The SPARX Hawai‘i Music Contest is one of several educational outreach components of the ‘Aha Lamakū ‘Oia‘i‘o (ALO) federal grant (Project No. S362A210096) administered by the Pacific Literacy Consortium, College of Education, University of Hawaii at Mānoa. The ALO project targets supplemental educational support to secondary students in four schools in Hawai‘i Island’s Ka‘ū-Kea‘au-Pāhoa Complex Area (KKP).
PLC is collaborating with the HISessions production team to offer all KKP Complex Area secondary students the opportunity to enter this music contest (click here to view broadcast personality, Billy V, promoting the contest). Interested KKP secondary students can enter the contest by simply recording a video of themselves performing a song and uploading it to their school’s Google Classroom by April 1, 2022.
There will be a preliminary round held within each of the four schools. From all the video entries, the respective schools will pick four finalists who will receive a one-on-one mentoring session with a professional local-recording artist. Additionally, HISessions crew members will work with each finalist to create a professional video recording that will be promoted in the HISessions social media channels, which have over 400,000 subscribers and a million views a week.
Our ultimate hope is that the contest will kindle a passion within each participant toward pursuing their artistic vision, expanding their skill sets, and extending their horizons beyond the conventional. The ʻAha Lamakū ʻOiaʻiʻo (ALO) grant is one of PLC’s projects designed to provide culturally-responsive leadership development, mentoring, and transition supports to Native Hawaiian youth. ALO student activities offer experiential and place-based experiences that complement what students learn during the school day and address students’ essential academic, physical wellness, and social-emotional needs.