Hana High did it again.

For the second year in a row, three rural Maui seniors have earned the prestigious Gates Millennium scholarship. Diana Naihe, Leihulu Oliveira and Jora Tolentino-Smith will have a free ride all the way through their doctorate should they pursue advanced degrees.

“It’s a huge thing,” Hana principal Rick Paul said Friday. “We’re an island on an island. These scholarships can have a huge impact on a small, isolated community.”

Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and administered by the UNCF, the 14-year-old program picks 1,000 minority students annually to receive a “good-through-graduation scholarship” to use at any college or university of their choice. The months-long application process includes an educator’s review of the student’s academic record and an evaluation of the student’s community service and leadership activities.

Tolentino-Smith called the scholarship “life-changing.” She said she didn’t think she or her family, who mostly live off the land, could ever afford college.

“We don’t really need a lot of money so don’t really worry about that stuff,” she said. “Now I can do whatever I want to do.”

Tolentino-Smith, who found out Thursday that she won, said she wants to study Hawaiian language and Hawaiian studies at either the University of Hawaii-Hilo or Montana State University. Graduation is May 18, but she has until July to decide which college.

Her goal is to be a Hawaiian language teacher and eventually start a Hawaiian language school on Maui.

“We have every other aspect of our culture here except for language,” she said.

The students have to write eight essays and fulfill a host of other requirements as part of the scholarship’s application. Teachers and community members support the kids through this process, and Paul singled out Hana counselor Linda Gravatt as being particularly instrumental.

“We seem to be able to get Gates Scholars every year now and we’re just so glad,” he said. “All of these kids, the one thing we’ve seen, is they have really compelling stories.”

Tolentino-Smith’s grandmother, Ma’ano Tolentino-Smith, was a longtime preschool teacher until her retirement last year. She struggled to find the words to express her enthusiasm for her granddaughter, but recalled the story of how she found out this week.

“My daughter looked at me and said, ‘Mom, Jora got the Gates,’” she told Civil Beat. “All I could say is, ‘Praise God.’ I didn’t know how to react to that. Then I thought about it, and was like, ‘Wowww. She’s blessed.’”

Tad Bartimus, an award-winning journalist, has worked with Hana students since 1998 as a writing coach and college mentor, helping them study for scholarships and apply to college.

“Last year, when the class of 2012 produced three Gates Millennium Scholars, the whole East Maui ohana took pride in the accomplishment because we truly believe that it takes a village to raise a child,” she said. “We thought then that the odds of lightning striking three times to give Hana three Gates scholars in one year, in a graduating class of 20, were incalculable. And now, lightning has struck again to a class of 20, and we can rejoice in three more Gates girls.”

The Hana community is roughly 80 percent Native Hawaiian or part-Native Hawaiian, Paul said. And 75 percent of the 350 students enrolled in the pre-kindergarten to 12th grade school are on free or reduced-price lunch.
Paul said he thinks the Gates Millennium Scholars program has its eyes on Hana because it realizes what the scholarships can do for the kids.

“These kids have a wonderful opportunity and they have dreams,” he said.

Bartimus said this May the first Gates Millennium Scholar she ever worked with as a Hana high school senior in 2007, Lipoa Kahaleuahi, will receive her master’s degree in education. She graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2011, and is now a Teach for America teacher on the Big Island.

Bartimus also worked with Lipoa’s brother, Tevi Kahaleuahi, Hana class of 2009, now a junior at Oregon State University majoring in forestry; their sister Hau’oli Kahaleuahi, a 2012 Gates Scholar, also attending Oregon State University; Miracle Helekahi, Gates scholar class of 2011, a sophomore at Johnson and Wales University in Denver; and 2012 Gates Scholars Nina Mei Thorne, a freshman at the University of Washington-Seattle, and Cheyenne Kamalei Pico, a University of Colorado-Boulder freshman.

“Every one of our Gates Millennium Scholars has been worthy of this major national recognition of their character, heritage, hard work, incredible family support and the united community effort on their behalf,” Bartimus said. “I am joyous beyond words for them and their families.”

Paul said going to college wasn’t in the picture for Hana kids in the past, but in recent years it’s become part of the conversation. He said it’s people like Gravatt and community volunteers who changed the expectation.

“It’s too cool,” Board of Education Chair Don Horner said Friday after learning of the scholarship awards. “We’re incredibly excited, given the prestige of the scholarship, and also incredibly appreciative of the Gates Foundation and the generosity.

“I’d expect continued great results from our kids; we have incredible kids in Hawaii,” he added. “All we need to do as adults is set the standards and our kids can indeed reach them.”