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Why You Should Renew
Puhala Kamalamalama of Hawaii heard the demeaning message from a young age that nothing important was expected of her as a result of being a Native Hawaiian. But that didn’t deter her from wanting to defy what she was told and make a big difference in her community. Puhala dreamed big, hoping to help children as a dentist, but she put that dream on hold to help her father battle cancer. Working on the family farm and at other part-time positions, Puhala didn’t know how to get back on a path that would help her contribute to her community in a big way like she had always wanted.
That’s when a cousin of hers suggested she work at INPEACE, where Puhala became a teacher’s aide at Keiki Steps, a program providing Hawaiian culture-based family-child interactive learning and early childhood education. And she fell in love with it. Puhala instantly saw how working in the ECE field was her calling and how it would impact her community in a big way like she had always dreamed.
Puhala earned her CDA, which allowed her to continue working in the ECE field while she studied to obtain her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in ECE. The knowledge that she gleaned from the CDA however was crucial to Puhala as a teacher. She used what she learned from earning her CDA to help her teach and instill in the Native Hawaiian children she taught pride in their heritage and a love for who they are, a message she knew they needed, because it was a lesson she had needed.
“I was still ashamed of my brown skin, curly hair and other qualities that made me who I am. Then I went home to the farm, and for the first time, I felt grounded and Hawaiian. I wept as I realized that what mattered to me most was right here on that farm,” Puhala recalls. The CDA isn’t about passing tests or having a paper certificate, for Puhala it’s about instilling in children a love for who they are and where they came from, something Puhala knows is irreplaceable.
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