Chaminade University of Honolulu

Master of Education

Alumna Motivated to Reframe Literacy

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Only 9% of students at Waianae High School can demonstrate competency in English Language Arts.

It’s an alarming statistic.

Shay Zykova, MEd '00

But for Shay Kaleo’oluho’iloliokawaipahe Zykova, MEd ’20, it’s also a motivator.

The ninth-grade English teacher says she’s on a mission to not only bolster her students’ reading comprehension and literacy skills, but help them develop a passion for words. That’s why she joined forces with her colleagues in 2020 to form a literacy team at her school with the intention of reshaping the Language Arts curriculum at Waianae High. She hopes to eventually take the model statewide.

“There’s a big need for literacy intervention and development,” said Zykova, who has designed her curriculum to put students at the center of their learning. They get to choose—as a class—what novels and other texts they want to read and what topics they want to write about. And along the way, they get intensive literacy instruction aimed at dramatically improving their reading and writing skills.

“We couldn’t stick with the status quo,” she said. “How can we read Shakespeare if I’ve got kids struggling to read words like ‘cat’? I want to give my students complete control over the novels they’re reading in class. It’s really exciting, a little bit stressful and 100% student-directed.”

Zykova’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed.

The National Council of Teachers of English recently named her a recipient of its 2021 Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award. The recognition includes mentorship support, career development opportunities and an invitation to attend and present at upcoming NCTE conferences.

Zykova is delighted at the chance to build her skills—and build out her program.

“The real goal is to reframe what literacy is. I want my students to read things for fun,” she said.

Zykova started teaching in Hawaii in 2018, after a stint as an ESL instructor in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Her husband is Russian.) “It really was the starting point for everything,” Zykova said, of teaching English overseas. “I got that job and realized, ‘I don’t really know English as well as I thought I did.’

“That was my introduction to teaching.”

At the same time, Zykova was in contact with friends back in Hawaii who were teaching in public and charter schools. She said she realized that she needed to return to the islands—and pursue a degree in teaching. During her first year in Hawaii schools, she served as a long-term substitute at Kuuelawela Elementary in Kalihi. The following year, she was selected for the Teach for America (TFA) program and assigned to Waianae High. At the same time, as part of a partnership with TFA, she enrolled in Chaminade’s Master of Education in Instructional Leadership cohort program.

She said that first year of teaching was anything but easy. “I had high school students reading at the kindergarten and preschool level. I thought, ‘What is going?’ I was completely lost,” she said. But she got through it, thanks to the relationships she was building at her school and at Chaminade.

She quickly realized that the “prescribed curriculum” would need some tweaking.

And she started to look for ways to make reading and writing relevant to students. For her students’ argumentative essays, for example, she encouraged them to choose topics that were of consequence to them. Some considered the debate over the Thirty Meter Telescope at Mauna Kea. Others wrote about being multi-ethnic in Hawaii. One student wrote about the benefits of slippers over shoes.

As Zykova continuously tweaked the trajectory of her class, she says she was thankful to have Chaminade peers and mentors who could offer additional insight and guidance. She said Chaminade instructor Ralph Keahi Renaud inspired her to reflect on her Native Hawaiian identity and how it informs her teaching. After his course, she enrolled in Hawaiian language classes (and is still taking them).

Zykova also found mentors in Chaminade instructor Jessica Martinez, who taught language development, and Associate Professor and Director of Teacher Preparation Programs Katrina Roseler, who oversaw her capstone experience.

The preparation helped Zykova through 2020, a tough year for everyone—especially students and teachers. She said remote learning allowed her to throw her old plan out the window entirely and try a new direction aimed at getting students engaged (and keeping them engaged).

It worked.

“My attendance was 85 to 95%. The majority of students were in class every single day,” she said, adding one of her many future goals is to help her students not only expand what they’re reading but start telling their own stories. “I’m hoping my students will publish,” Zykova said.

Faith In Action

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Dr. Brandy Sato ’97 ’02 knows a thing or two about Catholic school. A Kailua native, her family has a legacy of attending either Sacred Hearts Academy or St. Louis School. She followed suit and attended the all-girls school through high school, before making the trek across Waialae Avenue to attend Chaminade University. After graduating, she spent some time teaching in Catholic schools and then returned to Chaminade to get her Master’s in Education.

Brandy Sato '97 '02

So naturally, when Sato assumed the role of secondary school principal at Island Pacific Academy this past June, she was attracted to the school’s focus on values. She saw a strong connection between the values that guide Island Pacific—humility, love, respect, generosity and gratitude—with those that she was taught at Sacred Hearts Academy and Chaminade University. 

“At Island Pacific, we have certain values that we live by and that we teach our children,” says Sato. “Those values are very easy for me to promote because they align with my Catholic faith.”

