{"id":212705,"date":"2025-03-25T10:07:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T20:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=212705"},"modified":"2025-03-25T10:07:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T20:07:32","slug":"hensel-windward-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/25\/hensel-windward-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"Windward CC<\/abbr> visit concludes President Hensel\u2019s UH<\/abbr> campus tours"},"content":{"rendered":"
Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\"PeopleUniversity of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> President Wendy Hensel visited Windward Community College on March 24, 2025, marking the completion of her commitment to visit all 10 UH<\/abbr> campuses within her first 90 days in office.<\/p>\n

\"PeopleThe visit began with a traditional Hawaiian protocol welcoming ceremony led by the college’s Native Hawaiian Council Ke Kumu Pali, setting a warm and culturally rich tone for the day. Hensel then engaged with a variety of campus stakeholders, including student leaders, faculty, staff, administrators and community partners. An open campus forum welcomed more than 40 attendees, providing an opportunity for Hensel to listen to the concerns, ideas and aspirations of the Windward CC<\/abbr> community.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s amazing that she’s coming here, being willing to hear us out, and willing to understand what can be better,” said Minakshi Kutty, a Windward CC<\/abbr> student. “I’m just so happy to see that.”<\/p>\n

Student Hio Pelesasa added, “I feel good. There’s a president here who cares about us and comes to our school to answer questions for our students.”<\/p>\n

\"PeopleDuring the meetings and open forum, Hensel answered questions on a wide range of topics, including the impact of recent executive orders and federal policy shifts, her overall vision for UH<\/abbr> and how Hawaiian culture informs it, the need for more HR<\/abbr> staff, strategies to address expected enrollment declines, plans to incorporate artificial intelligence, and concerns about the perception that community colleges are overlooked compared to UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa—among many others.<\/p>\n

National award winner<\/h2>\n

\"HenselWindward CC<\/abbr> is the recipient of the 2025 ACE\/Fidelity Investments Award for Institutional Transformation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s no surprise to me that they won a national award,” said Hensel. “The commitment to students shows in everything they do and very innovative programs. Really proud of these folks.”<\/p>\n

Windward CC<\/abbr>\u2019s enrollment has increased by 20% over the past five years, with 2,765 students enrolled for the 2024–25 academic year. Since implementing its strategic plan in 2020, the college has made notable progress in expanding access and improving completion rates.<\/p>\n

Hensel also praised Windward CC<\/abbr>\u2019s strong sense of mission and its deep commitment to student success.<\/p>\n

“Windward Community College is absolutely beautiful and the people are beautiful too,” she said. “Many of these folks were students here and now are mentors for the next generation. It\u2019s just a really exciting place that clearly feels the mission and acts on it.”<\/p>\n

Free tuition for Windward public school students and more<\/h2>\n

\"EschenbergInnovative programs have been key to Windward CC<\/abbr>\u2019s success. The Hoʻolei<\/span> Scholarship<\/a> offers Windward Oʻahu<\/span> public and charter high school graduates up to $3,930 for their first year of tuition. The Â鶹´«Ã½loa<\/span> program<\/a> provides a fully online, accelerated path to an Associate in Arts in Hawaiian Studies degree. Additionally, the Kaʻohekani<\/span> program<\/a> offers a one-year online certificate in Hawaiian music, the Mental Health Technician<\/a> program equips students with the skills to enter the mental health services field, and the Veterinary Technology program<\/a> prepares students for careers in animal health.<\/p>\n

Windward CC<\/abbr>\u2019s Puʻuhonua<\/span>: Places of Sanctuary<\/a> program continues to provide transformative educational opportunities for incarcerated learners. Since 2017, the program has served 1,005 students who have earned 3,083 credits with an impressive 85% average success rate. In 2025, the program extended its Hawaiian studies offerings to men incarcerated at Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Windward CC<\/abbr> Chancellor Ardis Eschenberg expressed her gratitude for President Hensel\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re just really thankful for her leadership at this time, and we\u2019re really thankful to have everyone on our campus. It\u2019s a beautiful campus, and it\u2019s great to be able to showcase it,” she said.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_masonry_media_grid element_width=”3″ css=”” grid_id=”vc_gid:1742933083123-ed62516e-6ce1-2″ include=”212718,212717,212716,212715,212713,212712,212711,212710,212709,212708″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]\n

For more information about President Hensel, visit the Meet President Hensel webpage<\/a>. She is also active on social media and encourages the UH<\/abbr> community to connect with her on Instagram<\/a>, X<\/a> (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Windward CC<\/abbr>\u2019s commitment to student success inspires alumni, and shapes the next generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1193],"tags":[1673,71,1664,66],"class_list":["post-212705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-administrative","tag-hensel-campus-visits","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-hensel","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\/212705","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=212705"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212720,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212705\/revisions\/212720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}