Teaching Medal Award Winner

Joni Onishi
Hawai‘i

Joni Onishi is a professor of accounting at Hawai‘i Community College. She challenges students to understand aCommunity Collegeounting concepts and learn to think independently by giving them the hands-on experience of setting up a mini-business in the classroom. Students hold Onishi in high regard. Her style of teaching, sincerity, pleasant disposition and consistent smile are magnets.

Onishi is constantly updating her curriculum and seeking out innovative ways to make the subject more relevant and interesting. Always willing to share her enthusiasm for education, she routinely visits high school classes to make students aware of the college’s programs. She is one of Hawai‘i Community College’s best ambassadors of higher education.