects our community on all levels.  Additionally, the 7-year design of the educational process was an extensive collaborative process between the community, the families and the educators of ‘Ewa Beach.  Together they designed, revised and finally implemented the ideas and educational philosophy the community created.

Our solution, ETech for Future Mana Wahine directly serves 250 young women in 2023 and will add 50 more for each of the next 2 years for a total of 350 by 2026. In addition to the students we serve, there are an additional 2000 family members and educators we are directly influencing. The wider population of ‘Ewa Beach and Kapolei represents our extended target audience for a population of 35,000.  As we are working in the national park and with registered historic sites, we hope to gather an audience from Oahu residents and tourists interested in the restorative work of Hawaiian sites. These numbers could easily add another 30,000 people impacted by our project.  With the community population we are anticipate impacting 70,000 people through our ETech for Future Mana Wahine project.  Lastly, with our ongoing conversation with Hawaiian Airlines, we are anticipating thousands of tourists viewing our digital storytelling.  With our virtual museum and through the use of QR codes and social media, a wider population will be encouraged to visit the historic sites and learn about the history, the Hawaiian culture, as well as the restorative process itself.  

Financial support will be helpful, but even more importantly for our project, assistance and guidance in growing our project to accelerate impact and to ensure success would be incredibly beneficial.  We are especially looking forward to participating in a network of resource partners across industries. Often, we educators, only learn from educators. We can be insular in our networking.  With the dynamic nature of technology and environmental work, it will be a fundamental need for us to include but also to go beyond education networks.  Building a community of Solve members who are energized to find alternatives to the issues of equity and gender in STEM will help guide our future steps.  Toward that end, assistance in group leadership coaching would also be welcome.  While Ryan and Amber (CEO and CSSO) are part of the Nexus Fellowship, it is again centered on education.  To have leadership coaching outside of education would open ideas and paths that we might not find otherwise.  

The peer-to peer network would provide a much needed community of innovators. To learn how and why others are being successful will allow us to shape and mold our practice and solution. Internal and external feedback provides the mirror to accurately see where we need to push forward and where we might need to reassess.  

As educators we are ready to learn!

As a Native Hawaiian, Amber Pomaikalani Leon Guerrero is our community. She is the example of Mana Wahine.  Many of educators are from 'Ewa Beach/Kapolei area and are homegrown products of the DOE system.  Amber and our educators leverage their connection to the community to draw in support and community involvement.  Amber earned a spot in the Nexus Fellowship from the Equity Lab and is leading the way as a social change agent in education. 

Our solution is innovative in that it joins multiple proven methods of education to form an integrative and cohesive approach to provide a future for our mana wahine. 

This project is unique for public education.  The students at DreamHouse are by and large nontraditional college going students and are a group of students who are often underserved.  Students in these categories regularly do not receive innovative and revolutionary educational opportunities.  Rather than standardized tests driving curriculum, these students need to be met educationally where their passion rests in their “place.” In Hawaii, our wahine passion is the environment and the surrounding land and water of Hawai’i.  Our project energizes their passion and stimulates their academics to grow exponentially while they dive into their passions.  Students are challenged and supported to learn well beyond the traditional test-based curriculum.  The project serves multi-grade levels and allows the students to solve real life problems in their community while learning all of the ‘standards’ as they engage in active and relevant problem-based learning.

The place-based education model has demonstrated success in elevating critical thinking, problem solving skills, collaborative engagement, and student driven motivation.  It is these specific educational components that have proven effective in elevating young women's success in STEM.  Joining onto this educational model, the essential component of supporting young women in a single sex environment provides the balance to the cultural and intersectional challenges that face our young women. 

Authentic curriculum combined with community driven, environmentally sustaining, 21st century technology defines our project.

The innovation and unique nature of the project is seen in the 2020 statistics that only 30 AP Computer Science exams were taken by Native Hawaiian students.  Magnified in the statistic is that only 10 wahine took the test. Educational innovation is the way through this challenge. 

With just this introduction into computer science, our wahine shaped the landscape of the Congressional APP Challenge.  From innovative to uniquely successful, our wahine-lead tech groups secured wins in 2021 and 2022 Congressional APP Challenge.  More impressive than winning TWO consecutive years was the success of our 2022 8th grade winners saying, "We were also inspired by the winners from last year's Congress app challenge. Their game was really cool and the fact that they came from our school made us feel confident that we too could accomplish what they did.”

We have great challenges, and we have met every challenge and have seen significant accomplishments.  With continued funding, we can continue to grow and watch the students and community succeed.

Our impact goals for the next year and next five years center on educating and empowering 250+ wahine in one year and 600 wahine in five years to be STEM leaders of our community.  Gaining academic knowledge in STEM and applying that knowledge to our Hawaiian ecosystem is fundamental.  They will place their knowledge into action and practice producing a product that helps to educate and inform the community.  Additionally, they will gain an understanding of how to reach out to the general public, and gain the skillset for informing our ecotourism.  With the collaborative nature of our program, the students will also learn the value of collaborative work with outside organizations and the dynamic nature of working with those around you. 

