A Helping Hand

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  Wai’anae, HI
  
  October 13, 2015
  
  Wai`anae High School’s vice principal, Mike Kurose, is committed to making a difference. He volunteered for Seariders Service on August 21st of this year. The volunteer work consisted mainly of painting walls, installing new benches, and doing what he does best: having a positive impact on the lives of others.
  
  When asked how he feels about what he’s doing, Mr. Kurose said, “I feel good about what i’m doing which is working to improve the lives of young people in our community.”
  
  Mr. Kurose has worked at Wai`anae High School for nineteen years with one mission: making a difference. He started as a history teacher and after sixteen years he made the jump from educator to administrator. He is now the vice principal of the upper grade academy. In the time that he has been at this school, Mr. Kurose has done his best for the students at Wai`anae High School because he believes doing his best for them makes them do the best for themselves.
  
  Over time, Kurose has been able to unearth the importance of what he is doing.
  
  “I’ve been at this school, working with everybody and learning from the other adults here and, um, it has really dawned on me how important what we do is, how important [it is] that we have a passion,” Kurose said.
  
  Mr. Kurose’s love for helping people by making a difference in their lives has become more important to him over time because he was not always the person that he is today.
  
  “I grew up in a way where I was not a very good student when I was going to high school especially, um, I did not have a whole lot of goals,” Mr Kurose said.
  
  His greatest inspiration to change came from seeing how hard his mother worked. “I did not really have an appreciation for that until after I became an adult,” Kurose said.  
  
  Influenced by his mother and eager to make her proud, Mr. Kurose started to set goals for himself, the largest of which involved his passion: guiding his students. He said, “I just didn’t want to have a simple job that was about making money, I wanted to do something that would make a difference in the lives of other people.”
  
  Today, Mr. Kurose’s efforts remain ongoing. He is working with students and doing his best to make a difference in their lives.  Making this difference seems easy to him because he recognizes their capabilities.
  
  “They’re so capable they can provide not only for this community but so much more,” he said.  Kurose he cares about his students so much that he wants, “every single one of them to achieve something and feel good about their lives.”
  
  The inspiration that Mr. Kurose invokes extends far beyond his students. As 11th grade teacher Camila Hampton has found, he inspires teachers as well. Hampton and Kurose have been working at Wai`anae high school together for years and he has encouraged her help make a difference by volunteering.
  
  “Mr Kurose definitely does inspires me and other teachers to get more involved.” said Hampton.
  
  From initially wanting to improve the lives of others, Kurose also feels it is important to influence this life changing journey with those around him. When asked about why he was volunteering he answered,
  
  “That sense of community with the people I work with is the bigger reason why I’m here, we are all getting our hands dirty, we’re all working to make this place look, feel, and work better,” he said.
  
  Although Mr Kurose is no longer a teacher he still wants to work with the students of his community in any way possible even if he has to do that by installing benches and painting walls.
  
  “We have a passion and we exert ourselves to the best of our abilities with the most open heart as possible to really try and provide the best experience for our youth,” he added.

LOOKING BACK

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Throughout the process of making doing this project I learned quite a few things.  One of which, was to pay close attention to detail. 

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Deana Goslin, Photographer

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Tyler Bright, Reporter

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