The IKUNA Blog — I AM IKUNA

As immigrants to this country, my parents always made it a point to remind us kids how easy we had it. I can imagine that we've all had that conversation. Now my children are the recipients of the famous speech that always begins with "You know when I was your age..." As a child and even into my youth, our family would take trips back to the islands so that we could see for ourselves how lucky we truly were to call the U.S. our home. Those experiences and memories have...

As a follow-up to my last post, I mentioned that we would organize an opportunity to help encourage and motivate our young people. It was important for us to share a message of pursuing dreams and utilizing their talents to fulfill their goals. Our young people are very talented and it is important for them to realize that they can succeed despite the challenges they face in today's world. 

When discussing how we might be able to do this, the ideas quickly became many and the positive energy made it...

We are excited to launch an IKUNA program that recognizes achievement. We feel an urgent responsibility to help guide and point our young people in the right direction. Through various annual events, we will help motivate and encourage our youth to pursue their dreams. Whatever our youth are passionate about, we will help build within them the confidence they need and give support wherever we can to help them realize their goals. 

With that said, we will have our first opportunity to recognize students who have recently graduated from the high schools in Oakland, CA....