{"id":191256,"date":"2024-02-02T14:42:05","date_gmt":"2024-02-03T00:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=191256"},"modified":"2024-02-05T15:58:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T01:58:50","slug":"growing-self-confident-stem-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/02\/02\/growing-self-confident-stem-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous engineering students give voice to <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> challenges"},"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_49383\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UxbEqAuhvGk?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=\"Growing Self-Confident STEM Students\"  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>A candid discussion of the challenges faced by Indigenous university students, including Native American and Native Hawaiian students, in <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> (science, technology, engineering and math) includes three engineering students from the <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a>, all of whom also attended multiple <a href=\"https:\/\/uhcc.hawaii.edu\/\"><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_160991\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-160991\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/manoa-engineering-first-nations-rocket-team-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"five people standing holding a rocket\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-160991\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/manoa-engineering-first-nations-rocket-team-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/manoa-engineering-first-nations-rocket-team-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/manoa-engineering-first-nations-rocket-team.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-160991\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nikki Arakawa, center, and a <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa team at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/06\/21\/first-nations-rocket-competition\/\">North American <abbr title=\"National Aeronautics and Space Administration\">NASA<\/abbr> rocket competition<\/a> in April 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;I actually failed pre-calculus&#8212;two times&#8212;and dropped it a third,&rdquo; said Nikki Arakawa, a <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa electrical engineering undergraduate, who also attended <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/windward.hawaii.edu\/\">Windward<\/a> Community Colleges. &ldquo;It was not working out for me, and I just didn\u2019t know how to make it work.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Arakawa said the cohort model, which encouraged students to study and socialize together, made all the difference in her <abbr>UH<\/abbr> pre-engineering program.<\/p>\n<p>Produced by <a href=\"https:\/\/nativesciencereport.org\/2024\/01\/building-confidence\/\">Native Science Report<\/a> with support from a National Science Foundation (<abbr>NSF<\/abbr>) grant, the 5-minute film <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UxbEqAuhvGk&#038;t=121s\"><em>Growing Self-Confident <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> Students<\/em><\/a> spotlights the experiences of Native students pursuing pre-engineering, engineering and geoscience degrees at several tribal and Indigenous-serving institutions, including <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_80953\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-80953\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/kapiolani-stem-rocket-team-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-80953\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/kapiolani-stem-rocket-team-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/kapiolani-stem-rocket-team-630x353.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/kapiolani-stem-rocket-team.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-80953\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kayla Valera, third from left, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/06\/14\/indigenous-kapiolani-student-rocket-competition\/\">team from <span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr> at the First Nations Launch National Rocket Competition<\/a> in April 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;It\u2019s definitely a big transition going from community college to a four-year university, especially focusing on a major like engineering. A lot of topics that we cover aren\u2019t very easy to grasp at first. It\u2019s very conceptual and math heavy,&rdquo; said Kayla Valera, an electrical engineering major who also attended <span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p>The film aims to show that along with academic and financial support, these students also need reassurance, and that peers and sympathetic faculty can help pull them through.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_191282\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-191282\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/engineering_students_award_water_conference_2019-2-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"people  holding certificates\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-191282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/engineering_students_award_water_conference_2019-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/engineering_students_award_water_conference_2019-2-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/engineering_students_award_water_conference_2019-2.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-191282\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span aria-label=\"Hiiaka\">Hi&#699;iaka<\/span> Jardine, third from left, at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/10\/11\/engineering-water-conference\/\">Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference<\/a> in October 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;There\u2019s not a lot of Native Hawaiian women in engineering, let alone a single parent,&rdquo; said civil engineering student <span aria-label=\"Hiiaka\">Hi&#699;iaka<\/span> Jardine, who was interviewed at Windward <abbr>CC<\/abbr>. &ldquo;So, having a lot of support from the faculty and staff, as well as my classmates, was really instrumental in me getting my degree.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>All students featured in the film were part of initiatives, funded by the <abbr>NSF<\/abbr>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/new.nsf.gov\/funding\/opportunities\/tribal-colleges-universities-program-tcup\">Tribal Colleges and Universities Program<\/a>, to support the creation of new geoscience courses and engineering degree programs within tribal colleges and <abbr>UH<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indigenous <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> students persevere with help of peers and sympathetic faculty.<\/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":[1477,179,1592,33,63,1465,313,660,71,9,56,66],"class_list":["post-191256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-civil-environmental-construction-engineering","tag-college-of-engineering","tag-electrical-and-computer-engineering","tag-hawaiian","tag-kapiolani-community-college","tag-manoa-native-hawaiian-place-of-learning","tag-stem","tag-student-recognition","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","tag-windward-community-college","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191256","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=191256"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191377,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191256\/revisions\/191377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}