{"id":207406,"date":"2024-12-05T12:48:17","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T22:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=207406"},"modified":"2024-12-05T12:49:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T22:49:47","slug":"uh-alumni-kelly-tolar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/12\/05\/uh-alumni-kelly-tolar\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> Alumni: Kelly Tolar expands Coconut Ave boutique venture"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>
\"women
Kelly Tolar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kelly Tolar opened the third location of her island lifestyle boutique Coconut Ave<\/a> at the Ala Moana Center in November. Already a favorite on Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island, with locations in Hilo and Waik\u014dloa, Coconut Ave offers resort wear, swimwear and accessories designed for the island lifestyle.<\/p>\n[vc_video link=”https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/ebBAvDdGVT4″ el_aspect=”916″ align=”right” el_id=”wrap-video-right”]\n

Tolar, a co-owner, earned an associates degree from Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community College<\/a> in 2018 and a bachelor\u02bbs degree in communications<\/a> from the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n

“I just really had the burning desire to get my bachelor’s degree. I feel like I gained some valuable friendships and also valuable knowledge to take me to where I am today,” Tolar said.<\/p>\n

At UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa, the Public Relations Student Society of America and the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Student Entrepreneurs Club also provided valuable experiences.<\/p>\n

“I gained a unique perspective and a lot of motivation from seeing the interests and ambitions of my fellow members,” she said. “I had an incredible time organizing ways to give back and connect with the community\u2014it was both rewarding and a lot of fun!”<\/p>\n

Tolar hopes that current community college students seize their opportunity to continue their education at UH<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n

“Higher education offers not only valuable knowledge, but also lifelong connections that can shape your future,” she said.<\/p>\n

Learn more about other outstanding UH<\/abbr> Alumni.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Coconut
Coconut Ave\u2019s newest location at Ala Moana Center, 2nd level. (Photo courtesy: Coconut Ave)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tolar earned degrees from Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> and UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa before launching her lifestyle store.<\/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":[90,301,661,61,271,71,9,56],"class_list":["post-207406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-communications","tag-hawaii-community-college","tag-uh-alumni-association","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-manoa","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\/207406","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=207406"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207410,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207406\/revisions\/207410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}