A Waiakea High School science teacher is one of four finalists in the running to be named National Teacher of the Year by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Whitney Aragaki is a biology and environmental science teacher who was chosen by the council as Hawaii Teacher of the Year for 2022. The national winner is expected to be announced in late April and will spend a year serving as an ambassador for education and advocate for teachers and students.

If picked for the national honor, “what’s really exciting to me is that I’ll be speaking from a sense of kuleana to … my community,” Aragaki, 35, said. “I’m very much humbled by the opportunity to share our stories and share the amazing things that students do in the islands that might not often be seen on a national scale.”

Aragaki has been praised for teaching students to find the connection between science and the real-life problems in their immediate surroundings. For example, she said, this year her students wanted to study the COVID-19 pandemic. So she created multidisciplinary curriculum to help them look at data on how many people of color have had uneven access to health care, insurance and vaccines, and at the history of other pandemics that have affected Hawaii.

Aragaki also was cited for helping to provide equitable access statewide to environmental science and computer science courses in partnership with the Hawaii Virtual Learning Network. She teaches free advanced placement courses online after school hours so that “any student, from Kapaa all the way down to Kau,” can get access to college preparatory courses that otherwise might not be available in some remote areas, she said.

Aragaki has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Swarthmore College and a master’s in tropical conservation biology and environmental science from the University of Hawaii at Hilo. She is pursuing a doctorate with a focus in curriculum and instruction at the UH- Manoa College of Education.

She comes from a family of public educators, including both her parents. Aragaki’s mom was her biology teacher at Waiakea High.

“We believe in public education,” said Aragaki, whose two children attend public school. “We believe that every student should have equitable access to a solid foundation of public education … I’m so proud to be part of that lineage and heritage.”

The Council of Chief State School Officers award program this year recognized 56 educators from across the country, including U.S. territories, the District of Columbia and Department of Defense Education Activity. From that group, the National Teacher of the Year Selection Committee chose the four finalists based on written applications. Interviews were conducted last week.