Kaila Mae Dennis
Following in Her Mom’s Footsteps to be a
Special Education Teacher
Congratulations to Kaila Mae Dennis for being named this year’s winner of the Hiroshi & Barbara Kim Yamashita HEA Scholarship!
Kaila is currently a full-time student at Leeward Community College, and when she’s not at Leeward Community College, she is usually at Mauka Lani Elementary three weekdays, serving in different capacities to learn all she can about the teaching profession.
She is pursuing an associate degree and plans to transfer to the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the fall of 2026 to earn a dual Bachelor’s degree in special education and be dual certified in elementary education. Kaila’s mom has been a special education teacher for the past 22 years and inspired Kaila to see the world differently from a young age.
When Kaila was in the fifth grade, she recalls befriending a new classmate. Although everyone else teased him because he was different, Kaila and her classmate became best friends.
“I knew Alex was different from most everyone I knew, but that didn’t matter because he was kinder and more compassionate than all of my peers. I was one of the few, if not the only person, who would spend time with Alex,” Kaila wrote in her scholarship application. “I soon found out why when I heard my classmates calling him names. It made me sad and upset because it just wasn’t true; they didn’t knowAlex the way I did. Something I realized that day after talking to my Mom who worked in SPED all her career, is that a lot of the people in my class lacked empathy and compassion for Alex.”
“As a future teacher, I want my students to learn to have the same compassion and kindness towards others even if they are different. The one thing I want them to take from my class is to choose love and kindness, just like my classmate did for me,” she continued. “I want to be able to not only teach my students the skills they need to move on in life, but to teach them about the other fundamental aspects of life, like empathy, perseverance, resilience, and growth-mindset. Teachers are the backbone of society; it’s important to have teachers who love what they do and care about the students.”
After graduating, Kaila plans to apply at different Leeward District elementary schools in the hopes of becoming a SPED inclusion or FSC teacher. Eventually, she also wants to obtain a Master’s degree in special education or take professional development courses offered by the Hawaii Department of Education and serve as a coach for Special Olympics Hawaii.
I want to be the teacher to ignite that fire within them and make sure their light never dims,” she wrote. “I hope my future students will go out into the world and persevere through any challenge, choose kindness over hate, and be proud of themselves for all that they do.”
