Meet Keilah Fanene

Whitworth Cadre Five
'11 English Major
Evergreen High School '07

Growing Fan Base

With a video camera in hand, a friend is recording Keilah as she sits on a piano bench in her high school’s choir room. With her fingers in place, Keilah plays the first notes in the key of C. With a simple melody, her two friends sitting beside her sing along, complementing each others’ voices with smooth flowing melodies. After having uploaded the recording over a year ago, this video titled, “Evergreen Samoans Just Singing,” has received more than 100,000 hits on YouTube. This is one of several videos of her singing that can be found on the Website. All in all, Keilah’s videos combined have reached roughly a quarter-million views as of June 2008. “It makes me laugh that so many people watch and actually enjoy our videos,” Keilah said. “It is also very flattering to know that so many people enjoy my music videos, and I also am reassured of my blessings that I have been given.”

Transitioning to college, Keilah didn’t let her passion for singing fade during her first year. She sang a song she wrote at Whitworth Unplugged, a talent competition, and won first place. “I was mostly anxious because I never really sing in front of people I don't know – not counting the internet,” Keilah said. Because of her success at Unplugged, Keilah was allowed to perform in Pirate Idol, Whitworth’s final talent competition, and placed fourth. “I had a fun time doing it, and I know [my group] did our best so I was pretty happy with the outcome,” Keilah said. “Next year, we're going to shoot for first though, and I think we have a super good chance of getting it.”

Missing ‘Ghetto’

“There’s a stereotype that people in White Center don’t go anywhere,” Keilah said. “There are a lot of racial gangs and gang activity, prostitution and drug dealing in White Center.” Despite White Center being infamous for crime activity, Keilah said growing up in White Center was far from a negative experience and tried to turn those negative aspects about her community into something positive. There is a lot of diversity in White Center, Keilah said. Nearly half of White Center’s population is non-white, a ratio considerably higher than the national data of 25 percent non-whites, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. “Especially being away in college, I missed everything about White Center,” Keilah said. “I missed my church and the people of White Center and the dynamics of the city – I missed the ghettoness of it.”

Giving It a Chance

Ever since playing basketball competitively in sixth grade, Keilah’s said her parents took her to all her games and practices. Keilah has also played volleyball and placed seventh and fifth in the tennis state championship her sophomore and senior year, respectively. “My parents took sports very seriously,” Keilah said. They knew sports were another avenue to get into college, she said. Upon entering her freshman year at Whitworth, Keilah played for the women’s basketball team as a power forward, fulfilling her aspiration to play at a collegiate level. Despite her accomplishment her freshman year, applying for Act Six and Whitworth University wasn’t a resounding yes.

Even though her older sister, Fa’ana, was an Act Six scholar, Keilah said she originally had no intentions to apply for the scholarship let alone go to Whitworth. She wanted a basketball scholarship from a state school, but after her mother’s continual request to apply for Act Six, she decided to give the program a chance. Now looking back, Keilah said without the Act Six program, she would most likely be working or going to community college “like most people in White Center.”

Giving Back

Keilah said she doesn’t know what she is going to do once she graduates from Whitworth. But she does know where she can make the biggest impact. “I want to go back my high school and coach,” Keilah said. “All my dreams and ambitions were nurtured there.” At college, our job is to help people become aware of the urban life that we live while, at the same time, stepping out of our own living situations and learning about other people’s world, Keilah said. Part of Act Six is giving back to the community, she said.

By KYLE KIM
8/12/08

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