{"id":177373,"date":"2023-05-09T21:26:10","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T07:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=177373"},"modified":"2024-03-15T12:56:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T22:56:23","slug":"father-daughter-graduate-from-kapiolani-cc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/05\/09\/father-daughter-graduate-from-kapiolani-cc\/","title":{"rendered":"Father, Daughter graduate from Kapi\u02bbolani CC<\/abbr> on same day"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Daughter
Jenna and Steve Camara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Neither Steve Camara or his daughter Jenna expected to find themselves attending the same college when their educational journeys began. But both Camaras will walk the stage together among more than 300 participating graduates in Kapiʻolani<\/span> Community College<\/a>\u2019s spring commencement ceremony to receive their diplomas on May 12.<\/p>\n

UH<\/abbr> spring 2023 commencement schedule<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

“It\u2019s definitely a little weird, not in a bad way or anything,” Jenna said of graduating with her dad. “It\u2019s definitely like the only time I\u2019ve heard of it. None of my friends or anyone my age have graduated with their parents. It\u2019s kind of crazy.”<\/p>\n

Educational journeys unite<\/h2>\n

When Steve walks in this year\u2019s commencement with an associate of science in information technology, he will be experiencing a first in his educational achievements. The 58-year-old will be celebrating with his oldest daughter, Jenna, 21, who will also be walking in the commencement for her associate of arts in liberal arts.<\/p>\n

[Jenna] didn\u2019t follow in my footsteps; we walked together, like two footprints in the sand.
—Steve Camara<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Steve entered Â鶹´«Ã½M\u0101noa intending to go into law, but changed his mind. After finishing his dual bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and liberal studies, he re-enrolled at Kapiʻolani<\/span> CC<\/abbr>, and graduated with an associate degree in respiratory care in 1995. His experience at the two-year school was transformative, and it was the reason he encouraged Jenna to attend Kapiʻolani<\/span> CC<\/abbr> after her disappointing COVID-disrupted freshman year at UC<\/abbr> Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n

At that time, Steve was attending Kapiʻolani<\/span> CC<\/abbr> after leaving a 23-year career in respiratory therapy in 2018 to pursue an education in information technology. Jenna came to the college interested in nursing and found that the pre-nursing track kept her motivated and made it easy to transition to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Pacific University\u2019s (HPU<\/abbr>) nursing program, where she will graduate with her bachelor\u2019s in December.<\/p>\n

“She didn\u2019t follow in my footsteps; we walked together, like two footprints in the sand,” Steve said. “And Kapiʻolani<\/span> CC<\/abbr> was able to put me on track for what I wanted to do with respiratory and IT<\/abbr>, and it put her on track for what she wanted to do. It\u2019s a great place to find your pathway to your dream.”<\/p>\n

Turning the tassel<\/h2>\n

Steve is graduating with a 4.0 GPA<\/abbr> and plans to train with Microsoft to increase his proficiency with Azure, its cloud computing platform. He has relished the mentoring—especially from instructors Dale Nakasone, Dave Stevens and Richard Halverson in the college\u2019s cyber defense program. He also intends to continue at Kapiʻolani<\/span> CC<\/abbr> to earn an Advanced Professional Certificate in IT<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n

“[Kapiʻolani<\/span> Community College] is a gateway for success for nontraditional students,” Steve said. “…It\u2019s a beacon of hope that you\u2019re not done yet.”<\/p>\n

Jenna will work as a registered nurse after graduating from HPU<\/abbr>, though she eventually hopes to become a nurse practitioner or even earn a doctor of nurse practice.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s definitely inspiring,” Jenna said of her dad\u2019s continued pursuit of education. “I also want to keep going with my education after my bachelor\u2019s. It\u2019s cool. I don\u2019t know. I guess it kind of runs in the family.”<\/p>\n

—By Kim Baxter<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve and Jenna Camara will walk at Kapiʻolani<\/span> CC<\/abbr> commencement on May 12.<\/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":[234,63,660,71,1626],"class_list":["post-177373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-commencement","tag-kapiolani-community-college","tag-student-recognition","tag-uh-community-colleges","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\/177373","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=177373"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177435,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177373\/revisions\/177435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}