While she learns to navigate her new institution and lead the school through the novel coronavirus pandemic, she finds herself regularly drawing upon her faith.

“Faith is a benchmark and the foundation upon which we need to stand during this current health pandemic,” says Sato. “The gospels that were instilled in me throughout my education are really a good compass for how to thrive during these challenging times.”

Her time at Chaminade has also helped set a precedent for what she hopes to achieve at Island Pacific. Because Chaminade is a small school, it allowed her to learn in a way that best met her needs. It helped her understand the importance of personalized learning—something she’s really taking to heart as Island Pacific works to refine its distance learning program.

“During this pandemic, as we look to different ways of instruction, I think a lot about my personalized experience at Chaminade,” says Sato. “It has helped me make sure that we are really connecting with our students, that we know them well enough to continue to educate them in a way that helps them explore their passions.”

Chaminade also offered Sato an example of what it means to provide a well-rounded education. “Academics were very important at Chaminade, but so were social opportunities, particularly those that helped me explore my faith,” says Sato. “The experience I had at Chaminade is one I want to duplicate for my students here at Island Pacific, to make sure we continue to educate the whole child.”

Ultimately, for Sato, that’s her life’s mission—to build a new generation of well-rounded individuals who strive to serve their communities. Being an educator is the most powerful way for Sato to give back and put her own faith into action. By inspiring and motivating children, and helping them to reach their dreams and explore their passions, Sato believes she can change the world.

“I really want to leave the world in a better place when I’m gone,” says Sato. She pauses for a while, while reflecting on her legacy and the meaning behind decades of hard work. “I see that my vocation in life is to inspire and motivate. To provide multiple opportunities for children to reach their dreams and explore their passions, and to help them to have lifelong careers and interests that will make the world a better place.”

Education in the Time of COVID

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When Shana Tong, MEd ‘08 was offered the position of interim president at Maryknoll School, a private Catholic school in Honolulu, the situation couldn’t have been more urgent. It was July of 2020, and the education system around the world had just been rocked by one of the biggest challenges of the century: the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shana Tong, MEd '08

Schools across the globe had spent the last part of the 2019-20 school year scrambling to finish out the year remotely. No one really knew what fall of 2020 would bring—would schools be able to reopen? Teachers and administrators were working double-time to prepare for all possible scenarios.

In Hawaii, things were looking stable in early July. But now, a little over one month later, everything has changed. Numbers are rising, and quickly. The situation is becoming much more dire, and public schools have now been mandated to begin their school year online.

If there is anyone that can lead Maryknoll through these difficult times, it’s Tong. Tong knows Maryknoll like the back of her hand. She has had every possible relationship with the school—she has been a Maryknoll student, parent, teacher and administrator. And her endless optimism and easy manner will serve the school well during these unpredictable times.

It isn’t easy assuming a new leadership role in the middle of a pandemic with so many unknowns ahead. Tong knows her biggest challenge will be making sure the parents, students and teachers all feel comfortable and confident in the new learning plan.

“Everyday it could change,” acknowledges Tong. “Being flexible, adaptable, resilient—those are the skills we are going to need in order to really thrive and make sure our children are feeling confident and cared for, and to give them a sense of normalcy, even when the world is crazy out there.”

Tong credits the knowledge she gained in Chaminade’s Master of Education program with helping her navigate the complexity of the situation today. She had already had an extensive teaching career when she enrolled in the program in 2006, but Chaminade taught her about the business of running a school—the finance, law and human resources side of things. It gave her the solid foundation she needed to become a confident leader.

But even more so, her professors at Chaminade modeled what it meant to be a Catholic educator, something Tong is holding very near and dear today. Regardless of a child’s faith, Tong believes the Catholic education that Maryknoll helps shape children to become more responsible and caring citizens.

“When children see themselves and their role in the world as bigger than themselves, it’s always enlightening,” says Tong. “It sets the path for how they take care of other people, making difficult decisions when times are tough.”

That’s especially true in today’s world, as people struggle to navigate so much uncertainty. “Right now we’re in a pandemic,” says Tong. “I think more than ever, people need something to look forward to. As times change, faith gives you something to rely on, it gives you a sense of responsibility.”

Tong doesn’t know what this upcoming school year holds, but with her faith and a dedicated team of fellow leaders and mentors to help guide her, she feels confident in the journey ahead.

Chaminade Alum’s “Students First” Mentality Leads Him to White House

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Since Ryan Tauriainen graduated from Chaminade in 2010, he’s racked up a long list of accomplishments. At 26, he became one of the youngest principals in the country. In 2016, the Washington Post named him the “Principal of the Year.” And as a charter school leader in the nation’s capital, his strategies helped produce the highest-performing early childhood classrooms in the district.

