Aloha,
I am the initial Designer and Principal Teacher of Kumu Aina.
I’m a scientist/designer/teacher. I’ve had a quarter century of formal education. I’ve learned a lot from "jumping through the hoops" to get those pieces of paper. But I’ve learned more from the projects I’ve done as a biomedical research scientist, a conventional/alternative high school teacher, an education consultant, and a permaculture designer/teacher/farmer. I have forty + designs in my virtual portfolio, except I’ve not received the Permaculture Diploma piece of paper. I market myself instead by demonstrating my skill set, as I’ve done to be able to launch the Kumu Aina Permaculture Diploma program. Now that I'm marketing a Permaculture Diploma program, I find it helpful to create my own portfolio, as a demonstration of the kinds of designs that might go into a student's portfolio. My offering is for you who want to learn, prepare and design your future livelihood. You may want the formal Diploma offered through portfolio-based assessment of ten designs. But helping you complete your tenth design - your new purposeful livelihood - is my ultimate goal. You will become members of a new Local Living Economy that we are all co-creating. So I welcome you who apply successfully to become co- learners/teachers/designers in our learning community.