{"id":220392,"date":"2025-08-19T12:22:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T22:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=220392"},"modified":"2025-08-20T08:49:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T18:49:57","slug":"lower-summer-tuition-leeward-cc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/08\/19\/lower-summer-tuition-leeward-cc\/","title":{"rendered":"Lower summer tuition fuels enrollment growth at Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr>"},"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_77499\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hzqhmJHzTW8?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=\"Â鶹´«Ã½Lower Summer Tuition 2025 \u2013 Kiani Verdugo, Leeward CC Student\"  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>Leeward Community College saw its strongest summer enrollment in five years, following the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s decision to reduce community college summer tuition for <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> residents in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>In January, the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Community Colleges announced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/01\/21\/uh-community-colleges-lower-summer-school-tuition\/\">lowering summer school tuition to $131 per credit<\/a> for <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> residents, allowing students to save money, graduate faster and explore new interests while staying on track academically.<\/p>\n<p>Summer 2025 headcount at Leeward <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr> surged to 2,691 students&#8212;a 16&#37; increase over the previous year and the highest summer enrollment since 2020. Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr>-based students rose by 17&#37; while non-Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr> students climbed 15&#37;, showing that lower tuition is not only encouraging local students to stay on track, but also drawing new learners from across the state.<\/p>\n<h2>Accelerating education<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_220399\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-220399\" style=\"width: 214px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/leeward-raquel-aki-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"portrait of Raquel Aki\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-220399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/leeward-raquel-aki-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/leeward-raquel-aki-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/leeward-raquel-aki.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-220399\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Raquel Aki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr> student Raquel Aki is a mother of three and will be the first in her family to graduate from college.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;During an economic downturn, programs like this are invaluable,&rdquo; Aki said. &ldquo;I hope the discounted summer credit option continues so that other students balancing work, family and school can take advantage of the same opportunity to accelerate their education, save money and move closer to achieving their goals.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leeward.hawaii.edu\/earlycollege\">Early College<\/a> program, which allows high school students to earn college credit, experienced the largest numerical growth, increasing 21&#37; from 423 to 512 students. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leeward.hawaii.edu\/programs\">Career and Technical Education (<abbr>CTE<\/abbr>)<\/a> programs also posted remarkable gains: <abbr>CTE<\/abbr> teacher training jumped from 2 to 15 students (+650&#37;), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leeward.hawaii.edu\/dmed\">digital media<\/a> doubled from 18 to 36 (+100&#37;), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leeward.hawaii.edu\/teach\">teacher education<\/a> nearly doubled from 42 to 81 (+93&#37;).<\/p>\n<p>Kiani Verdugo, Leeward student and student government treasurer, said, &ldquo;I thought the courses might be too accelerated, but that wasn\u2019t the case. I was able to complete my prerequisites ahead of time, and the cost savings helped me buy supplies and a laptop. The courses are well planned, and you have plenty of opportunities to connect with your instructors.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_220405\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-220405\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/leeward-kiana-verdugo-1-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"portrait of Kiani Verdugo\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-220405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/leeward-kiana-verdugo-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/leeward-kiana-verdugo-1-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/leeward-kiana-verdugo-1.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-220405\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kiani Verdugo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With tuition relief and flexible summer learning options, Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr> is positioning more students for academic success and timely graduation.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Lower summer tuition is making higher education more accessible and workforce training more immediate,&rdquo; said Keala Chock, Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr> vice chancellor for academic affairs. &ldquo;We\u2019re seeing students take bigger academic leaps, and that\u2019s translating directly into qualified graduates filling critical local jobs.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<em>By Tad Saiki<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Students embrace affordable summer classes, speeding academic progress and essential workforce preparation.<\/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":[763,962,65,71,56],"class_list":["post-220392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-career-and-technical-education","tag-enrollment","tag-leeward-community-college","tag-uh-community-colleges","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\/220392","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=220392"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220567,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220392\/revisions\/220567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}