March/April 2009
Around the Quads
Carolyne Kama ’10 Finds New Callings in the College
By Nathalie Alonso ’08
Carolyne Kama ’10 was engrossed in a group discussion of the Book of Genesis in Literature Humanities one December afternoon when she found herself distracted by a white, powdery mist swirling outside the classroom window. Kama excused herself from class and, jacketless, made her way out of Hamilton Hall.
The internships and projects Carolyne Kama ’10 has completed as a College student have led her to consider a career in education. PHOTO: Sarah Kama“I ran outside and twirled around for a good five minutes before I went back to class,” Kama recalls with a chuckle. “That was the first time I had heard the term ‘flurry.’ ”
For Kama, who describes her hometown of Honolulu as “having no distinct seasons,” witnessing a snow shower was one of many firsts she has experienced as a student in the College. Her first semester was her first prolonged stay in the U.S. mainland.
Kama credits Columbia for introducing her to education as a field and hopes to become an education consultant.
As community chair for Asian American Pacific Awareness Month her first year, Kama worked with the New York Public Library in Chinatown to design a cultural literacy event for local children. She contacted HarperCollins author and illustrator Kam Mak, a native of Hong Kong, who agreed to read from his poetry book, My Chinatown: One Year in Poems, at the event. About 20 children aged 8–10 attended the reading and proceeded to create a mural on which they depicted memories of their upbringings.
In spring 2007, Kama completed an internship with the Morningside Area Alliance, a community-based nonprofit, through which she helped developed an oral history curriculum that she taught along with four other Columbia students at P.S. 125 in Harlem. The goal of the project was to prepare fourth- and fifth-grade students to interview the school’s alumni as a way to explore the school’s history.
“We role-played interviews in front of the students. They responded really well. It helped them to get a greater understanding of what an interview is supposed to be,” explains Kama.
Christine Petro, school-community coordinator for the Morningside Area Alliance, notes the zeal with which Kama approached all aspects of the internship.
“Carolyne’s enthusiasm for the project and for working with kids in the area drove her to put a lot of energy into the project whether she was in the classroom or planning with her teammates. When she is interested in something, she really commits herself to it,” says Petro.
Kama, a Kluge Scholar and president of the Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program Alliance for the 2008–09 academic year, carried that momentum into the past summer, during which she collaborated on various projects with the Columbia Center for Technology Innovation and Community Engagement. Through an initiative known as the Harlem Robotics League, Kama helped students at M.S. 344 design and program their own robots using Lego robot-building kits.
Candid and spirited, Kama chose the College for the opportunity to live in a metropolis such as New York City. “I wanted to know what else was out there. I knew the life experiences that I would gain would be like no other and that I would meet diverse people I never would have met if I had stayed in Hawaii or on the West Coast,” she says.
Although her elder sister had pioneered the way by attending MIT, Kama explains that her departure was not exactly smooth for her, her mother, a dress shop owner, or her father, a retired Navy chief employed by the Transportation Security Administration.
“I completely broke down on the plane,” recalls Kama. “My mom took it the hardest that her only other daughter was gone. It was definitely difficult for my parents, but at the same time, they were able to find a lot of free time for themselves.”
Kama arrived at Columbia with an interest in political science, but decided to major in economics and mathematics. She’s not, however, all about abstract theorems.
“As I began taking math and economics courses, both interested me equally. The whole idea of statistics and having concrete numbers to back up my claims intrigued me,” explains Kama.
Kama returned to Hawaii last summer to collaborate with her former high school in the creation of a needs index of native Hawaiian students. By analyzing census data, income statistics and standardized test scores, Kama helped determine that native Hawaiian students from grades K–12 perform below national averages. The findings were presented to the Superintendent of the Hawaii State Board of Education. Kama started out as a data analyst intern. By the end of the summer, she was the project manager’s assistant.
“I felt really empowered being part of that team, as I was a student in the public education system in Hawaii before I went to private high school,” she says.
Kama, who enjoys swimming and bowling but admits that she does not get to do much of either during the school year, plans to explore more of the U.S. mainland after college before returning to her home state.
“I know Hawaii like the back of my hand. I know eventually I will go back,” she says.
Nathalie Alonso ’08, from Queens, majored in American studies. She is an editorial producer of Spanish sites for MLB.com.