AAPI Heritage Month highlight — Jade Kawamoto
In celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the People of Color Employee Engagement Group is highlighting staff members from the national office. This installment features Jade Kawamoto, coordinator of the Eligibility Center.
Jade Kawamoto, coordinator of the Eligibility Center, describes her Japanese-Hawaiian heritage as encompassing the “spirit of aloha.” Commonly known as the Hawaiian word for hello and goodbye, aloha has many meanings, including love, compassion and affection.
“What we call the aloha spirit is a giving of warmth or giving of compassion and kindness toward others,” Kawamoto said. “So that’s what I love about how I grew up. Everyone just has that aloha spirit, where people want to welcome you, they want to just show their caring and love for you and welcome you into the community.”
One of four children, Kawamoto grew up in Maui, Hawaii, and moved to the Indianapolis area with her family when she was 9. Adjusting to life in the Midwest was hard at first after leaving behind the tropical Pacific weather. Indiana’s inconsistent winters were not a favorite of Kawamoto’s, and the large-city setting also was new.
Kawamoto (left), her sister, Jackie, and her mother, Cindy, at the Honolua Bay Lookout, a popular snorkeling and surfing destination on the west side of Maui, Hawaii.
“It was a small community where I grew up in Maui, where everyone knows each other,” she said. “There’s one road that will take you everywhere, but it’s not like that here. So those were some of the things that I adjusted to as a kid.”
Outside of the weather, Indiana’s sports history and prevalence to the outdoors were easy for Kawamoto to love. Along with the NFL’s Colts, she particularly enjoys the Indiana basketball tradition, as well as the overall sports scene of the Hoosier state.
The fast-growing sport of pickleball is a passion for Kawamoto and her twin sister, Jackie, who also works at the national office in championships and alliances. Both are nationally ranked professional pickleball players, competing in tournaments throughout the state and country on the weekends. Both were tennis student-athletes at Dayton, and their skills have directly translated to the sport that mixes tennis, pingpong and badminton.
“Our dad taught us tennis when we were really little,” Kawamoto said. “It was a big thing in Hawaii, and we played it all through college. Once we graduated, we stopped playing but discovered pickleball in 2019, and just played recreationally and then got into tournaments.”
While at Dayton, Kawamoto earned a bachelor’s in international relations, with a minor in environmental sustainability. As a self-described “island and water girl,” she enjoys being outside and supporting the environment. She credits the Japanese and Hawaiian cultures for her own love of nature, pointing to each island group’s traditions of respect for the land and ocean.
Kawamoto (left) and her sister, Jackie, at Napili Bay Beach. Located on the west side of Maui, Napili Bay Beach is known for its clear waters, snorkeling and golden sand.
“That’s where I got my interest in environmental studies — from Hawaii,” Kawamoto said. “They teach and practice loving the land and protecting it, preserving it. So that was something that I grew up with and has always been important to me.”
Growing up around the ocean, Kawamoto learned about conservation through hiking and snorkeling trips she took as a kid.
Kawamoto on the rocks at Honolua Bay, a 10-minute drive from her home on west Maui.
Along with her love for the environment, she keeps memories of Maui close to her and looks to practice the spirit of aloha. One way to practice that spirit in Hawaii is to attend a luau, a celebration that marks special occasions. They feature storytelling between families and friends, dances and traditional foods, such as lau lau, a dish of pork and butterfish that’s cooked in taro leaves in an underground rock oven.
In Indiana, Kawamoto and her family keep the tradition of presenting leis to congratulate a person’s accomplishment, such as when graduating college or receiving a promotion. Leis are another symbol of aloha that represent love and friendship.
For AAPI Heritage Month, Kawamoto hopes that others will learn more about the Hawaiian culture and its emphasis of caring for others.
“The foundation of Hawaiian culture, that aloha spirit, it shapes people to be kind, compassionate. It’s a very special culture, and I would encourage everyone to learn about it.”
