{"id":153461,"date":"2021-12-17T16:06:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T02:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=153461"},"modified":"2021-12-17T16:06:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-18T02:06:10","slug":"all-online-students-graduate-from-leeward-cc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/12\/17\/all-online-students-graduate-from-leeward-cc\/","title":{"rendered":"All-online accelerated students from near and far graduate from Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr>"},"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_15461\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0_GMdmElafk?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=\"Online AA Graduation Reflections 2021\"  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>Members of the first cohort of the Accelerated <abbr title=\"associates of arts\">AA<\/abbr> Online Degree Program have graduated. Nineteen students, from in-state and as far away as California, North Carolina and Virginia, received their associate\u2019s in liberal arts degrees from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leeward.hawaii.edu\/\">Leeward Community College<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/uhcc.hawaii.edu\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community Colleges<\/a> launched the program in fall 2019 with 54 students. The program was designed to provide students the option to complete an <abbr>AA<\/abbr> in liberal arts degree by taking one five-week, online course at a time for two and a half years. Most students are working and\/or managing family responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/system-cc-online-degree1-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Person typing on a laptop\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-89432\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/system-cc-online-degree1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/system-cc-online-degree1-630x353.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/system-cc-online-degree1.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If I can balance family, work and school, you can do it, too,&rdquo; said graduate <strong>Jennifer Kaaihue<\/strong> from <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island.<\/p>\n<p>In fall 2021, there were 82 students pursuing this accelerated online degree.<\/p>\n<p>Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr> Chancellor <strong>Carlos Pe\u00f1aloza<\/strong> said, &ldquo;Many of our students are sharing their amazing experience and as a result of it, we want to see more students take advantage of this.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> President <strong>David Lassner<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/12\/16\/presidents-report-december-2021\/\">told the Board of Regents<\/a> that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alakainafoundation.com\/\"><span aria-label=\"Alakaina\">Alaka&#699;ina<\/span> Foundation<\/a> was impressed that almost half of the students enrolled in the program are Native Hawaiian, and will sponsor 20 full-tuition scholarships\u201410 in fall 2022 and 10 in fall 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Prospective students may apply to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leeward.hawaii.edu\/enroll\">Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr><\/a> now to begin classes in summer 2022 or fall 2022. Additional details about the program <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leeward.hawaii.edu\/onlineAA\">can be found online<\/a>. Space is limited. Questions may be emailed to the Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr> Online Counselor <strong>Jordan Lewton<\/strong> at <a href=\"mailto:jlewton@hawaii.edu\">jlewton@hawaii.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We have also used this new model for some of our new baccalaureate programs as we\u2019re testing it out, but obviously these students have shown that they can succeed at an online program&#8212;again, they\u2019re mostly mature adults,&rdquo; Lassner said. &ldquo;They now have finished one online degree program and they\u2019re eligible for any of the 25 or so <abbr>UH<\/abbr> online baccalaureate programs offered by our three universities.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Many of the new graduates say they intend to do just that.<\/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\/06\/07\/uh-accelerated-online-aa-degree\/\">Flexible accelerated online <abbr>AA<\/abbr> degree helps workers with families<\/a>, June 7, 2020<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/29\/online-aa-information-sessions\/\">Opportunity to learn about accelerated online <abbr>AA<\/abbr> degree<\/a>, May 29, 2020<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/10\/27\/limited-space-online-aa-degree\/\">Limited space available for <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Community College accelerated online degree<\/a>, October 27, 2019<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/01\/13\/uh-completely-online-degree\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> to launch completely online <abbr>AA<\/abbr> degree program<\/a>, January 13, 2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Working students with families complete online <abbr>AA<\/abbr> degrees in two and a half years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[234,1224,65,1518,71,56],"class_list":["post-153461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-commencement","tag-distance-education","tag-leeward-community-college","tag-liberal-arts","tag-uh-community-colleges","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\/153461","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=153461"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153463,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153461\/revisions\/153463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}