Keahi Renaud, Hawaiian Cultural Practitioner

With the many different paths Keahi was traveling on in his professional career, he decided to join a hālau hula. From this hālau, Keahi met one of the most influential people in his life, Kumu John Keola Lake, and it changed his life and set him on a new path. Keahi was amazed with his mentor’s “immensity of knowledge in traditional Hawaiian culture and protocols,” and it sparked his own passion to express the Hawaiian that was always inside of him.

Along with working at the Hawaiʻi legislature and dancing hula, he was accepted to the University of Hawaiʻi’s secondary education graduate program. After he graduated from UH in 2000, he went straight into Imi Hoʻola, a yearlong pre-med school program. Successfully completing that program, he was accepted into the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaiʻi. During medical school, in 2007, Keahi helped by stepping into Kumu Lake’s classes as a substitute when he was too sick to teach and taught off his notes. Later, Kumu Lake asked Chaminade if Keahi could take over his teaching duties as a professor. Kumu Lake passed away in May 2008. Keahi has continued teaching Hawaiian studies courses at Chaminade through the present day.

In his free time away from Chaminade and working at the legislature, Keahi likes to go on edgy or risky adventures (safely though) such as hiking. He feels at home in the mountains. He enjoys hikes where there is a swimming hole along the way or a great view. In addition, he is passionate about mentoring at-risk youth who are falling off the track. Lastly, he considers teaching to be one of his hobbies. He is passionate about his Hawaiian culture and sharing the knowledge he received from Kumu Lake with his students every year. The course of Keahi’s life has been diverse, but there is one underlying commonality, his passion for helping others.