Teli Hafoka finished in the top 10 percent of her high school class in Stockton, CA, yet she never took the SAT.
She said none of her teachers or counselors advised her to take the test needed to get into a four year college. Hafoka thinks now many assumed she didn’t need the help because she was Asian American. She made it through one year of community college before dropping out.
NBC reports that two recent study show that Pacific Islander students are falling through the cracks. A report from ACT found 40 percent of Pacific Islander students met zero benchmarks in exam areas.
Another report by Empowering Pacific Islander Communities found just 18 percent of Pacific Islander students have bachelor degrees. Yet the needs of Pacific Islander students are getting lost in the model minority myth and in government data which lumps Pacific Islanders with Asian Americans.
You can read about the obstacles many Pacific Islander students must overcome on NBC. You can hear more about Hafoka’s story in the clip below.