Pacific Islander

Following her graduation from Lewis and Clark High School, she listed her occupation on Facebook as guru at spreading the love, but told friends she aspired to become a singer-songwriter.

Owing to her heritage as a Pacific Islander, Maureen's instrument of choice was the ukulele, and she often posted videos of intimate bedroom performances on the video streaming site YouTube.

Maureen's half-sister, Cherry Kapu, later described her as a very laid-back, carefree girl, and mentioned how in June of 2013, 19-year-old Maureen had called her to request a favor.

She called me before she left, saying she was going camping with friends and asked if she could borrow some of my camping gear, Sherry said.

I know it's Western Sydney.

There's a lot of Islanders in Western Sydney.

But there are so many, like enough that neutrals, for example, want to go.

This should have 100% been at Allianz Stadium.

Gwinnett County Public Schools is the largest school district in Georgia and is among the largest in the nation when you consider the top 12.

The district serves more than 180,000 students, and data reveals these are students from families that speak more than 100 different languages and dialects, and more than 80% of its students identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian American, or Pacific Islander or Native American.

In July, Gwinnett County Public Schools welcomed a new leader, Dr. Alexandra Estrella, a veteran educator with dozens of years of experience, actually more than 20 years of experience.

She joins me now to discuss the vision for the district and top priorities for one of Georgia's most diverse school districts.

Thank you so much, Nina.

It has been decades in the making for communities such as the Hmong and other Southeast Asian immigrant refugee communities to make sure that we were included specifically, because otherwise we are grouped under the larger Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander category.

And that becomes very misleading because our Southeast Asian immigrant refugee communities, we came to the US as refugees from war-torn countries and genocide.

And there are so many more socioeconomical disparities within the Southeast Asian communities.

Thank you so much, Nina.

It has been decades in the making for communities such as the Hmong and other Southeast Asian immigrant refugee communities to make sure that we were included specifically, because otherwise we are grouped under the larger Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander category.

And that becomes very misleading because our Southeast Asian immigrant refugee communities, we came to the US as refugees from war-torn countries and genocide.

And there are so many more socioeconomical disparities within the Southeast Asian communities.

What has really stood out for you?

Look, I just think that our uniqueness of all of us that are... currently in the silver ferns, like, you know, a South African as a captain, Grace Nowiki, like, you know, African, we've got Pacific Islanders, we've got Māoris, we've got, you know, Kiwi, Europeans.

I just think that uniqueness of everyone blended together with the likes of Dame Noelene Taroa, who is, I would say, the world's best netball coach.

I just think it's just...

yeah yeah they also um so they have a pasta dish that has guanciale in it which is like i think it's pork cheek maybe it's kind of similar to bacon but it is so good and it like gets mixed in with the red sauce and that's like not something i would normally enjoy here at home because it would taste too porky but this was delicious

and yeah you know Being that I grew up with Pacific Islander parents, pasta's not high on our list.

So pasta's not high on my list.

But I mean, all the pasta that I had there, fantastic.

he's what six foot 300 pounds.

Pacific Islanders in general are just bigger bone structure, more muscle mass, there's bigger people, right? But also, if you look at your Joe Mallers, your Genjas, those guys play in the front row now, 260 is baseline.

And they're required to still be as fit as everybody else, move like everybody else, pass and kick, whatever.

I actually, I was listening to another podcast, and it's a nice run.