White House Fellows pose for their official portraits in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building Wednesday, September 11, 2019, at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Keegan Barber)

Oh, and the author of five children’s books is now a 2019-20 White House fellow.

But he says despite all the acknowledgment and titles, he still sees himself as a “teacher first.”

And that’s due in part to the approach he started to build at Chaminade that helped him see that improving school culture, building a positive and happy work environment – infused with aloha – and putting people above everything else always produces the best results.

“I definitely believe that I brought a servant’s heart and the aloha spirit back with me to DC from Hawaii,” Tauriainen said, in a recent interview. “Having roots in Hawaii was a benefit for my education career. Every day, my main inspiration lies in the children I have served and will serve.”

Tauriainen enrolled in the Master of Education program at Chaminade while serving as a Teach for America educator.

During the day, he taught language arts to seventh graders at Wheeler Middle in Wahiawa. And at Chaminade, he sought to expand his knowledge of secondary education, working alongside professors and his fellow graduate students for insight and support as he worked to sharpen his classroom skills.

His mentors and peers helped him grow as an educator.

And, he said, they provided vital emotional and academic support. “I appreciated how flexible Chaminade was for graduate students,” Tauriainen added. “I was a full-time teacher while being a full-time student. Being able to do both and manage both was a blessing.”

Tauriainen’s White House fellowship began in August 2019. He works at the U.S. Department of Education, where he reports to Frank Brogan, the assistant secretary of education for Elementary and Secondary Education. And he said among the projects he oversees is $26 million in grant money set aside for Native Hawaiian education programs – an area that he said he’s passionate about. The Oregon native also remains committed to improving opportunities for education – “the great equalizer” – across the United States. “I have seen the benefits of providing an excellent education and I have seen the detriments of failing our students,” he said. “Ensuring an excellent education for every child, no matter their zip code, is the surest way to our more perfect union.”

Chaminade Brings Lesson Into the Classroom for Teachers to Shine

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Melodie Tafao lives the saying “busy as a bee.”

She just earned her Master in Education (MEd) in Instructional Leadership from Chaminade University and also received the university’s prestigious “Outstanding Graduate” award. Her newly earned degree strengthens her role as a third grade teacher at St. Anthony School on Maui, where she’s been teaching for the past 11 years.

Educating her students while receiving her own education isn’t the only feat Tafao’s been tackling the past several years. She’s a wife to her husband, Mosi Tafao, and mother to Melia, 8, and Mosiah, 6. She also has a second career as a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, currently serving as commander for the 305th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment in Honolulu.

“It was definitely a challenge juggling all of my obligations and commitments,” she says. “It took me five years to complete this degree, and I am very blessed to have a supportive husband, family and friends that were willing to help when I needed time to study or have sessions with my instructors on Maui.”

Chaminade made undertaking a graduate degree while continuing her careers and family commitments a reality for Tafao. Her education was made possible through the Gift of Marianist Education. She says that although she was initially reluctant to enroll in the program because her son was only one at the time, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

“Chaminade University’s teaching program has helped me grow as a teacher,” she says. “The program and courses have taught me techniques, strategies and methods that help me to be an effective teacher. I’ve also learned some personal lessons throughout the program, like how to be more organized and prioritize and manage my time efficiently.”

Being based on Maui could have been a potential barrier to some seeking to further their education. But the program grouped other teachers from St. Anthony School into the same cohort. Together, the teachers learned big concepts in a small setting.

“One thing that stood out about the program was working with a small cohort of members from the same school community,” Tafao says. “Because of this closeness, I feel it made the program memorable and allowed me to gain a tremendous amount of insight while learning from instructors and fellow colleagues.”

Tafao says she really appreciated that the program allowed students to concurrently teach in their own classrooms, which made the assignments, discussions and research projects more practical.

“It wasn’t just another classroom environment where I read from education books and journals, had discussions and took exams,” she says. “It allowed me to apply what I learned, what was discussed and what I researched immediately with my students, my classroom and my school community.”

Tafao says she recommends this program to any teacher looking to strengthen their pedagogy.

“This type of cohort had a reasonable amount of online work and on-ground, face-to-face time with our instructors on Maui,” she says. “The courses were applicable in the classroom and taught me skills and techniques to be an effective teacher.”

Reflecting back on the entire experience, it was mostly positive. But as with life, there were obstacles and the hardest one was when her father passed away in May 2017 after battling cancer for three years. Tafao was taking her second to last course at the time and although it was difficult for her to stay focused while grieving his loss, she knew it’s what he would have wanted.

“I miss him dearly and wish he had been there to physically watch me receive this honor,” she says. “But I know he would have been proud.”

