Kala’i Anderson is devoted to Hawai’i, his home.
“Hawai’i forms the basis of my identity,” said Anderson, who was born and raised on Maui. “It gives me a solid foundation and influences how I carry myself and what I choose to do, whether academically or professionally.”
Entering his first year at Yale, he made the 5,000-mile journey to New Haven with some trepidation.
“Leaving Hawai’i was, in very many ways, a lot scarier than the idea of graduating college and having to, quote-unquote, start my adult life,” he said.
Once on campus, Anderson found supportive communities both in Berkeley College, where he served as president of the student council, and the Native American Cultural Center, where as a peer liaison he mentors Indigenous first-year students.
In the latter role, he asked to be assigned to support Pacific Islanders whenever possible.
“Native Americans and Indigenous people in general are underrepresented at places like Yale, and I think that’s particularly true of Pacific Islanders, especially the further away you get from Hawai’i,” said Anderson, who majored in ethnicity, race, and migration. He also helped to establish Students of the Indigenous Peoples Oceania (IPO), Yale’s first student group for Pacific Islanders.
Anderson’s eyes brighten when he speaks of his first-year peers. He refers to them as “my kids.”
“My kids have provided me with a sense of home when we all are so far away from it,” he said. “They give me something that nobody else can because they have backgrounds like my own. I’m so honored to have served as a peer liaison to help guide them as they charted their own paths at Yale.”
Kala'i Anderson, left, during a benefit concert for those affected by the 2023 Maui wildfires.
In August 2023, when he was a rising junior, a series of wildfires devastated the town of Lahaina on Maui’s northwest coast. Anderson, whose hometown in Upcountry Maui was spared, delayed coming to Yale so that he could join immediate relief efforts in the wake of the firestorm.
Back on campus that fall, he worked with IPO, the Chinese American Students Association, the Japanese American Student Union, KASAMA: The Filipino Club, and the Native and Indigenous Students Association to organize a fundraising drive that culminated with a benefit concert at Sudler Hall.
“Seeing the Yale community show up for Maui and for the rest of my Hawai’i brothers and sisters was very meaningful,” he said.
During his sophomore year, Anderson was part of a Yale contingent that helped repatriate the remains of three Native Hawai’ian ancestors that had been housed at the Yale Peabody Museum.
The experience was profoundly affecting, said Anderson, who will begin a fellowship next fall in the office of U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda and plans to attend the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai’i.
“It was the very first time I realized that I don’t need to be a U.S. senator or hold some other esteemed position to institute fundamental change for my community,” he said. “I can make a difference by mentoring incoming students or organizing a fundraiser. That kind of work grounds me and reminds me that I’m doing what I need to do to serve my home and my people.”
