{"id":138799,"date":"2021-04-08T14:11:15","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T00:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=138799"},"modified":"2021-04-08T14:11:15","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T00:11:15","slug":"4-decades-service-innovation-nahm-mijo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/04\/08\/4-decades-service-innovation-nahm-mijo\/","title":{"rendered":"4 decades of service and innovation for Hawai\u02bbi CC<\/abbr>\u2019s Trina Nahm-Mijo"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Trina
Nahm-Mijo, left, at the opening of the Women’s Center at UH<\/abbr> Hilo in 1990<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Multifaceted Trina Nahm-Mijo<\/strong>, professor and department chair of social sciences, is retiring this spring after 43 years at Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community College<\/a>. One of her legacies is the Human Services certificate program, which is celebrating its 33rd year with a virtual conference<\/a> on April 14–16 that is open to all at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. Nahm-Mijo started the program, writing the curriculum and tweaking some existing classes to create a new credential.<\/p>\n

“A lot of local students are really into service,” she said. “It\u2019s something I picked up early on in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and especially on neighbor islands. There\u2019s really a helping attitude, and it comes from the culture. It\u2019s kind of a natural attitude and value in the way people are raised locally, and that\u2019s why it was always a popular certificate.”<\/p>\n

Inspired by students<\/h2>\n
\"Trina
Nahm-Mijo in Immortal Sisters<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nahm-Mijo\u2019s career has included accolades such as the Board of Regents Excellence in Teaching award and three Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> Innovation Awards, among other accomplishments. Though she\u2019s ready to close the book on her Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> career, she said teaching never got tiresome or repetitive, even after more than four decades.<\/p>\n

“The students inspire me,” she said. “It was always new every semester even if it was the same classes, because the people are different and my style is to teach to the students\u2019 individual strengths and characteristics, so it was always new for me.”<\/p>\n

After growing up on Oʻahu<\/span>, Nahm-Mijo moved to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island at the invitation of the late Earnest Morgan, who established the dance program at UH<\/abbr> Hilo. Nahm-Mijo, an award-winning choreographer, is known by many in the community for the dance classes she has taught and her involvement in performances such as the Great Leaps<\/em> series.<\/p>\n

Holistic approach<\/h2>\n

Nahm-Mijo began lecturing at Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> in 1978, and was hired a year later as the college\u2019s first full-time psychology professor. She fondly recalls some of the milestones of her teaching career, including the Learning Communities that began in 1986 and involved a team of instructors teaching with a cross-disciplinary approach.<\/p>\n

\"Trina<\/a>
Nahm-Mijo, far right at a breakfast fundraiser event (click\/tap for larger image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She also cites as major experiences the co-founding of the Women\u2019s Center at UH<\/abbr> Hilo (before Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> and UH<\/abbr> Hilo split); creating Middle College, which was a precursor to today\u2019s Early College; and the establishment of the Keaʻau<\/span> Youth Business Center, a state-of-the-art skill building program in music and sound recording, culinary arts and digital arts integrated with academics in which at-risk high school students earned 12 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> college credits in their senior year of high school.<\/p>\n

What unites the various strands of her career is the belief in a hands-on, real-world, comprehensive approach that doesn\u2019t compartmentalize learning, teaching or people.<\/p>\n

“I like things that are not one dimensional,” she said. “Education is holistic, it\u2019s human. If you reach people, you\u2019re going to be successful.”<\/p>\n

Go to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> for more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—By Thatcher J. P. Moats<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Trina
Nahm-Mijo, fifth from left, and other Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> Kauhale members honored during the 50th anniversary of the UH<\/abbr> Community College system<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nahm-Mijo founded the college\u2019s Human Services certificate and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[598,61,71,14],"class_list":["post-138799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-hawaii-community-college","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-hilo","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138799","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=138799"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138852,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138799\/revisions\/138852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}