As Tafao continues teaching her students and serving in the military, she may not be done with her career goals yet.

“My most recent instructor, Dr. Hans Chun, mentioned a doctoral program,” Tafao said. “While I would like some time off, furthering my education and teaching skills through a state certification program and possibly a doctoral program may be in the future for me.”

The Master of Education program offers concentrations in Educational Leadership, which prepares candidates for administrative positions with an emphasis on K-12 schools; Instructional Leadership,which provides advanced knowledge of classroom practices for teachers and other educators not currently aspiring to become administrators; and Child Development, which offers advanced study of developmental theory, research and application.

Learning Never Stops

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Ken Kakesako’s professional life was a bit different years back when he was deputy director of Hawaii’s Department of Agriculture. Then, he spent his days at hearings and briefings advocating for agriculture issues. Now, the 36-year-old brings science alive to middle schoolers and is involved with after-school activities that enrich the educational experience.

When the desire to become a teacher hit Kakesako, Chaminade University made it easy for him to continue working while pursing his Master of Education. The program was appealing because he was able to continue to support his family by day and chip away at coursework in the evening.

In his first three years as a teacher at Stevenson Middle School, he’s been instilling his love of science in his students and founded the after-school wrestling club. He obtained a R.E.A.C.H. grant from the Lt. Governor’s office for $5,000 to fund wrestling and robotics and secured $30,000 for next year to go toward all clubs, including volleyball, ukulele and art.

MEd Ken KakesakoHe also worked with McKinley High School students to create ROOTS (Responsible Open-Minded Operations Through Science) at Stevenson and started a science Olympiad team. And if that wasn’t even to fill his plate, Kakesako also helped Chaminade with its accreditation process in by giving a student perspective as someone who had completed the program.

Colleagues and mentors were quick to recognize Kakesako’s enthusiasm and impact he has on his students. He was recently surprised during a weekly staff meeting with news that he was the recipient of the prestigious 2018 Milken Teacher of Promise Award. HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union sponsors the annual award, which recognizes teachers who excel early in their careers.

“It was a great surprise during the meeting,” he says. “I’m grateful to those that made it possible, I’ve had great teachers and mentors supporting me.”

Kakesako’s mentor and fellow science teacher, Julie Segawa, nominated him for the award and she has a history of mentoring teachers that stand out from the crowd. She mentored another Chaminade graduate, Ryan Kagami, who received the 2014 Milken Teacher of Promise Award.

When Kakesako reminisces about his time spent at Chaminade, mentorship sticks out in his mind. “The best part of my experience was the interaction with professors,” he says. “My mentor, Sheri Fitzgerald, helped me gain knowledge and insight while I was student-teaching.”

Path to finding his passion

Like many, Kakesako’s path to his where he stands today included many twists and turns. After graduating from ‘Iolani School, Kakesako left Hawaii and earned his bachelor’s in Economics from Harvard University.

He then spent just over five years working in Japan. First, he taught English to middle school students and then he was a recruiter for an investment banking company. When it came time to start a family, Kakesako knew he wanted his children to grow up around family and share similar experiences he had growing up in the islands. So it was time to come home.

Back in Hawaii, he worked for the state. He was a legislative administrator and budget analyst for Senator Russell Kokubun and then became the DOA’s legislative coordinator and deputy director.

But returning to teaching kept tugging at him. And when he looked at his options, he choose Chaminade because of the program’s flexibility and emphasize on learning in and out of the classroom. Now, Kakesako uses lessons he learned at Chaminade – like taking concepts taught in class out in the world to make them relevant to students.

Ken Kakesako, MEd“I love it when my students make connections between things they’ve learned to their own lives,” he says. “We recently had a lesson about the super blood moon and many of them went home and shared the information with their parents and were super jazzed when they watched it. Their excitement gives me energy.”

Kakesako brings a myriad of skills to room 208 at Stevenson through the various hats he’s worn. He uses his past experiences in sales to “sell” his lessons to students, knowledge gained from working in government to secure funding for his classroom and after-school clubs and he uses strategies learned at Chaminade to make learning relevant and exciting to his students.

And in the end, it’s those lessons learned in his life that leave the biggest mark.

“I want my students to become educated citizens and exercise critical thinking,” he says. “I teach them to be deeper thinkers and that learning never stops. I’m preparing them for jobs that don’t even exist yet and hope that I am setting them up for a lifetime of learning.”

The Master of Education program offers concentrations in Educational Leadership, which prepares candidates for administrative positions with an emphasis on K-12 schools; Instructional Leadership,which provides advanced knowledge of classroom practices for teachers and other educators not currently aspiring to become administrators; and Child Development, which offers advanced study of developmental theory, research and application.