BELOW READ OLD EMAILS FROM PREVIOUS PROGRAMS WHICH GIVE YOU A BIT OF THE FLAVOR OF WHAT YOU'LL RECEIVE.
Aloha kakou,
For Students Attending the Summer program in Hawaii:
Congratulations on being accepted to and entering our field program. These are incredible experiences that everyone loves and cherishes for the rest of their lives. We cannot wait to share the place and people with you. This is the first of several big email blasts that we will be sending during the coming months. See below, in case you have not yet seen the official acceptance letter.
Registration and Payment
The Summer schedule will be posted soon but students cannot yet sign up for classes. Registration is not until May 15. But you can finalize your position on the program by paying the program fees. Your payment is due by June 1st.
There is only one payment option.
Payment of personal check made out to Foothill College with Hawaii placed in the subject heading with your name.
a) Address it to Prof Samuel Connell, Dept of Anthropology, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills CA 94022
b) If you want to pay by cashier’s check or money order - that is also possible.
Then you are done - all paid up and ready to go! The next step will be to enroll in the classes. In addition, you should purchase your plane tickets as soon as possible!
However, because there is a waitlist, if you want to assure a spot please send a deposit via check or digitally via Venmo or Zelle.
Zelle -- send to connell.samuel@gmail.com last 4 of the acct 9065
Venmo -- send to @Samuel-Connell-10 , last four of my phone # is 6500
If you sent a deposit already, I am now going to cash them and accept them.
Waitlist: We have a large and growing waitlist so I am going to reach out to each of you to gauge the seriousness of your application. We have had students bail out on the program in the past which has caused issues. So be aware that you will need to respond to my emails if I am addressing you directly.
Grants-in-Aid: Please see the attached form for grant from the student government of Foothill College. This is due by May 15th! If you get an award, then you will be asked to subtract the amount from your final payments. For example, a $500 grant, means $4000-$500 = $3500 is what you will pay for program fees. [Fees for college courses are separate and will be handled by you when you register for the summer schedule] Notifications of awardees of the grants-in-aid will be coming out a few days after May 15th. If you apply for one of those, then please wait to pay your program fees until after you get notification of whether or not you will be receiving a grant.
Financial Aid: Please be aware that if you qualify for Financial Aid (determined by Foothill College Financial Aid Office, not the Anthropology Department), those monies will be paid out separately to you via a transfer or check later in June. We will still be expecting a final payment from you by June 1st, unless you let us know you have other needs (we may require you to verify expected financial aid award to reserve your spot without final payment). If you do not currently receive financial aid, but are a California resident, and think you might quality, we absolutely encourage you to get in touch with the Foothill Financial Aid Office.
Travel == Time also should be taken to consider getting travel arrangements in order. Flights are only going up in price. I book tickets on Southwest. We will meet you at the Kona airport on 8/1 and we will drop you off on 8/21. We will start out by staying at the HPA campus at this house. So you can meet us directly there if you like. But everyone needs to forward your travel plans to Sam (me) as soon as you make them. Of course you may be traveling around the islands before and after the project (we expect that you will!), just know that we are only responsible for you between these dates.
Pre-Departure Meeting == Important, but not required, pre-departure meeting for all participants and their family/friends. Come prepared with questions. It will be in person on the Foothill College campus in the Anthro Lab (room 3103) at a day and time TBD in June. We will provide a Zoom option for those who cannot meet in person. See you there!
Sleeping Bags == Because sleeping arrangements are bound to be fluid on this program, sleeping bags are great to have but not necessary (but not a tent, unless you are definitely wanting to camp in the rain). On the Big Island it always gets cold at night, especially at the higher elevations.
Summer Course Listings == Again you cannot register for classes at Foothill College until mid May or early June. I will keep you updated about this procedure when it becomes possible to enroll in the classes.
Duolingo Hawaian: I am a fan of this app, it has a nice intro to Hawaiian
Background Reading: This is an indigenous archaeology program –we have placed several articles in the What to Read section of the Google Site. Check them out.
Well that is all for now, we are truly excited to get to Hawaii and to begin our project together.
Sam, Mike, and Julie
Hey everybody,
I hope all is well as your semesters and quarters end.
