At the recent Mingus Union High School 2025 graduation ceremony, honors graduate Lauren Clark was bedecked with layers of lei up to her ears from her family, her Hawaiian hula and cultural teachers Kēhau and Ka‘imiloa Chrisman and members of the hula school she and her mother Lisa Clark have attended since 2021.
In Hawaiian culture, flower leis are a traditional symbol of love, friendship and celebration, and are now used to mark graduation milestones. Such leis are seen as a way to honor a graduate’s achievement and to wish them well in their future endeavors. This tradition is now widespread and has caught on in a big way on the mainland, showing up at many special occasions. A lei can also be worn on the head.
When Clark began her senior year at MUHS, she was invited to attend an early admittance program to Yavapai College as a full-time student. During her year at Yavapai College, she earned 29 college credits studying English, precalculus, trigonometry, sociology, psychology, art and ceramics. Clark aspires to study abroad in France or Germany, majoring in political science and art.
Despite such a busy schedule for any teenager, Clark found time to learn hula from Kumu Hula Kēhau Chrisman of Halau Hula Napuaokalei’ilima, based in Cottonwood. Chrisman, formerly of Hawaii and now a Cottonwood resident, trained in Hawaii for 17 years to reach the highest rank of hula master. She first started teaching hula in Hawaii in 1997 and has been teaching in Northern and central Arizona since 2004.
Since opening the Cottonwood hula school, Chrisman has been teaching Hawaiian culture, including music, dance and language, in the Verde Valley, Flagstaff and Prescott Valley.
Clark also learned about Hawaiian arts and history from Kēhau’s husband, Ka‘imiloa Chrisman, M.D., a noted Hawaiian cultural scholar, from the numerous presentations he has shared with the hula school and general public. Ka‘imiloa is well known in Hawai‘i for his historical knowledge and ancient Hawaiian implement craftsmanship. His work and teachings were recently featured at the Bishop Museum, Kamehameha Schools, University of Hawai‘i and other Hawaiian culture venues.
