{"id":126429,"date":"2020-09-04T11:07:58","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T21:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=126429"},"modified":"2022-03-22T11:16:26","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T21:16:26","slug":"next-steps-boots-hs-graduates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/09\/04\/next-steps-boots-hs-graduates\/","title":{"rendered":"Next Steps initiative boosts thousands of high school graduates"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_33654\"  width=\"676\" height=\"676\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"676\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rl1QVXmnaSE?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Next Steps initiative boosts thousands of high school graduates\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>More than 2,700 recent public high school graduates prepared for college and careers this summer for free through the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.p20hawaii.org\/nextsteps\/\">Next Steps to Your Future<\/a> initiative, a partnership between the <a href=\"http:\/\/uhcc.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community Colleges<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.p20hawaii.org\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> P&#8211;20 Partnerships for Education<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges offered free online <a href=\"http:\/\/uhcc.hawaii.edu\/nextstep\/\">Next Step: Career Exploration<\/a> classes to help students develop career plans and goals and decide whether to enroll in college, seek employment or both. Content-focused courses to help students get a head start on their majors upon completion of career exploration courses were also offered as part of the program.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Related <em><abbr>UH<\/abbr> News<\/em> stories:\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/26\/2m-next-step-scholarship-donation\/\">$2<abbr title=\"million\">M<\/abbr> scholarship fund to benefit Next Steps students<\/a>, May 26, 2020<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/12\/next-steps-to-your-future\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> launches free summer advising initiative for class of 2020<\/a>, May 12, 2020<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/system-uhcc-next-steps-1.jpg\" alt=\"students smiling\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-126494\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/system-uhcc-next-steps-1.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/system-uhcc-next-steps-1-130x130.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Almost 1,500 public high school graduates took career exploration or content-focused courses, earning more than 4,000 college credits. <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> P&#8211;20\u2019s free Summer Advising Initiative also helped more than 1,700 students make informed critical decisions towards achieving their post-high plans.<\/p>\n<p>By participating in Next Steps to Your Future, students were eligible to apply for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/26\/2m-next-step-scholarship-donation\/\">Stronger Together <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Scholarship<\/a>, which was created to help <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> students impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 500 Next Steps students applied for the scholarship funded by <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community Foundation and First Hawaiian Bank Foundation, and 370 students were awarded Next Step Scholarships, with an average award of $6,200.<\/p>\n<h2>Renell Kaupu-Kaialiilii<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_126495\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-126495\" style=\"width: 214px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/system-uhcc-next-steps-renell-vertical-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"Renell Kaupu-Kaialiilii\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-126495\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/system-uhcc-next-steps-renell-vertical-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/system-uhcc-next-steps-renell-vertical-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/system-uhcc-next-steps-renell-vertical.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-126495\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Renell Kaupu-Kaialiilii<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Of the students taking the Career Exploration classes, 31 percent identified as Native Hawaiian. Kealakehe High School graduate <strong>Renell Kaupu-Kaialiilii<\/strong> said her Career Exploration class benefited her in many ways.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It helped guide me to the best path for a career and also life in general,&rdquo; Kaupu-Kaialiilii wrote. &ldquo;It has taught me about finances and how our generation needs to think about the future and prepare for it better because if unprecedented times like this occur again, we need to have backup finances.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>She is enrolled at <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr>&#8211;P\u0101lamanui and plans to become a child protective services worker. She will be the first in her family to earn a college degree when she graduates and credits the Stronger Together <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Scholarship with making that possible by covering about 65 percent of her tuition this year.<\/p>\n<h2>Jimwell Baja<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_126496\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-126496\" style=\"width: 214px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/system-uhcc-next-steps-baja-vertical-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"Jimwell Baja\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-126496\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/system-uhcc-next-steps-baja-vertical-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/system-uhcc-next-steps-baja-vertical-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/system-uhcc-next-steps-baja-vertical.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-126496\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jimwell Baja<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Jimwell Baja<\/strong>, a Waipahu High School graduate, wrote, &ldquo;I benefited from this Career Exploration class by learning crucial career oriented tips such as resume building, outreaching and networking exercise, and exploring specific career options rather than just a career category all helped me to solidify my future career and the goals I need to set to reach that career.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Baja, who is now enrolled at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa in the Shidler College of Business, said the class helped him to realize that he wanted to focus on becoming a financial planner.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I think [Career Exploration classes] will make a massive difference, not only in your career, but also the way you view your future,&rdquo; Baja said. &ldquo;It definitely helped me look at the way our society works, especially during this pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Ultimately I want to become a financial planner because of my previous experiences with my family not being so financially literate. And I wanted to make a difference in that by trying to help lower-income families with their finances.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Next Steps initiative was generously funded by <abbr>UH<\/abbr> partners at the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Resilience Fund of the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community Foundation, Strada Education Network, The Clarence T. C. Ching Foundation, the Stupski Foundation and Gear Up <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Kelli Trifonovitch<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Community College Career Exploration classes and <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> P&#8211;20 advising support public school graduates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12],"tags":[757,1146,1416,61,306,435,146,71,9,56,603],"class_list":["post-126429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","category-video","tag-admissions","tag-counseling","tag-covid-19-uh-helps","tag-hawaii-community-college","tag-hawaii-p-20","tag-palamanui","tag-shidler-college-of-business","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","tag-workforce-development","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126429"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126723,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126429\/revisions\/126723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}