Extra Credit

On February 26 2009, two presenters, Denise Ah Sue and Stephen Tschudi, discussed with their audience a topic they called 'Electronic Pathways for Samoan Heritage Students." The hour long presentation was very insightful and really gave us an in-depth explanation of what their purpose was, which was to prepare students for the "new world" and help those students develop a deep understanding of other cultures through a project called CULTURA. The goals of such project was to "have students understand the values, attitudes, beliefs & concepts inherent in another culture."

The second project they mentioned was called "Le Lali- ePathways Cafe," which incorporated 3 goals, one of which was "la fa`asoa atu mataupu ua a`oa`oina i ulu ma ta`ita`i o itulagi `ese`ese," which translates into "to share lessons learned with administrators & leaders within other Samoan communities." This program included participants of Samoan ancestry from Amercian Samoa Community College, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and Farrington High School.

I was very interested when Ah Sue talked about the Samoan project, because I have friends and co-workers who are Samoan, who seem very proud of their heritage and expresses it through many ways including symbolic tattoo's. I thought the program they helped coordinate is not only a good idea to bring kids closer to their roots, but to also keep the kids busy doing something that helps make a difference and making them a part of something positive.