ʻAnela Kahihikolo Returns Home to Begin Teaching Career
Four years after graduating from Lānaʻi High & Elementary School, ʻAnela Kahihikolo has returned to LHES as a first-grade teacher. The daughter of Saul and Kris Kahihikolo, ʻAnela graduated with the Class of 2022 before attending the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education this past May.
Her interest in teaching began well before college. ʻAnela mentioned former LHES teacher Sandy Patterson as one of the people who influenced that decision while she was still an elementary school student. “Ms. [Sandy] Patterson had a really huge impact on me and was one of the people who really influenced me to want to teach,” ʻAnela said.
Now teaching first grade in the same F Building where she attended first grade with Miss Savage, ʻAnela remembers field trips around campus and the community, including walking to the stables. “We would mainly go to the basketball courts, but it always felt like the best day out of the week,” she said.
First grade at LHES is split between two classes, with 27 students total. ʻAnela teaches 13 students, while fellow LHES alumna Jasmine Ordonez-Ohashi, Class of 2012, teaches the other 14. Together, the two first-grade classes are nearly the same size as ʻAnela’s own Class of 2022, which graduated with 26 students.
The path back to LHES began during ʻAnela’s senior year at UH Mānoa, when she started considering where she wanted to begin her teaching career. She realized she did not have to remain on Oʻahu and could instead return to Lānaʻi.
“I can go back home and I can do my part and serve my community just like how they served me and sort of give back to them by teaching,” ʻAnela said.
Acting on that decision, she contacted LHES Vice Principal Jennifer Pimentel about applying and met with her during winter break. By spring break, an interview had been arranged.
Later, when the school was ready to let ʻAnela know she had been selected for the position, Principal Doug Boyer brought her parents in and had them join their daughter on a Zoom call. Saul and Kris were the ones who told her she had gotten the job.
“They were ecstatic,” ʻAnela said. “And they could not be happier.”