{"id":216281,"date":"2025-05-19T14:28:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T00:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=216281"},"modified":"2025-05-19T14:28:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T00:28:34","slug":"president-hensel-encourages-uh-maui-graduates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/19\/president-hensel-encourages-uh-maui-graduates\/","title":{"rendered":"President Hensel encourages <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Maui graduates to chart their own path forward"},"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\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/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_85331\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6iZkHSBANQ8?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=\"President Hensel encourages Â鶹´«Ã½Maui graduates to chart their own path forward\"  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>University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> President Wendy Hensel delivered the keynote address at the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Maui College spring commencement ceremony on May 15, encouraging more than 250 graduates to embrace change, find joy in their journey, and stay true to themselves.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_216282\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-216282\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/maui-commencement-group-2025-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"U H Maui college students at commencement\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-216282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/maui-commencement-group-2025-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/maui-commencement-group-2025-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/maui-commencement-group-2025.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-216282\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Maui College graduates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;The need for authenticity has never been more pressing than at this moment, when simply being who you are can feel like an act of defiance in a world that is often polarized and&#8212;let\u2019s face it&#8212;sometimes mean-spirited,&rdquo; Hensel said. &ldquo;Play the lead in your own story, in your own way, and chart your own path forward. People will feel that, and they will respond to you.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The ceremony, held on the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Maui campus in Kahului, was part of Hensel&#8217;s first commencement season as president of the 10-campus <abbr>UH<\/abbr> system, a role she officially began on January 1. In addition to <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Maui, Hensel also addressed graduates at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>, <span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> Community College and <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hensel delivered the keynote address at the <abbr\">Â鶹´«Ã½Maui College spring commencement, encouraging graduates to embrace change, find joy in their journey, and stay true to themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12],"tags":[234,63,71,9,60,947,59,56,1664],"class_list":["post-216281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","category-video","tag-commencement","tag-kapiolani-community-college","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-manoa","tag-maui-college","tag-uh-system","tag-uh-west-oahu","tag-video-2","tag-hensel","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216281","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=216281"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216285,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216281\/revisions\/216285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}