JOSH B. GREEN, M.D. KEITH T.

HAYASHI
GOVERNOR SUPERI NTENDENT

STATE OF HAWAI’I
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
KA ‘OIHANA HO‘ONA‘AUAO
WAIPAHU HIGH SCHOOL
94-1211 FARRINGTON HIGHWAY
WAIPAHU, HI 96797
(808) 307-9555

January 17, 2024

To whom it may concern:

I am a Guidance/Chinese Language Teacher at Waipahu High School. I have known Cherese Pantohan-
Agustin since January 2022 until now. I am writing this letter to recommend Cherese Pantohan-Agustin
to apply for her Scholarship & College admission because she is a qualified applicant who deserves to
receive your attention.

Cherese Pantohan-Agustin has a super calmness personality and great patience with others. She is
respectful and polite to all people who are around her no matter is at school or outside of campus. She
is a senior who currently studies at our Academy of Professional & Public Service (APPS) under Business
Pathway Program. She wants to pursue a career in the business field especially to work for the hotel
industry in the future.

At school Cherese Pantohan-Agustin has always maintained a good and above average academic
performance with her program of study. Her cumulative GPA is 3.4 up to date even though she had a
few of Cs and Ds back to her freshman year. Her class rank is 269 out of 563 within her grade level team
which indicates that she possesses an ability to study and meet her goal under her normal study
condition. I believe that Cherese could have had a better cumulative GPA if she didn’t enroll to the
100% distance learning program back to her freshman time. She could have learned how to use useful
strategies to help her comprehend her study or use more appropriate guidance provided by her in-
person learning environment or through the face to face tutoring to improve her grades instead of
receiving a D or a C for some of the difficult subjects such as math and science. These under her average
academic performances were caused by lack of in-person interaction or instruction due to the pandemic
time. As I know that Cherese Pantohan-Agustin is a hard-working student who is willing to try her best.
If she had had an opportunity to ask teachers or classmates for assistance, she could have already
improved on her grade.

From my perspective, Cherese Pantohan-Agustin is a caring person and a team player who works well
with others because of her unique personality. She never judges others no matter how smart or clueless
someone thinks they are. I have nerve seen Cherese showing her frustration, anger, or even any
negative emotions during the class time no matter what kind of circumstances that she encounters. She
always remains a positive attitude in learning or assisting others. She not only pays attention during the
class time but also tries her best to complete her task and at the same time to support others even
sometimes she may not have completed her own work yet. But if her classmates ask her for help, she is
willing to stop doing what she is doing but put someone else first as a priority.

AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Continuous Notice of Non-Discrimination
The Hawaii State Department of Education (Department) and its schools do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age,
disability, and religion in its programs and activities. Please direct inquiries regarding Department nondiscrimination policies as follows:

Civil Rights Compliance Branch, Hawaii State Department of Education, P.O. Box 2360, Honolulu, Hawaii 96804, (808) 586-3322 or relay CRCB@k12.hi.us, Beth Schimmelfennig, Director, Rhonda Wong,
Compliance, Aaron Oandasan, Title VI, Toby Yamashiro, Title VII, Nicole Isa-Iijima, Title IX, Krysti Sukita, ADA/504
For example, back to her sophomore year, Cherese Pantohan-Agustin took my Career and Life Planning
class and needed to pass a mock interview in order to meet her graduation requirement. Most of
students were nervous and felt stressed prior to their mock interview day. But Cherese could work
under pressure and overcome her own nervousness and then still get herself ready as well as assist
others who were struggling to complete their role plays or provide constructive feedback and assist her
classmates to answer mock interview questions based on what she has learned from this class. Her
patience and her positive/supportive attitude provided a great help to calm her classmates especially for
those who were struggled or had no ideas what to say at the role play.

Besides her extremely patience with others and calmness personality, Cherese Pantohan-Agustin is also
an eager learner who is willing to accept the challenge and work outside of her comfort zone. At her
junior year, she decided to take Chinese as one of her elective classes. When her friend told her that
Chinese is a challenge class to learn and asked her to have a second thought on taking something else.
She still decided to study this foreign language with me and she has been in this program for the 2nd
year. Cherese shared with me that this class has ended up having the most fun memories for her study
time because she made so many friends within this class even though she also admits that it takes
determination to study and memorize the characters and new vocabulary. She enjoys learning about
the interesting knowledge and the culture and these areas seemed fascinating to her. She has also been
our Chinese Club member since her junior year until now. I am so proud of her decision to challenge
herself and being able to conquer one of the hardest languages to learn at our school.

