Kristl (Kanekiyo) Patterson was a Kauai Serteens member from 1982-1985 and served as the Charter Treasurer, Vice President of Sponsorship, Governor’s Secretary and President. As a Serteen, she enjoyed meeting other gifted and talented teens from other schools on Kauai and across the State, and especially cherished memories of the Kauai Serteen Camp (KSC) that the Kauai Club planned after attending their first KMC. Her favorite Serteen-related memory is her wedding to fellow alumnus Dan Patterson, with alumni Betty Lou Watanabe as her matron of honor and Tae Hyong Kim serving as best man, and the founder of the Hawaii Serteen Program, George B. Carter pinch hitting as the best emcee ever. There were swarms of Serteens and other Serteen alumni in attendance, all doing Serteen Claps and Serteen Cheers on cue.
Kristl works as an administrative support supervisor in the Pathology Department at the Queen’s Medical Center at Punchbowl. She enjoys black-thumb gardening, being a crazy cat mom, baking, collecting hedgehog and maneki neko figurines, and traveling.
She became a Serteen Advisor because George entrusted the Serteen Program, his BAWAD (Big, Audacious, Wonderful, Amazing Dream) to her and Dan. George knew that she and Dan Patterson shared his vision, that they appreciated the benefits of the Serteen Program, and that they would be steadfast in their support of future generations of Serteens. In 1993, she shared her BAWAD wish to see Serteens she stewarded return to give back to the Program as fellow Advisors, and to see children of Serteens (Serteens 2.0) become members. In 2023, the Serteen Program in Hawaii celebrated its 50th Anniversary, and a reunion of Serteens from the 70s to the present reinforced that she was living her BAWAD.