Author: Lexus Yamashiro

Alex Lum

Alex Lum

Posted by | May 3, 2019 | |

Alex Lum describes himself as a “perpetual sophomore” attending KCC. The 42-year-old is pursuing his studies in Pre-Engineering and serves as a temporary representative for the Na Hua o Papa Club. Lum said Na Hua o Papa works to promote sustainability efforts, specifically ecological implementations onto the campus.

“Everyone has their own kind of green space culturally in the back of their minds and that’s kind of what we want to see,” Lum said. “With the loss of a lot of native ecologies, native plantscapes, we don’t have enough people with that in their mind so we have to recreate the native ecology of KCC as much as possible.”

Lum said the club recently harvested some sweet potato, a plant he said is pest resistant making it unharmful to the environment it is placed in.

In the future, Lum hopes that the campus’ only rain garden will advance to divert roof water from going into storm drains into a freshwater lens that he said should become drinkable within 50 years. 

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  • Lisa KobukeLisa Kobuke
    Professor Lisa Kobuke has been teaching Japanese for 16 years at KCC, although she began teaching at UH Mānoa. Professor Kobuke first got into teaching back when she attended UH Mānoa and was required to teach Japanese in order to earn a scholarship. Her mother, who came from Japan, taught Japanese as well, so that interested Professor Kobuke as well. She loved getting her first class, but she also remembers scripting her entire lectures the night before during her early semesters of teaching. "I just love Japanese literature and I see so much that I want to share about Japanese culture. Language is just one avenue in which I can share that," said Professor Kobuke. "It's more of a package. You cannot separate language, culture, and history. Everything is together. It's my mission to share that." Some of her favorite Japanese literature includes "The Tale of Heike" and "Hōjōki." Professor Kobuke loves the KCC community. "I feel a deeper connection with the students here," said Professor Kobuke. "I love getting to know the students, getting to joke around in class, or finding out how you're going to use the language you're learning." Professor Kobuke currently resides in Kāneʻohe because she "has to see the Koʻolaus." In her free time she likes to read or appreciate art in museums.

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