The second impact goal rests on the restorative and revitalization work at Pu’u o Kapolei and the loko i’a portions of the Honouliuli Restoration site on Oahu.  These locations will gain literally thousands of hours of work and dedicated labor from the students, educators, and the DreamHouse community. Additionally, establishing our community-based computer programming with QR codes at historic sites will produce a virtual museum to illustrate the restorative progress.  

The third goal centers on sharing this program with the ‘Ewa Beach community, the larger community of Oahu, and with our community of Hawaiian tourists. Through the integration of the students’ academic knowledge and their physical work, the products the students produce through their computer apps and their digital storytelling will encourage further participation and knowledge about caring for our Hawaiian Island.  
Along with our partners, our DreamHouse mana wahine will create educational materials that will help the Hawaiian Tourism Authority in their educational promotional items focused on Hawaiian culture. 

Measuring progress toward our impact goals centers on 4 components. First, we will track our mana wahine academic success. Through national and local competitions, we will document their success in completing ETech products that respond to national and local concerns.  We will also track academic data such as standardized test scores, enrollment in early college classes, enrollment in Computer Science classes, completion of AP Computer Science exams, and in the next 2 years we will be able to document a college going mana wahine population.  Alongside the statistics of wahine enrolling in university, we will also track the numbers engaging in STEM majors and careers. 

To assess our outcomes in the Oahu revitalization work, we will be tracking students’ hours and student activities progress.  We will also track numbers of non-student volunteers and volunteer hours as we work to build community capacity in the projects. We have been utilizing an online volunteer hour tracking spreadsheet.  This allows for printable volunteer hour logs and activity logs. Tracking the hours and activities demonstrates accountability, illustrates the impact of the volunteers, supports decision making on where and how to place volunteers, and assists in setting and attaining goals.  It also helps with volunteer retention and appreciation. We are currently inputting data at the beginning and end of activities.  We would like to employ a volunteering tracking software, volunteerhub.org in the near future as this will provide a more searchable database as well as allowing the volunteers to input and see their progress toward their individual goals and community goals.

To assess our outcomes in our community outreach, we will track the number of individuals impacted through our digital storytelling events as well as those attending our community work days and community education proceedings.  We will measure the participation in our virtual museum and also measure feedback from post-museum visits. 
Additionally, we are initiating conversations with Hawaiian Airlines to turn student digital storytelling of the locations and of the restoration work into a PSA that will be viewed by tourists coming to Oahu via Hawaiian Airlines.  This is in an initial phase, but we have high hopes for the impact of this activity.  Measuring this impact will be exciting as we see how many tourists are engaging with the local environment and participating in the virtual museums and the revitalization work. 

Our ETech Futures for Mana Wahine is perfectly placed in time and location for success.  Oahu is brimming with environmental accelerators, Fem Tech advocates, and educational innovation.  As Hawaii emerged from COVID, the role of tourism, the conservation of the environment, and the role of technology and the revitalization of Hawaiian culture, traditions have become focal points.  

Our project directly elevates the role and success of our wahine while advocating for an integration of 21st Century technology with Ancient Hawaiian technology. 

Our program audience consists of DreamHouse students, families, and educators for a total impact of 2500 individuals directly impacted. The impact our activities have on our collaborating nonprofits would extend that number of directly impacted to more than 5000.  Finally, the wider population of ‘Ewa Beach and Kapolei represents our extended target audience for a population of 35,000.  As we are working in the national park and with registered historic sites, we hope to gather an audience from Oahu residents and tourists interested in the restorative work of Hawaiian sites.  Lastly, with our ongoing conversation with Hawaiian Airlines, we are anticipating thousands of tourists viewing our digital storytelling.  With our virtual museum and through the use of QR codes and social media, a wider population will be encouraged to visit the historic sites and learn about the history, the Hawaiian culture, as well as the restorative process itself.  Our solution will directly impact our Mana Wahine while it blazes a path for their dynamic future. 
We are creating impact today, and as our Mana Wahine return from university and their other STEM educational experiences, the impact will grow exponentially. 

As computer science, app development, and digital storytelling represent the most visible products of our solution, the tech-based solution of producing Mana Wahine through carefully integrated evidence-based educational pedagogies represents the core technology of our project.   

DreamHouse 'Ewa Beach has 35 full time coaches (educators), 2 part-time staff, and a 100+ parent volunteers for our work that takes place out of school.  We have a close collaborative relationship with 2 nonprofits in our weekly travels to relevant historic and environmentally significant locations across Oahu. There are approximately 15 volunteers in this collaboration. Additionally, the mentors for our young girls come from AAUW, CEEDS for Peace, Women's Fund of Hawaii, and UH Manoa. We are recruiting and expanding this network of female mentors to achieve a number of 20 mentors.

