{"id":142151,"date":"2021-05-24T10:42:52","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T20:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=142151"},"modified":"2023-05-18T15:30:59","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T01:30:59","slug":"maui-student-creates-way-to-free-tuition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/05\/24\/maui-student-creates-way-to-free-tuition\/","title":{"rendered":"Maui student creates way to free tuition in #TakeMeToManoa contest"},"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_61145\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_HVpF0noqlY?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=\"Maui student creates way to free tuition in #TakeMeToManoa contest\"  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>Navigating his senior year during a pandemic might not have been ideal, but one thing Kamehameha Schools Maui senior <strong>Hezekiah Kapuaala<\/strong> knows for sure is that he wants to continue his journey as a creator of videos at the <a href=\"http:\/\/TakeMeToManoa.org\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a> this fall. <\/p>\n<p>Ready to share his thoughts on graduating from high school and transitioning into college in the midst of the pandemic, Kapuaala\u2019s interview took a different turn when <a href=\"http:\/\/hawaiinewsnow.com\/\">Hawaii News Now<\/a> reporter Billy V announced that he was named the winner of the #TakeMeToManoa social media contest hosted by Hawaii News Now. Kamehameha Schools teachers and staff presented the shocked and stunned student and his parents with a giant check for a year of free tuition at <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa, courtesy of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uhfcu.com\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Federal Credit Union<\/a> (<abbr title=\"University of Hawaii Federal Credit Union\">UHFCU<\/abbr>). <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaiinewsnow.com\/video\/2021\/05\/24\/kamehameha-schools-maui-student-wins-free-tuition-through-take-me-manoa-contest\/\">See Kapuaala presented with the award<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/manoa-admissions-hezekiah-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-142285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/manoa-admissions-hezekiah-1.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/manoa-admissions-hezekiah-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/manoa-admissions-hezekiah-1-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Oh my gosh! This was unexpected, thank you very much,&rdquo; said a speechless Kapuaala. &ldquo;I&#8217;m really excited for college because it&#8217;s basically my step into the beginning of a new life for me.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Standing by in the Hawaii News Now studio to virtually congratulate Kapuaala was <strong>Ryan Yamaguchi<\/strong>, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa interim assistant vice chancellor for enrollment management and director of admissions, and <abbr>UHFCU<\/abbr> Vice President-Member Experience Stacey Robinol.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We are excited for Hezekiah and honored to be a part of his academic journey. He has incredible talent and will go far! This contest not only allowed us to connect with community partners, but it provided a fun, engaging and thoughtful way to connect with our students, offering an UHM-azing opportunity for a local Rainbow Warrior,&rdquo; said Yamaguchi. &ldquo;We couldn\u2019t be more proud and thrilled for Hezekiah and his &#699;ohana!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We are proud to be a part of this wonderful program which brings <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa and us together to support the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. Fostering the educational goals of students through the tuition contest serves as an important foundation of the community we serve,&rdquo; explained <abbr>UHFCU<\/abbr> President and <abbr title=\"Chief Executive Officer\">CEO<\/abbr> Travis Bow. &ldquo;Hezekiah is a highly talented young man, and we are honored to assist in his pursuit of higher education. The accomplishments and enthusiasm of all of the students who applied for the #TakeMeToManoa social media contest are inspiring and give us reason to feel optimistic about the next generation of local leaders.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The online contest, which was open to incoming fall 2021 <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> freshmen, asked entrants to upload a short video explaining why <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa is the right college or how a year of free tuition could help them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/_HVpF0noqlY\">Kapuaala\u2019s creative video entry<\/a> touched upon how winning will help finance his education and prepare him for his future, and how <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa will enable him to get closer to pursuing and living his passion of being a video creator. He jumped at the chance to enter the contest, seeing it as an opportunity to prove his potential and show <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa the countless number of hours and hard work he has already put into this craft.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I feel that this institution against all others will help me on my path to become a great video creator,&rdquo; said Kapuaala. <\/p>\n<p>Kapuaala intends to pursue a degree in creative media and cannot wait to get to M\u0101noa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hezekiah Kapuaala\u2019s video entry touched upon how <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa will enable him to get closer to pursuing and living his passion of being a video creator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1588,757,962,572,660,9,1009,56],"class_list":["post-142151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-takemetomanoa","tag-admissions","tag-enrollment","tag-scholarship","tag-student-recognition","tag-uh-manoa","tag-university-of-hawaii-federal-credit-union","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142151","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=142151"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142433,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142151\/revisions\/142433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}