{"id":11039,"date":"2025-05-09T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/?p=11039"},"modified":"2025-11-13T08:30:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T18:30:21","slug":"2025-kohala-high-school-students-win-3rd-annual-kalo-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/tl\/2025-kohala-high-school-students-win-3rd-annual-kalo-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Ang mga mag-aaral sa Kohala High School ay nanalo sa ika-3 taunang Kalo Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

WAHIAW\u0100 \u2014 Students from Kohala High School\u2019s alternative learning program, Na\u02bbau \u02bb\u014ciwi, defended their winning title in the third annual Kalo Challenge hosted by the Hawai\u02bbi State Department of Education\u2019s (HIDOE) Alternative Learning Programs Branch at the Wahiaw\u0101 Value Added Product Development Center today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kalo Challenge is the finale of a yearlong project where at-promise students from across the state learn about planting and cultivating kalo (taro) and then turn their harvest into an innovative culinary dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by the Lahaina wildfires, Kohala High\u2019s Na\u02bbau \u02bb\u014ciwi students created \u201cemergency kalo rations,\u201d which included freeze dried instant poi, kalo pa\u02bba, k\u016blolo and laulau. The cohort of students, led by teacher Aoloa Patao, included: Nainoa Hooke, Daylan Kaitoku, Clozieur Ke-a, Tiras Perez, Ryson Peres-Neves, Cherish Philpot, and Stacen Stevens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[The Lahaina wildfires] kind of opened our eyes, like, what are we going to do if something like this happens to us in Kohala,\u201d Stacen Stevens, a Kohala High School senior said regarding how they came up with their dish. \u201cThere’s a lot of canned goods on everybody’s shelf, but nobody wants to live off of canned food so we thought, how are we going to take something from home, something from Hawai\u02bbi, on the go.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year students from Kohala won the challenge with a \u201ckalo-min\u201d dish, a twist on saimin made with noodles incorporated with dehydrated kalo and \u2018ulu (breadfruit), an ahi-based broth, local eggs and char siu. The year before that, they won the inaugural challenge with a kalo pizza made of dehydrated kalo incorporated into the dough, kalua pig topping and a poi drizzle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe come from a basketball community so sports is a big thing \u2014 and so to have students who are finding success in the academic realm is so awesome because they get to cheer themselves on, and pat themselves on the back for doing a great job at doing something in the academic sphere,\u201d Kohala High Na\u2019au \u02bb\u014ciwi teacher Aoloa Patao said. \u201cOverall, I’m really happy that they get to experience this kind of joy in the academic setting because prior to this, they may have not found that kind of success, and now they have that success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the finalists \u2014 who advanced from regional competitions \u2014 in this year\u2019s Kalo Challenge were students from Kapolei High’s Ho’ola Academy and Kealakehe High’s He alo \u0101 he alo program. Kapolei High students presented a \u201ckalo delights\u201d dish of poi donuts and vanilla ice cream topped with a coconut cream, and Kealakehe High students presented a kalo fish taco dish with kalo salsa, kalo chips, and a poi k\u016bpa\u02bbi (poi parfait).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judges for the final were Jeremy Shigekane, executive chef at Prince Waikiki; Alexandra Obra, principal of Wai\u0101hole Elementary School; and Ben \u201cKauhane\u201d Heloca, instructor with H\u0101leo Hawaiian language program at the University of the Nations and program director for Piliah\u0101leo Intergenerational Hawaiian language programs at multiple institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to presenting their culinary dishes, students presented their overarching learning journey of the Kalo Challenge, sharing what they learned about the history of kalo, the different varieties of kalo, and how to cultivate the plant, before community program supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[The Kalo Challenge] is such an exciting event because we get to see students become entrepreneurs, come up with new products, learn Hawaiian history, and learn what the taro history is about,\u201d said Senator Donovan Dela Cruz, a staunch supporter of the alternative learning program. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to a lot of these students becoming more small business owners in the future and contributing to our society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The HIDOE Alternative Learning Programs, Services and Supports (ALPSS) aims to offer at-promise students with innovative instructional strategies and learning environments to improve their academic competencies and enable them to meet HIDOE-adopted state standards and graduation requirements. ALPSS provides transitional support services as at-promise students move from school to alternative programs, re-enter school successfully, graduate from high school, and prepare for positive post-secondary outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy getting our students into these programs we\u2019re giving them confidence, we\u2019re giving them wraparound services, we\u2019re making sure that they\u2019re going to have the skills that they need to be better people and better citizens in life,\u201d Senator Dela Cruz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Kapolei<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kealakehe<\/figure>\n<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WAHIAW\u0100 \u2014 Students from Kohala High School\u2019s alternative learning program, Na\u02bbau \u02bb\u014ciwi, defended their winning title in the third annual Kalo Challenge hosted by the Hawai\u02bbi State Department of Education\u2019s (HIDOE) Alternative Learning Programs Branch at the Wahiaw\u0101 Value Added Product Development Center today. The Kalo Challenge is the finale of a yearlong project where […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":11040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"9784,10412,16644,16234,10994,10154","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","wp_popup_display_lightbox":0,"wp_popup_suppress":"","wp_popup_trigger":"","wp_popup_trigger_amount":0,"wp_popup_disable_on_mobile":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":21,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kohala-High-Kalo-Challenge-2025-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Sara Miyazono","author_link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/tl\/author\/sara-miyazonok12-hi-us\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":21,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":21,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":308,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":21,"category_count":308,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 05:10:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_status","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}