We have been actively engaged with our programs Wahine Rising and Environmental Technology for Future Ancestors for 4 years.  The planning and mapping of the solution has taken place over the 7 years prior with the establishment of our collaboratively built charter school. The mission of our school and of the proposed program centers on advocating and implementing Ancient Hawaiian technology through the use of 21st Century technology. Our solution, ETech Futures for Mana Wahine represents a thoughtful and an integrated academic approach.  In building our curriculum, research has inform the educational approach we implement to ensure Mana Wahine success. 

Hawai'i is an exceptional diverse population, and 'Ewa Beach/Kapolei is a reflection of that racial and ethnic diversity.  Additionally, the population DreamHouse 'Ewa Beach serves has been underserved owing to historic economic inequities. Representing the community's diversity has been a top priority in the collaborative approach of building our charter school. To that end, our 35 full time employees represent the diversity of our student population. 90% of our employees identify as either Native Hawaiian, Filipino, Asian, African American, or Hispanic.  This percentage is a representative reflection of the student and community diversity. 

We strongly hold that representation and community lead education is vital for our students' success. 

While we have diversity and inclusion in our faculty, it is equity and access that remains the battle we fight for our students. Through our place-based education, we are striving to take our diversity and provide access for the students.  Access to the places we need to conduct research, access to the people we desire as influencers, and access to the technology required to carry out our work. As an equitable school environment, we are actively striving to bridge the systematic barriers that our students face in their education. 

Our business model rests firmly on the shoulders of our community. With the community built school we have a brand that all know and a donor network exceedingly familiar with our impact and product.  The key stakeholders have been part of the process from day one and continue to be actively engaged in our development. Our educational activities consist of guiding our young students through middle and high school, while preparing them to be homegrown change agents.  Mana Wahine learn to use advanced technology to uplift our Hawaiian ecosystem. Through direct action and engagement with significant cultural and environmental sites around Oahu, our students broaden the interest in our model as they come the environmental and technological advocates for a sustainable Hawaii. 

The most challenging cost for our project rests in the transportation and support for our Mana Wahine.  To travel to each 'place' and to have the appropriate technology, software, and mentor support falls outside of the allotted public school funding.  However as we bring value to our community, in the education of the students combined with both the restoration of cultural locations and the revitalization of the Hawaiian environment, our customers are intimately invested in the outcomes.  With the success and support of entrepreneurial accelerators on Oahu, we have been successful in creating a revenue stream from socially active and environmentally concerned Hawaiian foundations.  Our public school solution to educational and gender inequity has created a strong local support system.  We feel that this local support for both education, gender equity, technology innovation, and restoration of Hawaiian cultural has positioned our business model for success. 

We are financially sustainable at our current level, and we are looking to expand our impact and to correspondingly expand our financial sustainability.  As a public charter school, the majority of our budget is through federal and state funds.  The innovative nature of our project requires additional resources to fund the expanded use of technology, the transportation of students to research sites, and the increased number of educators. DreamHouse has been successful securing a stream of local grants over the past 3 years while we maintain the trajectory of our place-based learning.  By providing benefit to the 'Ewa Beach community as well as benefit to Oahu as a whole, foundations have been willing to fund our project.  As we look to expand the project's work along with our growing school, we are also looking guidance and support from MIT Gender Equity in STEM.  

We are working to expand our community reach through collaborative work with the Hawaii Tourism Authority and major businesses such as Hawaiian Airlines.  Both of these entities are dedicated to exploring ways to preserve the Hawaiian culture and the Hawaiian environment. Our project not only supports gender equity but does so while positively impacting Hawaii's largest industry; Tourism.  In post-COVID, Hawaii has become focused on expanding our economic base and creating a tourism industry that gives back to the island. Our community-based programming with QR codes at historic sites will produce a virtual museum to illustrate the restorative progress.  

Through the integration of the students’ academic knowledge and their physical work, the products the students produce through their computer apps and their digital storytelling will encourage further participation and knowledge about caring for our Hawaiian Island. 

By broadening our reach beyond the classroom, ETech Futures for Mana Wahine provides an economic sustainably to our project.  The shared benefit with the ‘Ewa Beach community, the larger community of Oahu, and with our community of Hawaiian tourists encourages financial support from a broad based of Hawaiian and environmentally focused foundations. 

Through great outreach in our community we have generated revenue that allows us to be financially sustainable.  Many of these foundational grants have been from local, Hawaiian foundations.  Community support has been exceptional. 

We have received grants from the Atherton Foundation, Clarence TC Chin Foundation, Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, The Kosasa Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, McInerny Foundation, and Campbell Family Foundation.  For the past 3 years, we have secured from grants approximately $175,000 each year.  Additionally, we have held successful fundraisers and capital fund events to raise money and awareness.