Sunday, May 16, 2004
'Nontraditional' grads kick off commencement season
By CLAUDINE SAN NICOLAS, Staff Writer

WAILUKU - Graduation season kicked off this weekend with Friday's commencement for "nontraditional" graduates receiving degrees through the University of Hawaii Center at Maui Community College.

The center's annual commencement held Friday in Baldwin High School's auditorium featured the symbolic conferring of degrees to approximately 70 graduates.

" Now is our chance to go full circle and give back to the community," student speaker Melinda Anne Gohn told her fellow graduates.

Gohn earned a bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of Hilo and was one of four students selected to speak at Friday's graduation ceremony.

The featured guest speaker was Georgina Kawamura, state budget director and county budget director for then-Mayor Linda Lingle.
Kawamura herself is an MCC graduate in accounting and finance.

" We are very proud of you," Kawamura said.

Graduates receiving degrees through the UH Center are often described as nontraditional because they tend to be older than their early 20s, with families and holding full-time jobs while raising children.

Courses offered through the UH Center allow students to earn four-year degrees or master's degrees within the UH system without having to leave Maui.

Most of the classes are held in the evenings, on weekends or over the Internet.

The UH Center was launched in 1997, when Lingle and other Maui leaders were pressing for a four-year university on the Valley Isle.
UH was not willing to set up a full four-year campus on Maui, and efforts to attract other accredited colleges fell short.

With the county providing a $200,000 grant, UH kicked in funds to provide four-year degrees and fifth-year teaching certification through distance-learning programs provided by faculty at the UH's four-year campuses.

The center has steadily increased its degree offerings, with more than 300 graduates finishing studies since 1997, including one Ph.D. candidate.

At the same time, Maui Community College plans to offer its own a four-year degree program beginning this fall, in applied business and information technology.

At the UH Center ceremony Friday, student speaker Sandra Kealohilani Hanson opened her address with a Hawaiian chant, giving thanks to educators who provided the distance-education programs.

" We greet you with our love, our appreciation, for all you've done for us," Hanson said.
She earned a bachelor of education, elementary education from UH-Manoa.

Student speaker Kelly Watanabe, a graduate earning a master's in accounting from UH-Manoa, said nontraditional graduates are often deprived of sleep and have no social life during their two to four years of studies.

But commencement can signal the beginning of celebration.

" I have three words for you," Watanabe told her fellow graduates: "Party, party, party!"

Ghada Mariam Early, who earned a bachelor of arts degree in business administration from UH-West Oahu, listed qualities possessed by nontraditional graduates - pride, commitment, perseverance, dedication, tenacity, strength and the aloha spirit.

She urged fellow graduates to take all their qualities and "continue success in whatever you pursue."

Next up is the MCC graduation at 1 p.m. today at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, with about 130 students participating in the ceremony to receive degrees and certificates.

Maui's graduation season will continue with the 37th commencement exercise for another group of nontraditional students through the Maui Community School for Adults. The ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Baldwin auditorium.

According to the school, more than 246 students completed requirements necessary to receive their general educational development diploma or GED.

The graduates are from a variety of study programs provided by the Maui Community School for Adults, Hui Malama Learning Center, Hawaii Job Corps, Maui First-to-Work, Department of Human Services, Maui Youth and Family Services, and Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center.