Waipahu High School (WHS) surprises this year’s transfer students by unveiling Aloha Ambassadors, a recently founded organization that welcomes all new students with a safe place to make new friends.

This fall, over 20 students enrolled at WHS after the school year had already started.

These new students expected their first days to be spent alone. Instead, they were met with unexpected kindness.

New eleventh grader Hugo Aldaco, said with a smile of his first day at WHS,  “It was really nice. It was good. It didn’t feel like a first day.”

Returning students were not hesitant to approach and welcome the new kids.

“Everyone is way nicer here than at my old school. The teachers are nice. They help a lot and don’t have problems with students asking questions. My experience here so far is amazing,” new freshman Jace LeJeuene said.

Last April, eleventh grader Skye Yasuda and a group of students from different academies came up with the idea of Aloha Ambassadors.

Yasuda and her friends interviewed new students to figure out how WHS could make the transfer process easier. They came up with the idea of ambassadors who would be in charge of keeping new students company during their first week at WHS by giving them tours, walking them to class and hanging out with them in the mornings and during lunch

Ambassadors give the new students support as they adapt to their new environment.

The Aloha Ambassadors will also offer monthly socials that new and returning students can attend to meet new people and have fun.

Cesceli Nakamura, the advisor of Aloha Ambassadors, says, “The students (founders) decided to name themselves the Aloha Ambassadors because they wanted to bring the word ‘aloha’ to life.”

New students have experienced true aloha thanks to the Aloha Ambassadors.

Both new and returning students can stop by F-3 during lunch on Thursdays for Aloha Ambassadors’ meetings to befriend new students or to learn about becoming Aloha Ambassadors themselves.

Aloha Ambassadors allows students to make new friends and gather to eat lunch and socialize.

The organization has created friendships that may have never developed without it.