If you want something to change, begin upstream. That’s precisely what Stacy Ferreira is doing on the education front, a path that began at Leeward Community College (LCC), where she worked while earning her degree. “In retrospect, it really set the trajectory for my career,” says Ferreira, who credits her then-supervisor Michael Pecsok, LCC’s former vice-chancellor of academic affairs, for building her confidence and shaping her voice as a professional. “He taught me that if I had something to contribute, to not feel intimidated to share my mana‘o. That was really huge for me as a young person—to feel empowered and that I could contribute in a meaningful way.”

After a brief stint in public relations convinced her she was destined for the mission-driven sector, Ferreira ended up finding work back at LCC, where she spent the next 12 years laying the groundwork for the college’s distance-education programming. “Hours are long wherever you go,” Ferreira says. “Your work has to feed your soul and your spirit. The whole mission-driven focus of the community colleges was very evident to me at LCC. It was palpable—people cared about your success.”

Rethinking learning has been an ongoing theme in Ferreira’s career, one she would continue to dive into in her next role. In 2006, she accepted a project management position in the extension educational services division at Kamehameha Schools (KS), working her way up to head of the division while also serving as a trust coordinator for the Charles Reed Bishop Trust—most notably, convening the charitable trusts established by Hawai‘i’s ali‘i in order to ma–lama Mauna ‘Ala, the royal mausoleum in Nu‘uanu. “It’s not just a cemetery,” Ferreira says. “Although functionally it serves that purpose, the ali‘i who are buried there have established extraordinary trusts that are living legacies we’ve all benefited from, even if you’re not Hawaiian.”

Strengthening Hawaiian cultural connectedness and identity in the modern age is central to her work both there and at Kamehameha Schools, especially as KS takes an increasingly forward-thinking approach to education and workforce development. “Because we’re a Native Hawaiian-serving organization, everything we do is within the context of a Hawaiian worldview,” Ferreira says. “When we teach our keiki the ways of our kupuna and about the ingenuity of our ancestors, we take that ‘ike kupuna and bring it into a 21st century context.”

The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

 

When equipping the next generation of Hawai‘i’s leaders and socially minded entrepreneurs for the jobs of the future, it’s always with the indigenous principle of “seven generations”—that is, acting in the interest of at least seven generations into the future. “It’s coming with that cultural lens and saying, yes, you can make a profit, but it’s also about the well-being of kanaka and ‘aina as well,” Ferreira says.

That’s the kind of social enterprise thinking being cultivated at Halau ‘nana, a first-of-its-kind collaborative learning space that Ferreira conceived as a hub of culture and innovation. In combination with findings from nearby Ka Waiwai, Halau‘ nana will serve as an incubator for a larger redevelopment on the horizon for Mo‘ili‘ili, one that will encompass six-and-a-half acres of retail, educational facilities and cultural resources, including space to incubate new innovation and entrepreneurship endeavors.

The projects Ferreira started in KS’ extension education division were so far out of the box, it was a natural transition for her to make the move to Strategy and Innovation, a new division formed in 2015 with the launch of Vision 2040, a landmark 25-year vision statement developed by KS for carving out successful life and career pathways for Native Hawaiian learners. “SV2040 was really the impetus for thinking much bigger and more broadly,” Ferreira says. “It was the first time that KS had ever had a group of individuals helping to forecast where we as an enterprise needed to be in order to, one, serve all Native Hawaiians, but also reimagine what teaching, learning and education could look like.”

Instead, KS is painting a deeper and more multifaceted picture of success. “Success for us means achieving post-secondary education and training with little to no debt and finding a job you’re passionate about and that provides you with purpose,” Ferreira says. “It means being culturally connected and knowing who you are as a Hawaiian, and making an impact in your community and the world in a positive way.”

Students at KS are primed for not just a job but meaningful employment, and they’re presented with opportunities for civic engagement, both locally and globally. “The best way to predict the future is to create it,” Ferreira says. “We want to provide our learners with the technology, tools, experiences and expertise to create that future. For way too long our educational approaches have reinforced the notion of things and ideas being right or wrong, pass or fail. We’ve really boxed our keiki in instead of encouraging big, bold, audacious thinking. It’s not just thinking about what is the job that I can do, but what is that business I can own? We [as Native Hawaiians] need to be the ones doing the hiring.”

Much of Ferreira’s work in Strategy and Innovation involves figuring out the root causes of student dropout, a huge issue among Native Hawaiians throughout the continuum of education. “Although education is our core competence, that education is really tied to a larger holistic model around economics, health and social and emotional well-being,” Ferreira says. “There are so many different things needed to create a thriving la–hui, education is just one small piece of it.”

It’s not just mitigating the financial barriers, Ferreira says, though that’s a huge piece of the puzzle. Debt, homelessness, mental health issues and other hardships can all derail a student’s education and professional development, but Ferreira and her team have found that it takes a host of comprehensive and highly curated wraparound supports to help learners reach their full potential.

Often it’s about addressing the flaws in the system that allow gifted students and those with learning differences or emotional and psychological hurdles to slip between the cracks. “If they don’t know what their superpowers are, they’ll never know how to accommodate for them,” Ferreira says. “They’ll never know to advocate for the things they need or the way they learn. That doesn’t change, whether you’re in school or you’re in the workforce.”

As one of the largest private landowners in the state and a stakeholder in sectors across the landscape, KS is well positioned for impact, not just on education but on innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development as a whole. “These are exciting spaces that KS can really move the needle, not just for Native Hawaiians but for the state of Hawai‘i,” Ferreira says. “What’s good for Hawaiians is good for the state, economically, educationally and beyond.”