So.... we are now getting into the nitty gritty of organizing your trip.
Our Grants in Aid have been awarded to very deserving students, so thank you all for submitting applications, awardees will be notified in the next day or two. If you have submitted your $100 down payment thank you. If you are intending to drop the program please let us know ASAP because there are many on the waitlist who need to make arrangements if there is space!
The next steps are:
1. Pay the rest of your program fees to Foothill College by June 1st.
2. Register for summer session class Anth12 and Anth 57
3. Send Sam your flight information so you can be picked up.
4. Attend our virtual Zoom meeting with all people coming on June 11.
5. Enjoy your first half of the summer because I know August will be amazing.
Enroll
You can now register for the summer courses to take in Hawaii, there are three of them - Anth 12. During July, I will be opening up an online component for the class using our Canvas learning platform. You can prepare yourself for the class and the trip on Canvas during July.
Directions for enrolling in class
1. Complete the Foothill College Application (only students new to Foothill): If you are not currently enrolled (Spring 2024) for classes, you must first apply (for free) to the College. Please visit the Foothill College website for detailed information on how to apply and then enroll in classes: https://foothill.edu/reg/admission/apply.html . You cannot register for the class until you get a SID (student id number)
2. Register for classes in My Portal: Follow the instructions at https://foothill.edu/reg/registration/ using the CRN’s available on the department website. https://foothill.edu/anthropology/schedule.html
3. Pay your registration fees. Once you have successfully enrolled in the classes in My Portal, be sure to pay your registration fees right away so you aren’t dropped from the classes.
Zoom Meeting
I also want to have a group session where you can ask questions about the summer program. That will be June 11th at 6pm Pacific Time at the Zoom Link in my signature below. Meeting/Office Hours Zoom Link: https://fhda-edu.zoom.us/j/88422756829
Pay Program Fees by June 1 - Hard Deadline
In order to pay there are two options as I mentioned in a previous email.
Payment of personal check made out to "Foothill College" with the program name (Hawaii or Ecuador) placed in the subject heading with your name.
a) Address it to Prof Samuel Connell, Dept of Anthropology, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills CA 94022
b) If you want to pay by cashier’s check or money order - that is also possible.
c) This is a hard deadline because the waitlist is long, however if you have extenuating circumstances and let us know then we will give you a break until June 10.
Flight Arrival
You will be picked up in Kona either at the airport or in town (if you got there earlier) on August 1st. As long as you tell us where - we will be there! Of course you could come directly to the place in Waimea. This is where we will stay - link - It is connected to the Hawaii Prep Academy (HPA).
That is all for now, as always please stay in touch. If you have any questions, now is the time to ask them!
Sam
PS Review Mega Blast #1 in case you forgot details. I will also post all emails on the project website.
Welcome to the 2023 field program! We are pleased to offer you a warm introduction to Foothill College’s Indigenous Archaeology Hawai‘i Field School, Ho‘i Hou Ka Loko: Bridging the Past, Present and Future which is beginning it’s first of many field seasons! The Foothill Anthropology program is joining forces with Stanford University to bring students to the Hawaii. You will be taking anthropology classes in applied anthropology and archaeology as we carry out our indigenous research and education project. Hawai‘i is a wonderful place full of amazing people and places, and we are excited to be sharing it with you. By ‘we’ I mean not just me, but Mike Wilcox from Stanford, among other scholars along for the ride. We are all equally involved in the process leading up to our trip and also when we are on the ground on Hawaii.
There are a number of things you should prepare to do in the coming months. This email serves as your first official project news flash, with many more to come. Parts of this email will be redundant to those of you who have reached out to us on email or who have visited our project website; but please read it carefully all the same. We are also adding a very detailed Participant Information tab on the website and it will be the go to place for information regarding the program and archaeology project.
Date of Arrival
If you choose to arrive in Hawaii at Kailua-Kona airport (KOA) on the official start date of the project (August 1), you will be met at the airport and taken directly to the Hawaiian Preparatory Academy depending on when you arrive. Someone will be at the airport waiting for you because you will have sent us your itinerary. For those of you who want to arrive earlier than August 1, which is one or more days before the official start date of the project, there will be plenty to do in Hawaii.
