OAKLAND, Calif. — Growing up, Papu Togafau skipped school often, sometimes for days at a time. He accompanied his father to pick up cousins and other male Samoan relatives before taking on grueling jobs in masonry or cutting down trees.
Unlike many U.S. parents, however, Togafau’s father didn’t blink at his son’s absenteeism from school. In fact, the elder Togafau saw little practicality in him attending class. This belief stretched through his son’s high school years.
“My dad believed the best way to make me a man was putting me to work,” the younger Togafau said. “School wasn’t a priority. He believed that if we worked nonstop, we would always have enough for food and clothes. Doing physical work was more important than reading a book.”
His recollections came last week during the annual meeting of the Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education (APAHE). Since its 1987 inception, the organization has developed programs and addressed issues impacting Asian Pacific Islander Americans. It has evolved from a group of almost exclusively Californians into one with national reach.
This year, conference-goers traveled from states as far as Massachusetts and Georgia but also from places west of California, such as the Marianas Islands and New Zealand.
The attendance total of 550 set a record, said Dr. Audrey Yamagata-Noji, APAHE board president and vice president of student services at Mt. San Antonio College. She noted that, as the conference has grown, so has the diversity and variety in workshop topics. This year, for example, the conference offerings included multiple panel discussions spotlighting the issues and interests of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, such as “Oceania Student Voices in Higher Education” and “Pacific Islanders: Navigators of the Stars are Being Denied Passage Toward Educational Attainment.”
Togafau, who’s a University of California, Los Angeles freshman, shared his personal narrative at a session titled, “The Gender Crisis,” which explored some of the reasons why male Pacific Islander Americans such as him are less likely than their female peers to attend college.
