My name is Sterling Higa, and I’m a teacher, writer, and nonprofit leader. I live with my wife and our four children in Honolulu.
I was raised by my mother and grew up in Nu‘uanu, near Foster Botanical Garden. I attended Royal Elementary, Kawananakoa Middle and Roosevelt High School.
I started working in middle school, delivering the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. In high school, I worked as a grocery store clerk, dishwasher and line cook. On weekends, I surfed with friends and my Uncle Claude.
Growing up, I surfed with family and friends every weekend.
After high school, I attended Honolulu Community College and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. During my freshman year, I got involved in the local slam poetry community. On my nineteenth birthday, I was fortunate to become the youngest state champion ever. And I traveled the country representing Hawai‘i at thirteen poetry festivals.
At home, as program director for the nonprofit Youth Speaks Hawai‘i, I taught creative writing and performing arts in a dozen high schools. I also organized weekly writing workshops, monthly open mics and annual events.
While an undergraduate at the University of Hawai‘i, I helped organize events like this one for Youth Speaks Hawai‘i.
After graduating from UH Mānoa, I earned a master’s degree in education at Harvard. At Harvard, I studied leadership, civic education, and nonprofit management.
I returned to Hawai‘i and taught performing arts for two years at SEEQS: The School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability.
While teaching, I enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Hawai‘i. For two years, I traveled the world with the debate team. I set state records with help from a volunteer coaching staff. Through debate, I learned the importance of listening, critical thinking and advocacy.
As a student, I traveled the world with the UH debate team, pictured here at Yale.
In 2017, I led UH to the semifinal round of the United States Universities Debating Championship. And Hawai‘i Pacific University invited me to coach debate and lecture in their department of communication. For four years, I taught public speaking, argumentation and technical communication.
As a debate coach, I encouraged students to advocate with conviction while understanding the views of others. And in my time as coach, the team won state and regional competitions. I also was blessed with the university’s Golden Apple award for distinguished undergraduate teaching.
For four years, I coached the HPU debate team, pictured here at Windward Community College.
While teaching at HPU, I wrote as a columnist for Honolulu Civil Beat and as a contributing writer for Hawaii Business Magazine. Through writing, I realized the vital role of journalism in informing civil discourse. And I was blessed with awards for column writing and industry reporting from the Hawai‘i chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
In 2021, I left HPU to cofound and serve as executive director of Housing Hawai‘i’s Future. Housing Hawai‘i’s Future is a nonprofit movement creating opportunities for Hawai‘i's next generation by ending the workforce housing shortage. We prepare next generation leaders for effective civic engagement.
My personal mission is to build relationships and advocate for the public interest in Hawai‘i, drawing on skills cultivated over twelve years as a community organizer, teacher and writer. My goal is to fuse the pathos of poetry with the logos of reasoned argument, lending my mind, voice and pen to help improve my home, Hawai‘i.
As a housing advocate, I’ve helped to pass historic statewide zoning reforms in Hawai‘i.