As a kid, David Kekaulike Sing struggled in school. Sing, who grew up in public housing on Oahu, said his teachers told him he’d never get into college because of his low SAT scores and lack of motivation.
But he decided to turn those challenges into opportunities. After earning bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees, Sing, a retired University of Hawaii at Hilo professor, used his experiences to help other Native Hawaiian students by giving them the support and opportunities he never had as a kid.
To honor these accomplishments and more, the National Indian Education Association awarded him with its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award Oct. 15.
“Early on, it was a really challenging time for me. (But) as I went through college and started to achieve, the whole idea that I couldn’t do it was wrong,” he said. “Over the years, through the programs I ran, we touched maybe 15,000 to 20,000 kids. And many of my former students are … doing really well. That’s what makes you feel good.”
After high school, Sing attended UH Manoa for one year before flunking out. That’s when he was drafted into the Navy to serve in the Vietnam War. While traveling through Asia, he became interested in Asian cultures and languages. When Sing returned home, he re-enrolled at UH Manoa and pursued a degree in Asian studies.
Although more determined than ever to succeed the second time around, Sing said he still struggled in school. He took hours to finish reading his homework assignments, often using a dictionary to look up vocabulary he didn’t know. He said he realized then that to succeed, he needed to take the time to fully understand the materials.
That awareness stuck with him throughout his 40-year career.
Through the GI Bill, Sing earned a bachelor’s degree from UH Manoa and went on to pursue master’s and doctorate degrees in education from Claremont Graduate University in California. He began working at UH Hilo in 1974 as a counselor for Pacific Island students and later founded the Hawaiian Leadership Development Program in the 1980s.
The initiative was the first program in the state to offer support services to Native Hawaiian students in higher education and was eventually replicated throughout the UH system. At UH Hilo, the program became the Kipuka Native Hawaiian Student Center, which offers peer mentorship, tutoring, academic advising and cultural activities.
Sing, who is known as Uncle David to the many former students and staff he still keeps in touch with, also founded the Na Pua No‘eau Center for Gifted and Talented Hawaiian Children at UH Hilo, which sought to increase enrollment of Native Hawaiian students at UH.
The program, which was expanded to other UH campuses in 2018, incorporated native perspectives, history, language and culture to encourage Hawaiian students in elementary through high school to attend college and pursue their goals.
“When we work with the schools, they say these students aren’t doing well. Those are the ones I want to get into my programs,” Sing said. “I know they weren’t doing well not because they weren’t able to but because they weren’t inspired. I related to them and understood what they were going through.”
When he first started out in Hawaiian education, Sing said there weren’t many people working in the field. So, he reached out to the NIEA in the 1990s to see what American Indian and Alaska Native educators were doing. He also worked with the national nonprofit to include Native Hawaiians as regular voting members and was the first Hawaiian to serve on NIEA’s board of directors.
Sing, who also founded the Native Hawaiian Education Association, won NIEA’s Educator of the Year Award in 2008.
The organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes educators who have made significant contributions in the American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian communities. Other Hawaiian educators who received the award include retired UH-Hilo professor Makalapua Alencastre in 2019, former ‘Aha Punana Leo Executive Director Namaka Rawlins in 2015 and retired Kamehameha Schools administrator Teresa Makuakane-Drechsel in 2012.
Praise from Sing’s colleagues poured in after news of his national award spread.
Gail Makuakane-Lundin, director of the Kipuka Native Hawaiian Student Center at UH Hilo, said Sing was her mentor and helped support many other Native Hawaiian professionals.
Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees Chairwoman Carmen Hulu Lindsey added that Sing’s work “has been such a blessing for our lahui.”
“The Native Hawaiian community definitely owes a debt of gratitude to Sing for his pioneering efforts in the education of our keiki,” Lindsey said in a statement. “His research and experience in creating optimal learning conditions for Native Hawaiians have become models applied throughout our educational system.”
After retiring from UH Hilo in 2014, Sing, who enjoys singing and playing ukulele, and his wife, Nalani, a former principal, founded Educational Prism, a consultancy that advises schools and educators in evaluating and developing programs for Native Hawaiian students.
“A lot of things I developed are now replicated in the schools. That’s the beauty of it, too, to see something you planted has taken shape not only in the students but in the system that you tried to change,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you come from and where you are, it’s where you want to go. Part of our philosophy is anything and everything is possible. We want the kids to believe that.”
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Jayna Omaye covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
