By: Makayla Dilliner
Ms. Inouye is a name that every student at Kalāheo High can recognize. While many students know her journey to and from a major of computer science to psychology, what more can we learn about the 1985 Kalāheo alumna? A career that starts and ends with our school, Ms. Inouye gave us a look inside her career. After graduating High School, it was in Los Angeles where Inouye began her college education at Loyola Marymount University. Later, she transitioned back to the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
“I stayed in L.A. for three years and worked in human resources which is where I realized I didn't want to do that for the rest of my life. So I started my master's degree at Cal State Dominguez Hills before returning home to finish my master’s degree at UH Manoa.”
In coming back to Hawaii to attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa, what exactly led Inouye to return to Kalāheo High. It wasnʻt the need for a job that led her back to her roots. It was the want of a better future for high school students.
“No one talked to you about college. Counselors didn't talk about college. To be honest I didn't even see my regular counselor back then.” Despite it all, Inouye is the first in her family to go to college. She completed her education with the intent of getting ahead in life.
“I'm a first generation college student so my parents didn't go to college so they said I was going to college but they didn't say more than that. I knew college was important, I'm not sure how and I was super lucky to have teachers who talked to us because there wasn't like I said a college counselor.”
Inouye knew that when she returned to Hawaii, she wanted to use her work to help students in high school who wanted to go to college.
“I loved high school and I love Kalāheo but never in high school did I think I was going to be a teacher or a counselor and come work here. I don't know why but I never thought that.
After I graduated with my counseling degree which really came about because of my job in human resources I realized something was missing in high school and that was advising students to think about what to do after graduation.”
But before she ultimately ended up at KHS, she worked at middle school and even considered moving to Las Vegas.
“I spent three years at Aliamanu Middle. Finally a high school job opened in a bunch of places. I was applying to go to Las Vegas to get a counseling high school job at that time, Kalāheo High had an opening. I applied and fortunately Dr. Schlosser, who was a Kalāheo teacher when I was a student, was the principal.”
Interestingly enough, Inouye was not the college counselor when she first started working at Kalāheo. She was an alpha counselor alongside Ms. Cashmen-Valdez and Ms. Kahahawai-Welch. “I got lucky and I got a regular counselor job so I was an alpha counselor for Mrs. Cashman Valdez and Mrs. Kaahawai Welch for two years before the college and career counselor position opened and then the rest is history.”
While many think that it would make sense for Ms. Inouye to be led back to the school as she is both a Kailua resident and alumna, she said it was a much more spontaneous journey. Despite it all, she made it clear that she doesnʻt know how different her life would be without Kalāheo.
“I don't know if I consciously thought I wanted to give back to Kalāheo specifically but I also knew that I couldn’t work at Kailua or Castle High because my heart bleeds blue and orange.”A sense of love and passion for community is what keeps Inouye at Kalàheo. A passion that has created a legacy of helping students achieve their goals.
“I know why I do what I do. I know this community matters because it's my community. Parents are my classmates. I've been here so long some of my former students are now parents with children here, I thought that would never happen but it has happened.
A legacy that can create a better Kailua for residents and a brighter future for all! “ But I live in the community so everything I do I believe, I hope helps make a better Kailua community or greater community. That's going to make a difference in the bigger world in general.”