“Fai le mea ou te le mafaia” - A saying that my grandmother used to live by. “Do what I cannot” is the pinnacle of my educational goals; words of wisdom passed on orally by my ancestors before me. Throughout my entire educational journey, I was typically one of only a handful of Samoans on campus. Being Pacific Islander in college means finding a balance between full time work, full time schooling, and full time feaus. Being a Pacific Islander in college means not having any peers in my classes and lectures that ethnically can relate to me, feeling very alone but hyper fixated with a spotlight on me at all times. For lack of better terms, being Pacific Islander in college more often than not means you're the only one there, voyaging alone. However, in the back of my mind I always hear “fai le mea ou te le mafaia,” and continue sailing to open seas. My cultural heritage has always been a huge part of my existence. Not only because I was representing such a small percentage of students around me, but I was also brought up in an aiga with so many mixed backgrounds where our Samoan identity was always superimposed by our grandparents; insisting we grew up knowing fa’asamoa, and instilling it into our everyday lives, one of the most important settings being our education. I carry my family's name and legacy on my back as I continue to make achievements– the first in my family to get a bachelor's degree, the first to get accepted into my masters program, and the first to be moving overseas onto territories I've never fully immersed myself in before. When I first got accepted into the University of Auckland, it was a whirlwind of juxtaposed emotions; I was joyful, but worrisome of leaving my family. Excited, but fearful of moving overseas by myself. The overwhelming feeling of not belonging in a place that seemed so culturally sophisticated and prevalent, something I never really experienced here in California, weighed heavy on my mind. These anguished feelings made me hesitant to accept my offer, but in the back of my head I heard once again, “fai le mea ou te le mafaia.” The lack of fully comprehending my Samoan culture is what motivated me to pursue my college degrees in anthropology, with my sights set on becoming a professor of Pacific Studies/Anthropology; pushing forward with the eagerness to teach students here in California about the beautiful culture and islands I come from. I also believe Pasifika kids in the states deserve to have teachers and professors that look like them, and my hope is to use this opportunity to influence Pasifika youth to pursue higher education. I believe that I am deserving of this scholarship because of my dedication to academic growth in a new environment. Though the move to another country is daunting, I’m determined to grow as an individual and part of that is adapting to a space that is unfamiliar to me. As an international student, this scholarship would also help alleviate some of the financial pressures, allowing me to fully focus on my studies. As a proud Pacific Islander, I am passionate about cultural heritage and Pacific success and my dedication to anthropology is shaped by my eagerness to uplift Pacific stories and traditions, especially for the diaspora in America. I’m truly convinced that my grandparents’ sacrifices and resilience paved the way for me, and I am living up to their highest wishes: “fai le mea ou te le mafaia,” – doing things they could not.

I've chosen Anthropology as my major because of the immense diversity and amount of people I was surrounded with my whole life. Growing up, I never necessarily grew up with kids or teachers that looked like me; a Samoan, Black, and Indian kid. But, through that, I was able to experience so many cultures that were ironically so different from my own. This new interest of mine is what initially sparked my curiosity for cultures, languages, origins, and practices, hence, the only thing that made sense to pursue for me, was Anthropology: the study of humans and their past/present ways of life. Because of the lack of Indigenous and Pacific Islander professors that I've seen throughout my years in K-12 and higher education, I felt a great passion to go into a non-profit route of teaching, primarily focusing on teaching in junior colleges in lower income communities, and possibly a four year university if it came down to it. I would love to use my Cultural Anthropology degrees to teach younger generations about the cultures, languages, and practices that come from my beautiful island and first nations communities. My motivation and determination to give back to my communities stems from being brought up in such hard working cultures that often get looked past, and never seem to get the recognition we deserve. I want to be an example of what indigenous, brown excellence could look like, and through that I could hopefully motivate a whole new generation of young Native, Pacific Islander, and Black leaders. Working while being a college student was a very big adjustment for me. Because of covid, I had a combination of a regular school experience and also a quarantine school experience! My first two years of my undergraduate college degree was strictly online because of the pandemic. Throughout this time, I was working three jobs in order to help my parents with bills, and with my part of weekly necessities. During school hours, I was an english tutor for Black/Pan-African students in the UMOJA program at my junior college, where I would meet with them via zoom to aid them with research papers, effective writing skills, and strengthening their reading/annotation skills. After my morning shifts I was working full-time at the local mall (not sure how that was considered essential work). Throughout all of this I was still a full-time student, enrolled in 12-15 credits, so you could say that I was constantly busy. The impact that came out of this was simply learning how to equally allocate time for all of my priorities, while also staying safe and healthy. I guess at that time I didn't necessarily comprehend the amount of mental stress this caused me, and continued to cause me as I continued my education at CSULB and started working as a Resident Assistant and mandated reporter.

I've chosen Anthropology as my major because of the immense diversity and amount of people I was surrounded with my whole life. Growing up, I never necessarily grew up with kids or teachers that looked like me; a Samoan, Black, and Indian kid. But, through that, I was able to experience so many cultures that were ironically so different from my own. This new interest of mine is what initially sparked my curiosity for cultures, languages, origins, and practices, hence, the only thing that made sense to pursue for me, was Anthropology: the study of humans and their past/present ways of life. Because of the lack of Indigenous and Pacific Islander professors that I've seen throughout my years in K-12 and higher education, I felt a great passion to go into a non-profit route of teaching, primarily focusing on teaching in junior colleges in lower income communities, and possibly a four year university if it came down to it. I would love to use my Cultural Anthropology degrees to teach younger generations about the cultures, languages, and practices that come from my beautiful island and first nations communities. My motivation and determination to give back to my communities stems from being brought up in such hard working cultures that often get looked past, and never seem to get the recognition we deserve. I want to be an example of what indigenous, brown excellence could look like, and through that I could hopefully motivate a whole new generation of young Native, Pacific Islander, and Black leaders.