The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Cohort Kumukahi has quickly become a transformative professional development experience, connecting faculty and staff across diverse fields—including engineering, nursing, marine biology and medicine—with Native Hawaiian values and practices.
Launched in March 2024, the weeklong program by the Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office (NHPoL AO) immerses participants in activities that emphasize cultural practices and values. Through mapping moʻokūʻauhau (genealogies), mālama ʻāina (care for the land), oli (chants), and pilina (relationship, connection) circles, participants learn to foster community and purpose.
Jenny Engels, a project manager at ADVANCE Catalyst on the Mānoa campus, found the program deeply impactful.
“In the 20+ years I’ve been associated with UH Mānoa, this training has been the single most useful to help me understand Native Hawaiian values, UH Mānoa’s Strategic Plan, and my role as a settler and guest in these islands.”
The next cohort, called Kaulua, will begin in January 2025 and will have three sessions to choose from (March, July or October). In English, Kaulua can be described as two of a kind; a pair; which is utilized in terms such as waʻa kaulua referring to a double-hulled canoe.
“Our mission is to learn from the wisdom deeply rooted in Hawaiʻi about how to aloha one another and our island home. That is how we can fulfill our kuleana to Hawaiʻi and the world, which is highlighted in the title of our UH Mānoa strategic plan,” said Punihei Lipe, director of NHPoL AO. “We’re here to help deepen pilina (connection) as we learn and grow together. To us, that is how we foster change that we hope will eventually ripple through our campus, from leadership to faculty and staff, to our students, and on to our communities.”
The NHPoL AO team’s efforts are part of a multi-step process to achieve goals articulated in the university’s strategic plan, which outlines UH Mānoa’s main priorities and strategies for achieving them.
