Sylvia Hopolong shares a folktale about the first coconut of the Marshall Islands. It's a story about two brothers — one is a human, and the other is a coconut.
The Waipahu High School sophomore, who read her story "Tobalar" in Marshallese and English, said the brothers couldn't do anything together but sit and talk.
"When he (the coconut) first came here, he felt like he was different from others," Hopolong said. "This story relates to me because it was hard to make friends when I first came here because I couldn't speak English. I didn't understand what they were saying."
Hopolong's folktale is part of a collection of stories from several multilingual students at Waipahu High School.
"Rising from Our Roots" is a two-part book with 200 pages highlighting students' experiences immigrating to Hawaiʻi from their home countries with folktales, legends and life lessons.
The book was published in November last year. Students have been working on the project since 2021, according to Jeremiah Brown, an English language coordinator at Waipahu High School.
He said students and teachers had worked together on writing and revising their stories, illustrating and sharing them.
"The goal was to create a multilingual book of students' stories that would highlight their home, cultures and languages and hopefully create connections with the community.
The book is in English, Samoan, Tongan, Marshallese, Chuukese, Illocano, Tagalog and Spanish.
Local authors and artists visited students to help inspire what they wanted to write. Brown said Lee Cataluna, Michelle Cruz Skinner, Patsy Iwasaki, Keao NeMicorMicoSmith, Lee Tonouchi and Solomon Enos visited.
Their coaching helped students like Stephanie Menor, a sophomore who immigrated from the Philippines. She said she didn't know what to write about until they told her to think about her happiest or saddest moments.
"Loneliness with Happiness" is Menor's story about receiving the good news that visas for her and her father were approved and they could move to Hawaiʻi, but she was sad that she had to leave her mother behind.
"I was writing this because I want others to know that it's not easy to leave your country, but at the same time, it will be beneficial for you to go because there's a lot of new things you can learn," Menor said.
In her part of the story, she drew a picture of her hometown Marcos, Ilocos Norte, with her dad and mother smiling. It has a mountainous background with agriculture. She said her dad is a farmer who harvests rice and garlic.
Menor wrote her story in Ilocano and English.
Feeling different and compared to others
Tiner Masaichy's story "First Timer" is about when he first came to Hawaiʻi from Guam.
"It's different because where I'm from, Guam, there's mostly Chamorros and Micronesians," Masaichy said. "Coming here (Hawaiʻi), there are a lot of Filipinos, Samoans and Tongans. So basically, my story is about how I came here and how I met other cultures and the different ways they lived down here."
His story described how he felt attending Hawaiʻi schools. He said he was lonely because it was hard to make friends at first and questioned if it was because he was different. He also noted how people dress and speak differently than back home.
His illustration is of a boy with his head down with a finger pointing toward him and another with a thumbs down.
He made friends by the end of his story.
"A Life as a Micronesian Girl" is Edlyn Francis' story. The sophomore said she initially wanted to write a scary story, but she wanted to write about her experience.
"My story, I would say, it's not really emotional, but I tried to make it funny," Francis said. "I try to make it relatable too. I added some of our language, what we do and why our parents scolded us."
Her story was detailed when she had to tell her parents what she was doing in school, adding that she needed to improve in her Spanish class.
"'Why?' my mom asked. I stayed quiet because I knew for a fact if I opened my mouth to explain, she'd whack me across the Pacific Ocean," Francis said as she read part of her story.
Her story exemplified how her parents want her to succeed in school but often compare her to her cousins.
"Parents, in general, care about our grades," Francis said. "They also like to compare. They compare me and my cousins. It's like a competition for them, and they always want to see their child on top."
Francis drew a self-portrait with a phone displaying her quarterly grade. She has A's in Math and English and a C in Spanish. She wrote her story in English and Chuukese.
'Ambassadors of their home countries'
The cover art illustrates a tree with kids on the roots and branches, with the national flags of the students' home countries.
Jheanna Mae Carlos said the illustration has a diverse group of students representing Waipahu High School's uniqueness.
"The roots are self-explanatory in a way with the title 'Rising from Our Roots,'" Carlos said. "The tree overall symbolizes life, and these are the students' life experiences along with those in the past with the folktales."
Since the book was published last year, the students have been reading their stories at various intermediate and elementary schools. Some have read their stories at pop-up events and, more recently, the Celebrate Micronesia Festival.
The Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant supported the book.
Several teachers helped guide their students in developing their stories. Waipahu High School teacher Jennifer Sagucio said she couldn't be more proud of her students.
"As a teacher, it's been very powerful to see our students, who might be so quiet in class, stand up in front of an audience and share their stories," Sagucio said. "And to see them change from the beginning of the year to be ambassadors, not just of our school but of their home countries."
"And this book is just one way to do that. But it's been a very powerful transformation to see these kids go through in confidence that they have," she continued.
Brown said a new group of multilingual students is working on their second book.