Outside of school, Cherese Pantohan-Agustin has also participated in a variety of meaningful activities
and events to enrich her learning and work experience. These include but not limited to the academic
performance but also involve in many great workplace opportunities. For example, she took 3 early
college classes to demonstrate her ability to comprehend and handle the rigorous study in a college
level. She also completed the tax preparer certification via the IRS's Volunteer Income Tax
Assistance (VITA) Program from our school’s Accounting class and volunteered at the Tax Site in 2023
between February to March during the tax filing season. In addition, she worked at our Students
Operated Credit Union on campus sponsored by HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union while she was taking
her Finance class between December 2022 to May 2023. The most exciting experience that I know
about Cherese is from her internship with the Ritz Carlton Hotel during summer of 2023. I was one of
her teachers who wrote the recommendation letter for her. I am so proud of Cherese because I heard
that this company has rejected all other applicants from the entire state of Hawaii and only accepted 2
students that both are from our school. And Cherese is one of the first two high school students who
were given this paid internship with an hourly rate of $21.

Nonetheless to say that Cherese Pantohan-Agustin has also volunteered at many community services
with her different classes or for her clubs. One of her community services that she attended is also from
my Chinese Program. She used to help out our monthly Food Pantry distribution via the New Hope
Kapolei Church that is sponsored by the Hawaii Food Bank before she obtained a part-time job. She was
there to assist packing food and distributing to the low-income family in Waipahu community. I have
never seen her complaining while she is working with others. At her senior year, Cherese is accepting
another challenge from the Chinese Club. She serves as a Vice President position to help out the Club
President. I am expecting that Cherese will assist me and the Club President to complete our fundraising
so we can raise money to help out pay the cost of our Chinese Club’s social and get together.

AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Continuous Notice of Non-Discrimination
The Hawaii State Department of Education (Department) and its schools do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age,
disability, and religion in its programs and activities. Please direct inquiries regarding Department nondiscrimination policies as follows:

Civil Rights Compliance Branch, Hawaii State Department of Education, P.O. Box 2360, Honolulu, Hawaii 96804, (808) 586-3322 or relay CRCB@k12.hi.us, Beth Schimmelfennig, Director, Rhonda Wong,
Compliance, Aaron Oandasan, Title VI, Toby Yamashiro, Title VII, Nicole Isa-Iijima, Title IX, Krysti Sukita, ADA/504
All of the above statements can show you that Cherese Pantohan-Agustin is not only a responsible and
caring person but also a highly qualified candidate at workplace because of her existing knowledge and
skills and abilities of managing at a variety of tasks. I have no doubts to recommend Cherese Pantohan-
Agustin to any college or scholarship opportunity because she is a great student.

I like Cherese Pantohan-Agustin because of her unique personality. She is willing to help out others with
her great patience and respectful manner. She is also a kind, hard-working, and responsible person who
can accept challenge and perform well both at school and at work. I believe once Cherese Pantohan-
Agustin finishes her study in college, she will use all her knowledge to help out those people who need
her assistance in the future. Based on the above reasons, I highly recommend that you consider
Cherese Pantohan-Agustin to be your candidate. Should you have any further questions, please feel
free to contact me at (808) 307-9494 or via e-mail at chih-ling.chao@k12.hi.us.

Respectfully yours,

Chih-Ling Chao
Guidance/Chinese Language Teacher
Waipahu High School
94-1211 Farrington Highway
Waipahu, HI 96797

AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Continuous Notice of Non-Discrimination
The Hawaii State Department of Education (Department) and its schools do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age,
disability, and religion in its programs and activities. Please direct inquiries regarding Department nondiscrimination policies as follows:

Civil Rights Compliance Branch, Hawaii State Department of Education, P.O. Box 2360, Honolulu, Hawaii 96804, (808) 586-3322 or relay CRCB@k12.hi.us, Beth Schimmelfennig, Director, Rhonda Wong,
Compliance, Aaron Oandasan, Title VI, Toby Yamashiro, Title VII, Nicole Isa-Iijima, Title IX, Krysti Sukita, ADA/504