Noah H. Solomon

Assistant Professor, Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language

Rooted in ʻike kupuna (ancestral wisdom) and shaped by a life lived between Hawaiʻi and the continental United States, Professor Noah H. Solomon of Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language brings a deeply personal and culturally grounded approach to education. Early experiences navigating multiple cultural worlds, returning often to Oʻahu to reconnect with ʻohana, language, and tradition, instilled in him a lasting commitment to ʻike (knowledge), identity, and place. These formative moments now inform a teaching philosophy centered on ʻike as both inheritance and responsibility.

As an ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi educator, Prof. Solomon views teaching as an act of stewardship, one that extends beyond language instruction to include the cultivation of values, relationships, and cultural practice. Drawing on the principle of aʻo (to teach and to learn simultaneously), he creates classrooms grounded in reciprocity, where kumu (teacher) and haumāna (student) grow together through shared inquiry and reflection. His pedagogy emphasizes patience, compassion, and humility, fostering spaces where students feel empowered to take risks, make mistakes, and persist in their learning journeys. His classrooms model not only linguistic proficiency, but also Hawaiian lawena, embodying the values and behaviors essential to sustaining a living language.

Professor Solomon’s teaching reflects a profound belief: that education is not simply the transmission of knowledge, but the careful weaving of a lei aloha, one that each student will one day strengthen and pass on.