Access to justice for Ulu Lehua Scholars

Cielia Thurston was abandoned by her parents, left standing at a roadside in rural Montana when she was 15 years old. Aris Springs grew up as an indentured servant, shuffled from one foster care home to another in Guam. Lu‘ukia Nakanelua fought for her family’s rights to water in Wailua Nui on Maui. And Denielle Pedro struggled as a single parent seeking to earn her law degree.

They’re underdogs, for sure, but their tales of David-versus-Goliath battles have a common proverbial stone – they are all Ulu Lehua Scholars at William S. Richardson School of Law who were awarded the Access to Justice Scholarship.

“My parents pulled me out of school when I was in the fifth grade,” says Thurston, now chief of staff at the Grays Harbor County Prosecuting Attorney’s office in Washington. “I remember on the last day, my mother told me that this was as smart as I was ever going to get.”

Springs recounted a similar story with his foster parents. They told him he was never going to make it to college, even refusing to allow him to mail his applications from their mailbox.

“They said it would be a waste of time,” Springs recalls. “Everything was an uphill battle, and I lived under the veiled threat that I would be returned to the foster care system or placed in a home where the people would be even worse. So, it was always ‘better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.’”

Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024, the Ulu Lehua Scholars Program has quietly cultivated a new generation of scholars and leaders who are deeply rooted in the cultural heritage and environmental stewardship of the Hawaiian Islands, as well as social justice.

As the ʻāina protection manager and associate general counsel for Hawai‘i Land Trust, Nakanelua and her family are still waging the fight for water rights in Maui Hikina. They are building community capacity to co-power other similarly situated communities to protect their water resources and increase access to water through her rights relations work with the land trust.

“Although hopeful, never in their wildest dreams would our people (Kānaka Maoli) – let alone the folks from my family – have imagined that type of paradigm shift,” Nakanelua asserts, “where one of their own would be standing amongst the privileged in the legal profession and having a seat at the table.”

A 1991 alumna of William S. Richardson School of Law, Diane Ono has been a strong advocate for the Ulu Lehua Scholars Program ever since she saw a presentation about it from law professor and then-Ulu Lehua director, Linda Krieger.

“Her slides featured the different students in the program, and they had such varied backgrounds,” Ono says. “I was moved by their stories, and I was always a supporter of helping those less fortunate, especially with regard to education.”

Pedro, a beneficiary of the Access to Justice Ulu Lehua Scholarship, considers Ono a mentor and a lifetime friend. She says that Diane could relate to her, since she, too, was a parent when she attended law school.

“She’s so generous with her time,” Pedro adds. “She believes in me and has confidence in people like me who serve the public’s interest.”

The significance of the Ulu Lehua Scholars Program is underscored by its focus on producing future leaders who are not only prepared to excel in their respective fields, but also to advocate for the cultural preservation, environmental sustainability and justice for the underserved of Hawai‘i and beyond. This is important to Ono, whose scholarship has a single parameter: the student has to have the intent to make Hawai‘i home.

“It’s so heartwarming to be in the room when the student is informed about their scholarship,” Ono says. “The impact the scholarship has made with these students is beyond anything I could have ever imagined.”

Ono adds that hearing the stories of Cielia, Aris, Lu‘ukia and Denielle is rewarding, knowing that helping them pay their tuition is making an impactful difference in their lives.

“Diane showed up for us,” Nakanelua says. “As a Native Hawaiian woman and a Kamehameha Schools Maui alumna, I already have that idea of being a beneficiary of the generosity and foresight of a female individual, Bernice Pauahi. And now I’ve also been a humble beneficiary of Diane’s foresight and full-ride scholarship.”

Springs describes the scholarship as having evened the playing field for him. Accustomed to living off hand-outs and hand-me-downs, the associate with the Gordon Rees law firm admits he has been emotionally impacted by the scholarship, choking up as he describes his journey from being an unloved foster child to a successful lawyer.

“I am forever grateful to Diane,” Springs says. “When I found out I received the scholarship, it was one of those pivotal moments in my life that I knew would have a lasting effect and change the trajectory of my future.”

And it has, not only for Springs, but for Thurston, Nakanelua, Pedro and many other Ulu Lehua beneficiaries.