When one of the boys isn't in class, Sage Ferreira gets him on the phone.

"They'll listen to me. I have all their cell phone numbers. If they're still at home, I go pick them up. If they say, oh, we're leaving campus to get lunch, I call my Mom and she brings food for them."

It's a big turnaround for a high school student who had an attendance problem of her own. "Hoo, I was bad," said Ferreira, a Kapolei High School senior. "I cut class, I was mean to my teachers. I look back now and I regret it."

Ferreira's evolution is what Kapolei's Ho'ola Leadership Academy is all about. The brand-new program is built on the belief that non-traditional learners often make the most innovative leaders.

"Our students tend to be labeled with all sorts of creative euphemisms which are all some version of a 'hard-headed kid,' " says teacher Joan Lewis. "If you turn that sideways, these are the kids who are willing to say the emperor has no clothes. They make people step up. They push back. We try to teach them to be problem solvers, to share their skepticism and curiosity in a way that doesn't push people away."

Lewis is one of six teachers in the academy, which has 250 students out of a total student body of 2,250 at Kapolei. The academy embraces Native Hawaiian values, but not in a thematic way. It goes deeper than that.

"No member of the Hawaiian community was ever asked to do anything for which they were not prepared," she said. "Skills were identified and honed. A master fisherman was not expected to also be a master hunter."

For the academy, this means the teachers make sure their students are learning in a way meaningful to them. For the students, it means taking an "incomplete" on an assignment is not an option. They have to try again.

"You let people get what they need to learn," Lewis said. "If their journey is ethical, what do you care how they got there?"

The academy was recently given a $40,000 gift from Kapolei Property Development (formerly Campbell Estate). This will allow things such as field trips. "These kids want to see things, touch things, get out, be there," Lewis said. "If they're learning about 'Iolani Palace, they want to see the palace."

Dave Rae, senior VP for public affairs at KPD, said the academy embodies the values of James Campbell. "If Kapolei is about anything, it's about hope for the future. It's a place where families can have a home, a good-paying job and quality education."

Ferreira hopes to go to college, become a teacher and come back to Ho'ola. "I'm here to help, but also to get help and to learn," she said.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.