"It's the Lau Lau at Every Family Event, the Lifted Tacomas, All of That Together — That Makes Me, Me" — Kailua's Le'a Keohohou Is Headed to Okinawa
One of 42 public high school students selected for the 2026 Hawaiʻi Sister-State Study Tours.
Student Snapshot
Name: Le'a Keohohou
Preferred Name: Le'a
School: Kalāheo High School
Grade: 10th
Home Community: Kailua, O'ahu
Delegation: Okinawa
Travel Dates: March 14–25/26, 2026
Focus Interests / Extracurriculars: Ka Pahuhopu O Kawai Nui (summer cultural program); joining school paddling team winter 2025; surfing; drawing/painting; baking and cooking; actively seeking employment; lives with extended family of 7 including grandparents, parents, and two younger siblings
Career Aspirations: Not explicitly named — her essay focuses on housing affordability, political awareness, and creating a world where people can "actually live and thrive"; policy and community advocacy are implied directions
Why They Were Selected
Le'a is fifteen years old and already thinking about housing costs, political sovereignty, and what kind of world her grandchildren will inherit. Her essay doesn't read like a student trying to impress a selection committee — it reads like someone who has been paying attention to her community and is genuinely troubled by what she sees. She names the rising cost of living, locals being priced out of their homes, and the political legacy of the overthrow — and she wants to use Okinawa as a comparative lens to understand why. That kind of thinking, at that age, from Kailua, is exactly what PAAC is looking for.
What They're Excited About
The food — she's genuinely excited about experiencing Okinawan cuisine as a window into culture; seeing places and meeting people that felt "out of reach"; sharing the experience with her family, who has always wanted to go to Japan but could never make it happen
She Didn't Even Read the Email. She Just Ran to Her Mom.
Le'a Keohohou came home from practice convinced she hadn't made it. She lay in her bed, already grieving the opportunity, when her phone buzzed. She didn't read the email — she just ran to her mom and shoved the phone at her. Her mom barely got through it before realizing: Le'a was in. Within three minutes, the whole family knew. The Kalāheo High sophomore, surfer, paddler, and cook from Kailua is headed to Okinawa this March as a PAAC Sister-State Student Ambassador.
Le'a lives with seven people — her parents, her grandparents, and her two younger siblings — in a house full of lau lau at family events, music blasting from lifted Tacomas, and the kind of community that she says makes her who she is. She spent last summer in Ka Pahuhopu O Kawai Nui, deepening her understanding of Hawaiian stories and the land her family has always called home. She surfs, she draws, she bakes for the people around her, and this winter she's joining the paddling team. But underneath all of it is a fifteen-year-old who has been watching her community with an unusually clear eye.
Le'a was selected because her essay doesn't read like a student trying to impress anyone. It reads like someone who has been thinking hard about housing costs, political sovereignty, and what Kailua will look like when her grandchildren are grown. She writes about locals and Native Hawaiians being priced out of their homes, about the legacy of the overthrow, about why Japan costs 25–75% less to live in than the United States — and she wants to understand why, and what Hawaiʻi could learn from it. That combination of cultural rootedness and policy curiosity is rare at any age.
"This lifetime is short, but for my kids, my grandchildren, their grandchildren — I want them to experience a world where everyone is equal, affordable, and they could love who they want." — Le'a Keohohou, Kalāheo High School, Class of 2028
When Le'a comes home to Kailua from Okinawa, she'll bring back the first international experience her family has ever had — not just hers, but theirs. Japan felt out of reach for all of them. It won't anymore.
