Program Builds Confidence, Dreams for At-Risk Students

NPAC students perform a scene from "Shout! The Mod Musical,” in 2013.

With a high rate of students from NPAC going on to enroll in college, he’s been very successful with that ambition since the program started in 1991.

Kitsu, or, “Mister” as he’s known to his students, said a big reason for that is because he makes a point to promote post-high school education. Program “alumni assistants” who are enrolled or have already graduated from college return to volunteer and serve as role models.

“[It] just reaffirms the benefits of college,” he said. “They talk about college life, they talk about the advantages, they talk about the challenges. When you have students from grades 4 to 12 hearing this each year, I think that helps to plant the seed that college is something that’s beneficial and fun.  We stress to all of our students to find their passion and we explain how college will help them develop it.”

One alumni assistant, Talitiga Ulufale, said he wouldn’t have graduated if it weren't for "Mister" and the program.

"I probably would have been behind bars," Ulufale said in a 2011 PBS Hawaii documentary highlighting NPAC. "But after seeing this outlet for kids like me … I believe in this program. It will help you graduate, help you be a better person and prepare you for the real world more than anything else."

There are also guest speakers, tutoring and other kinds of academic assistance. But more than any other factor, Kitsu said the confidence developed through the program is a “tremendous reason why the students go on to college.”

“If they know that they can learn to sing, act and dance on stage in front of an audience, then nothing is impossible,” he said. “The skills they learn and apply in NPAC are the same skills needed to succeed in college.”

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