This class has definitely been a learning experience. The farmers market project that our group did taught me many things and gave me a once of a lifetime opportunity. I learned how bad my time management was, and how much Iʻll need to get my time management skills sorted out for college. Overall, from this project I am taking with me a sense of accomplishment. Not many students can say they were a part of making a farmers market happen.
What worked well for me was being put in this group. I am thankful that I was able to get into a group who has their "sh*t" together, unlike me. It really helped me knowing that If didnʻt know what to do I could ask them and they would know. What worked well for our group was or role designations. As long as everyone got their job done our project would get finished, and thatʻs what happened. To improve the work of our group I would maybe have added more work on my part to take some stress off of my group mates. That would have definitely helped them stress less. To be honest the improvement to the project overall would have e been to have known before hand about the tax emption problem that we could have faced since we had for-profit business come onto our campus. Other than that, I believe our project was awesome. Last thoughts are that I am glad I took this class. I struggled but at the end of the day I enjoyed the class. Thank you to Mr.Blake and to my group and classmates for a great school year. Signing off on my last blog post, -Zachary Higa
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There was so many things that I learned throughout this course. One thing that I learned was how the water cycle works here in Hawaii. Our water cycle here is different from the cycle in America. I also learned how to be able to sustain a aquaponics system and to make sure all of the plants flourish. We had to take care of our own aquaponics system which included fish and various types of plants like lettuce, eggplant, and kalo. In Malama Honua we also learned how to prepare different types of foods like laulau, ulu, and fish. One major takeaway that I gained from Malama Honua was the awareness of our well being as a Hawaiian people and what we need to do in order to make sure we succeed as a people. I took away the value of sustainability. I was taught how to be a sustainable Hawaiian and to help the earth. What worked well with our group was that we all knew what our objective was and what it took to get to where we wanted to be and accomplish our goal. One thing that i would change to improve our group is the distribution of work and accoutability. One thing that I would change to improve the project is if we could have had more vendors. But for the first time us doing it, I felt that it went very well. Mahalo Kumu Blake for everything that you have done for us. You have made us realize how important being a sustainable Hawaiian is especially in todays.
Overall, this project was a success despite the amount of work and stress it was. This entire process was very long. Starting with our bug list to creating an actual farmer's market that made school history. Throughout this process, I learned that everything you do in time matters. We didn't have time to slack off and we had to continue to work on this project everyday. This taught me more time management than any other project has. With other projects we are able to complete it the night before, but this required continued time and effort. I also want to mention Trinity and the continued effort she put into this project. She was our main line of connection to everyone and she had to continue to do parts everyday. For our group, it worked that multiple people were contributing to one idea and one goal. It wouldn't have been possible if only a couple people were putting in all their effort like many of the other groups were. The fact that our project had to be complete by a certain day, we knew we had to work hard. Plus the fact that it was hosted at our school, everything had to be legal and get approved. In order to improve the work of our group, I feel as though a few other's could have put in more effort. Honestly, our project was hard as it was, although it was only our first one. For our first project, I felt that the improvement could have been made on us, such as our time management. We left what could be left for the end. I've learned beyond what any other project could have taught me. I haven't been apart of sustainability or entrepreneurship that could benefit the future like we have done. I'd also like to thank everyone who has helped us throughout the process including parents, staff, students, and the heads at our school. I'd like to give a special thanks to Coach Chris. Without all his help and continued efforts on his part, this entire project would not have been possible. He connected us to everyone we needed and although we put in the work, he has done the same.
Today we presented our project, and all the work put into our project. We were able to share it all with our classmates and parents. It was almost s reflection, and really showed us how hard we worked. I think that for all of us, it showed ourselves the great work we did. We talked about why we did this project, what benefits it had, what we actually did, the work we did, and plans for the future. We got a lot of complements from classmates and parents, they were all very proud of what we accomplish, and we got support for the future of it. Mahalo nui kumu Blake for all of your support throughout the whole project . Today in class, we are working on adding the final touches to our presentation as well as practice for the symposium tomorrow. The final touches included adding speaker notes so we have everything planned on what to say. Micah also added a slide for our entertainers because that was an important part of our event. As a group we have decided to wear simple aloha attire. Overall, we don't think time will be a problem for our presentation due to the fact that this production was very big and widespread to people outside of the Kamehameha Community. This is our time to show the rest of the classes, students, and parents what we have been working so hard on.
For the most part, our presentation is solidified and almost done.
Today Uncle John from Mochisada came to sell his mochisadas on campus and he was talking to us about being a entrepreneur and selling his product. He came to support and raise money for robotics and he also taught the entrepreneur class on how to be successful in whatever product or service you are promoting. Uncle John and I (Micah) were talking about how successful the first farmer market was and that he really wants to participate in the next Hui Manaʻai farmers market on June 22nd. He gave us feedback on what he felt about the whole project. Uncle John said that it is awesome that students are taking an initiative to better their community and he really loved how organized the whole thing was.
Today in class we had a KS employee from the financial/accounting sector of Kawaiahaʻo come visit us. He talked to the whole class, however, what he was talking about was in relation to our farmerʻs market flyer. What he talked about was how Kamehameha is a tax exempt group because of our goal/core values being education of Hawaiians, education about Hawaiian culture, and education as a whole. As such they are not operating as a not for-profit business and the IRS doesnʻt make them pay taxes.
Our flyers for the farmerʻs market advertised independent companies that operate for profit coming onto the Kamehameha campus. This of course could cause a conflict of interest if an IRS agent just so happened to see the flyer and that caused some trouble. For our next farmers market flyer we need to be more detailed about how the money from the farmers market goes to a scholarship for students so it does not seem as if Kamehameha is promoting a for-profit business on itʻs campus. We do not want to the reason Kamehameha loses itʻs tax exemption. Although we don't have class today, we've just been working on completely our paper and presentation. Trinity shared with us the powerpoint we have so far for our presentation. This power point was the one we used to present to the heads and faculty in the beginning as well as all the po'okumu on the Thursday before the farmer's market. It's been our powerpoint from the beginning although as our process goes along, we add more about our process and the results that we've received as results from our meetings with the po'okumus, teachers and staff, etc. Chloe has also shared with the group our detailed design and proposal which are spinning images of our final paper. In order for that to be our final paper we just need to add our results from the farmer's market and more information about our process as we got closer to our target date. As of right now, we need to add our results and how everything went with our process. Unfortunately I am not able to add that since I was not there but it's hard waiting for other people to add the information.
This past weekend Trinity was able to go up the Hawaiʻi Island with Mr. Blake and a few other students. They were able to learn about the ʻāina there. They traveled to different places around the island, they did stumble upon a farmers market in keauhou. Trinity was able to do some research, she talked to the vendors about the estimate amount of people who come through, when they start and finish, what is the management like, and the verity of vendors. The manager of the market also gave Trinity a booklet talking about what farmers markets are, how they benefit the community, and what to expect when running one. The booklet gave us so much information to help with up coming markets. |
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