Your Application Status
Step 1: As a member of the Foothill program you are required to complete your program fee payment by June 10th. Most of you have already submitted the $100 application fee; therefore a remaining payment is necessary. This can be accomplished by either making out a check to Foothill College or filling out the attached Fee Remittance Slip with credit card info -- do not use your social security info - it is not needed.
Step 2: Fill out the Waiver Agreement Form that is also attached (this is a second waiver, just to be sure).
Step 3: Mail both the Program Fee check [made out to Foothill College] and the completed waiver form to:
Dr. Samuel Connell
Department of Anthropology
Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Step 4: Following the payment of the program fee you will be allowed to enroll and register in 8 units of Foothill Classes and this will take place in June. This can all be done online with a credit card at www.foothill.edu. Foothill requires that all participants enroll in classes. Information about courses and the Foothill course schedule are available through our Department of Anthropology website. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO REGISTER FOR SUMMER CLASSES UNTIL LATE MAY-EARLY JUNE, SO SIT TIGHT AND I WILL ALERT YOU AS TO THE DAY.
Financial Aid
The director of financial aid at Foothill College, Kevin Harral, is prepared for applications for summer quarter aid that need to be processed quickly. You will need to make the department aware by stating on the top of the application that this is for the Summer Hawaii program. These are the 'unusual circumstances' that are talked about on the Financial Aid web page. http://www.foothill.edu/aid/
Scholarships
We hope to be offering up to $10,000 in scholarship money combined to all students coming on our Anthropology programs. This is an unheard of fantastic amount. The applications will be reviewed by an independent panel of 2 anonymous professors here at Foothill. I will send out the information when it becomes available. This is the website for last year, it is outdated but will be more or less the same https://foothill.edu/anthropology/field/scholarships.html.
Orientation Meetings
From what we can tell by looking at the list of students who have expressed an interest in the Foothill program you are spread out across the country, which means you are not required to attend a pre-departure orientation meeting. This is not a problem since we will spend plenty of time together in Hawaii getting ourselves oriented. Depending on where you are, however, there are a few orientation opportunities you should know about. Sam Connell will be meeting with students in the Bay Area in early June. We also have veteran staff members living around the country and in Canada, so you should let us know where you live and we can try to match you with a staff member who could meet you informally to talk about the project.
Project Resources Online
We have many online resources up and running, including our website: https://sites.google.com/view/hawaiifieldschool/home
In addition, our student staff members with lots of experience read the online posts on Facebook regularly in case student questions come up. You will see that there are threads of prior conversations that you might find very helpful. Our senior staff members in charge of student well-being will be reaching out to you. They are graduate students who have been on our archaeology projects for years, and started out as students.
Airline Travel: Purchasing Tickets
We have found that ticket prices can be cheaper mid-week, enough to make it a good possibility for you to come to Hawaii a few days early. If you do come early there is plenty to do in Hawaii and on the other islands too. You probably know that it is a big tourist hub with plenty of sites to see, places to stay in all price ranges, and great food to eat. Whether you come early or leave late, we leave that up to you, but please know that we are only responsible for you on and between the project dates. You will definitely want to leave some free time at the end of the trip to travel.
Once you have purchased your airline tickets to arrive in Hawaii please email your full itinerary directly to us so that we know when to expect you.
Traveler’s Insurance
We are requiring that you have health insurance. It can be something like short-term travelers insurance, which is an important supplement to your regular health insurance. There are a number of vendors, such as www.eglobalhealth.com where we see quotes for $60.00 which covers up to $1,000,000.00 for the month of August for example. You will need to provide documentation of insurance at a later date.
Being Prepared Academically - What should I read?
Well at this point we have some PDFs we will post up on the website for you to read that will situate you in time and space. But start here with this article I just read from the New York Times (Feb 4, 2020). https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/travel/hawaii-tourism-protests.html
To Sum Up
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to send us an email or give us a call. We are excited to meet you and stay in touch as you make your plans. For me personally, I am excited to return to Hawaii to begin our research project! The students who I know already are all great people while the archaeology and community service work should be special. I know this will be an excellent season.
I hope that this email is helpful, and there will certainly be more upcoming. Stay in touch! If you have any questions or concerns do not hesitate to ask.
Best,
Sam Connell