I OLA HĀLOA started its second five-year Title III grant in October 2004 from the U.S. Department of Education. Its ultimate goal is to strengthen the Hawaiʻi Community College to better serve the Native Hawaiian community by reaching rural districts, strengthening the Hawaiian Life Styles AAS degree, and creating interdisciplinary course offerings in multiple degree programs campus wide.

Project Co-ordinator: Kekuhi Kealiʻikanakaʻoleohaililani

The name I OLA HĀLOA connotes the image of the taro, or Haloa. "Ha" means breath, sustenance. "Loa" suggests endurance beyond one lifetime, a multi-generational timeline. "Ola" means to live, life. The meaning of the name I OLA HĀLOA transmits and infuses a very powerful message to our Native Hawaiian communities. The messge is that the outcomes of our labors will continue to "feed" our Native Hawaiian communities beyond just our time.

To be able to witness Native Hawaiian learners, families, and communities taste and savor the profundity of their birthright, that is the importance of their own Hawaiian cultural knowledge and practice in contemporary Hawaiʻi, is that which drives us.

The I OLA HĀLOA grant aligns with HawCC's mission by providing all learners an open door access to all programmatic activities and services, especially for marginalized, non-traditional and under-prepared learners island wide with special attention on rural and distant Native Hawaiian communities.

The HLS program demonstrates this by making extreme efforts to offer Native Hawaiian comminities the opportunity to engage in meaningful course work. With this focus in mind, I OLA HĀLOA will assist the Hawaiʻi Community College in meeting two of its institutional goals:

1. to strengthen the College's position to respond to educational needs in predominantly Hawaiian rural districts of Hawaiʻi Island and,
2. to strengthen the College's position as the premier provider of Hawaiian culture-based educational programs and expertise.

The purpose of the legislation that established Title III-A, Sec. 317 is to "provide grants and related assistance to Alaska Native-serving institutions and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions to enable such institutions to improve and expand their capacity to serve Native Alaskans and Native Hawaiians."