by: Lahela Maxwell

On the blustery night of Thurs-day July 5, 2012, Upward Bound students got gussied up for a (super-vised) night on the town. The venue: Fresh Café’s First Thursdays Slam Hawai`i event. There were many poets, performers, and art to keep the students intrigued. The whole warehouse is a piece of art: murals, graffiti, and paintings grace the walls of the café, and an artist was actually in the process of painting two different paintings while various poets performed their spoken word. The event was very casual, but at the same time serious. Kealoha, the state’s first poet laureate, hosted the event. He shouted out for volun-teers in the audience to be judges of the event, and our very own Speech teacher, Audrey Mendoza volun-teered (with assistance) for the epic title of SLAM POET JUDGE.

The first poem set the mood for the night. It was story about a man’s struggle with addiction and

his power to overcome it. There were various performances about struggles in all their guises: feminin-ity, love, motherhood, deployment, and abusive relationships, even the tribulations as a slam poet. Each per-former brought something unique to his or her performance; but the one thing that they all had in common was pure, raw, undiluted emotion. Whether happy, funny, bereaved, or indignant, every performance rang with the audience’s heart.

But a nice surprise for the audi-ence was the performance of two high school students. That’s right, Becky and Jonah performed “Girls”, the skit that they performed for the Upward Bound Talent Show. Well-received (I’m not lying, there was a guy literally bursting with laughter behind me and Fran), the two per-formed to “just share”.

Shortly after a performance by a lauded scholar, Upward Bound un-fortunately had to leave (we do have a bedtime!). Back on the bus, stu-dents loudly discussed their favorite performances and their interpreta-tions. Finally at the dorms, students settled down and drifted off to sleep.

Summer 2012 Issue 5 Design by: Abcde Cox

Fresh words at the Fresh Café

Dorming Delights: Hobby Club Spotlight by: Will Paul

The last two hobby clubs in our series are both located at the rooftop of Hale Ilima.

“Can you smell...what Maribell is cooking?” RA, Maribell, instructs Sumptuous Survival. She indi-cates “I can’t wait to have the Upward Bound stu-dents learn how to use their resources to produce food they’ll want to eat. People don’t normally think about making anything besides rice in a rice cooker, but there are so many recipes and ways you can use it.”

Maribell looks forward to “molten lava cake week!” she mentions, “Lava Cake is simple yet a complicated dessert to make. Plus, it’s super tasty and just in time for midterms.” Her plans for Sumptuous Survival will be making tasty entrees, snacks and desserts using the microwave, rice cookers and the community kitchen tools.

“Hopefully in the process, the students will get to learn more about the food that they eat and how to cook too!” said Maribell.

Dance Club finishing off choreography for their number.

Sumptious Survival chefs working in teams to make banana cream pie.

With the calories consumed by Sumptuous Survival, surely there must be a club where UB-ers can burn it all off. RA Don is responsible for “Dance Club.” Don will be teaching the foundations to make a dance out of everything and anything. For example just like taking one step and making cho-reography about it.

Womanizer! Womanizer! That’s right, you heard it! Don is enthused about “Britney Spears” week. Don mentions “I’m looking forward to just getting the girls active and feeling confident about themselves. Having the sense that they can do something if they put their mind into it. That, and to just shake it!”

That concludes the hobby club brief. Hope to see everyone’s involvement in the clubs that they have chosen, also the RAs enthusiasm in what they have planned out.

Pics of the Week

This week UB kicked off Monday, July 02, 2012 with a fabulous talent show. Students have all been busy practicing many days, even weeks (for some) before for their acts. Even the RAs were hard at work for their pre-sentation. RA Don comments, “ever since day one I’ve been preparing my routine, but it wasn’t until the day before when I had finally had it finalized to perfection ;D.”

All students participated and wowed judges Frances Denning, Jaymee Feinga, Lisa Gillis-Davis and teachers Kehau Agena and Audrey Mendoza with their fantastic talents. There was a variety of singers and dancers, and even a football haka and basketball skills demonstrations.

Hey! even our RA’s participated in some acts. We also had former UB student Dominic Carlos, a previous winner from last year sing and play guitar.

There were guest judges and our administrators determined our winners. According to Lisa, “This was the most talented group I’ve seen in the last few years!”

