My Hobbies and Passions: My interests include my work advocating for the acceptance and normalization of those with speech differences. I enjoy playing the piano, church organ, and percussion. As part of the worship and production team at my church I run visual slides and delegate video switching between three cameras. I also train others to operate these positions as well. Enjoying local Hawaiian beaches is a must for me as well as traveling and touring museums. As a future film production major and tech “nerd” I enjoy all things relating to video and camera, this includes creating videos, films, and shooting award winning photos. I am passionate about helping others and showing my community how we can all make a difference together. Other passions include, film making, music, and teaching teens how to make their community a better place.
My Career Success: In living with a stutter and growing up performing in front of big crowds, I’ve had to grow comfortable with the way I talk and trust that others will be patient and give me the time I need to finish talking. While gaining more and more confidence in speaking in front of others, I’ve been able to share the message about my nonprofit, CHATS, and spread awareness about mental health, anti-bullying, and the importance of community efforts. This also led me to highlight my love of videography, where I made a video that was shown on PBS Hawaii, highlighting a mental health clinic for youth. I’ve been recognized by Mental Health America of Hawaii as the recipient of the “Youth Mental Health Advocate 2022 Aloha Award” and was featured on local television news programs. I was recently honored as a Taco Bell Ambition Accelerator 2024 Seed Prize Awardee for my project, “Bridge of Aloha”: Hawaii to Africa-Empowering Youth in Kenya with Speech-Language Challenges.
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Do you remember when you first began to stutter?
I have had a stutter for as long as I can remember. It was a gradual progression, I would stutter for a few weeks then I would not stutter for a month. Eventually, the time between stuttering got smaller and smaller until one day, my stuttering stayed.
Does it run in your family? Who else
stutters? Stuttering runs on both sides of my mother’s family. She had a stutter as well as her mother and her grandfather on her father’s side of the family.
Did you seek treatment? Did it help? I did receive treatment from a speech pathologist who happened to be a family friend. The sessions helped me discover what my stutter was and how I could best work with it.
Tell us about your experience with stuttering as a child. Though I was bullied as a child, I didn’t think of my stutter as something that was wrong with me. Part of that came with the support from my family and friends. A number of people didn’t even notice I had a stutter until I told them.
Has your stuttering gotten worse or better
since you were younger? How? My stutter hasn’t gotten better or worse. Through accepting my stutter, that has helped me to not have a negative mindset towards it.
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