{"id":155978,"date":"2022-03-01T13:09:50","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T23:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=155978"},"modified":"2024-03-15T22:05:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T08:05:15","slug":"miss-hawaii-usa-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/03\/01\/miss-hawaii-usa-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Miss Hawaii USA<\/abbr> 2022, UH<\/abbr> engineering alumna, STEM<\/abbr> role model"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"person
Miss Hawaii USA Kiana Yamat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kiana Yamat<\/strong> wants to use her platform as the new Miss Hawaii USA 2022 to inspire young women in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM<\/abbr>) industry. The 2016 University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa graduate\u2019s interest in STEM<\/abbr> was sparked through her experiences in the College of Engineering<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa provided me with the education I needed to become successful as a civil engineer working in the construction industry as well as develop leadership and teamwork skills through extracurriculars I\u2019ve used in both my career and personal endeavors,” Yamat said. “I still have great relationships with some of my professors and my biggest supporters today are the classmates who turned into friends while in school.”<\/p>\n

Yamat earned a UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Chancellor’s scholarship (now called Provost Achievement Scholarship) and served as the American Society of Civil Engineers UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa student chapter<\/a> president. She is now a civil and construction engineer with Hansel Phelps, and has worked on several major projects, including the new mauka concourse at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Yamat wants to become a female role model in the STEM<\/abbr> industry because she is often one of a few females working on projects in the engineering field.<\/p>\n

“During my reign as Miss Hawaii USA<\/abbr>, my goal is to do outreach within the community, specifically targeting young women who find themselves in the same position I did when I was younger: interested in STEM<\/abbr> but lacking a female role model or mentor in the field,” Yamat said. “There needs to be more of us, and I hope to be the role model I never had.”<\/p>\n

Advancing to the Miss USA<\/abbr> pageant<\/h2>\n

\"person<\/p>\n

The 2022 Miss Hawaii USA pageant was the Lahainaluna High School graduate\u2019s first pageant competition. Yamat beat out 21 other contestants to advance to the Miss USA pageant taking place later this year.<\/p>\n

“This whole experience has been surreal, and I can\u2019t express enough how grateful and thankful I am to have been chosen for this title,” Yamat said. “It is both a privilege and an honor to represent our beautiful Aloha State and I hope to make the people of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> proud at Miss USA<\/abbr> later this year.”<\/p>\n

She added, “The decision to run for Miss Hawaii USA<\/abbr> has been one of the best I\u2019ve ever made as it continues to open doors to new opportunities and experiences I wouldn\u2019t have had otherwise. I encourage anyone interested in bettering and learning about themselves to run next year! It\u2019s the experience of a lifetime.”<\/p>\n

Yamat\u2019s experiences at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa are examples of UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s goals of Enhancing Student Success<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>) and Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), two of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), updated in December 2020.<\/p>\n

—By Marc Arakaki<\/em><\/p>\n

\"people<\/p>\n

\"people<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pageant winner Kiana Yamat is a civil and construction engineer with Hansel Phelps.<\/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":[679,179,182,1466,1467,313,9,1626],"class_list":["post-155978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni-recognition","tag-college-of-engineering","tag-engineering","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-stem","tag-uh-manoa","tag-women-of-uh","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155978","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=155978"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156002,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155978\/revisions\/156002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}