This year’s talent show theme was “Sorry for Party Rockin’.” Though there were some techni-cal difficulties at the beginning, we managed to get past it and create a magnificent talent show! Thanks to our tech people Chris Campos and Hoku Myers who managed to cope with the troubles. The night started at 6:45pm with a wonder-ful questionnaire to learn about Octavio, one of our RA’s. To start off the student performances, a group of singers went first. One of the most unique parts about talent show was when Shogo played the Tahitian drum, ac-companied by Kaulana and Jaymee. It was a very courageous thing to do. It ended out swell and

by: Abcde Cox

UB Talent Show presents student gifts with flare

everyone had a good time.

The most comedic performance was when Becky and Jonah did their skit called “Girls”. Their acting skills stunned the audience and filled the auditorium with laughter. The ideas of their skit were very real resulting in a hilarious experience! Jonah Cabiles said, “Becky and I practiced for a total of 2 times, each 15 minutes. Being on stage had a great atmosphere, that really helped with our performance, Becky and I fed off the enthusi-asm of the audience.”

To end the night, the Talent Show committee had five amazing winners in different categories.

Most Original was won by Jonah Cabiles and Becky LaPenes, Most Organized was won by Abcde Cox and Jhoana Delos Reyes. Jhoana explained, “ It helps to be prepared

beforehand so you don’t get those stage fright jit-ters.”

Most Musical was won by Sasha Kauwale for her originally composed song. Most Creative was won by Seini Kamoto and Nia Fealofani.

Last but not least the biggest group of winners: Most Talented for our hula girls! Delilah Schlem-mer, Ki‘ini Kaio-Perez, Leisa Lovett, and Jestina-Marie Salis.

According to Delilah, “It was easy fun, but nerve racking to be up on stage.” It takes courage to do what we do!

We walked back into the night at 9:15pm with our spirits high, laughing and yelling into the night. What a great way to kick off the ending of our Up-ward Bound summer program!

UB Talent Show presents student gifts with flare

Students of

the WeekA standing ovation to UB’s students of the week for demonstrating positive attitudes, can-do spirit and champi-

oning an altruistic demeanor.

Of all the students in UB, Cheynell shows wisdom beyond her years. She has the abil-ity to empathize and simultaneously give her opinion while preserv-ing her peers’ dignities. Despite life’s ups and downs, there is always a smile of Cheynell’s face.

Ki‘ini is well known for her positive at-titude and radiant smile. This student fulfills her academic duties, respects ev-eryone in the program and multiple musical talents.

Ki‘ini Kaio-Perez Elijah Inano Cheynell KawaihaeKahea Kaio

A jawaiian rockstar by his own mark, Elijah consistently finishes his homework on week-ends. He is within the top two perecentile within his classes.

Kahea is a helpful and driven individual with a vision. Her dream of attending USC for a nursing degree keeps her focused on academics. Beyond school, Kahea has contagious positive attitude and enthusi-asm.

Left to right: Cheynell Kawai-hae, Ki‘ini Kaio-Perez, Kahea Kaio. (Elijah Inano’s photo not available)

On the fairly relaxed Sunday of July 1, 2012, RA Sunja bolted all over Hale Ilima to finish the final touches of decora-tions for Upward Bound’s Open House. As 4 o’clock rolled by parents accompanied by UB students slowly trickled in to ex-perience a typical day here at the dorms from their children’s perspective.

Approximately forty guests attended the event. Parents and students first reported to their respective huis, followed by committees and hobby clubs. Each different hui presented to parents about the activities they do as a group. RA Sunja prejected a slideshow for her hui. In addition, the third floor

Dorms opened to UB parents for

Open House

was transformed into a snap shot gallery for parents to see their child’s involvement in the program. Other RAs took a more relaxed perspective and chatted with the parents about their huis. Finally, chocolate fondue made with a rice cooker was served at the Sumptuous Survival station at the roof as a sneak peak.

The afternoon culminated with an energizer by RA Don called Follow the Leader. Three parents had the fortune of guessing which student was the instigator of the group’s movements. After a fast paced event, families ate picnic style at the Hale Aloha courtyard. Overall the afternoon was a relaxed affair and an insightful experience about the activity filled days of the students.

A family member playing guessing the leader for a fame at Open House.