{"id":34412,"date":"2015-05-05T13:25:52","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T23:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=34412"},"modified":"2021-09-13T14:24:56","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T00:24:56","slug":"hawaii-cc-early-college-student-wins-statewide-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2015\/05\/05\/hawaii-cc-early-college-student-wins-statewide-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> early college student wins statewide award"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"Derek<\/a><\/p>\n

Derek Larson<\/strong>, a Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island high school student who has also been enrolled in classes at Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community College<\/a>, was honored with a statewide college and career readiness award.<\/p>\n

A senior at Konawaena High School, Larson was presented with the statewide Student Readiness Award at the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> ACT<\/abbr> State Organization Conference in Honolulu on April 17. In addition, ACT<\/abbr> has announced that Larson is one of just four semi-finalists who have been nominated for the national Student Readiness Award.<\/p>\n

The Student Readiness Award recognizes academic accomplishments, college and career readiness and success in extracurricular activities.<\/p>\n

Larson has a 4.2 high school grade-point average and is also on the dean’s list at Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> where he has a 4.0 grade-point average. Larson is involved in extra-curricular activities, including sports and community service.<\/p>\n

During the past year, Larson has been enrolled in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> classes as part of the college’s Running Start<\/a> program. Running Start and other early college options at Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> allow Larson and other high school students to enroll in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> classes and receive dual credit, which count as both high school credit and college credit.<\/p>\n

Preparing for the future<\/h2>\n

Larson is projected to graduate from high school having already completed 36 college credits. He plans to attend The Sage Colleges<\/a> in Albany, New York this fall where he will major in nursing and also enroll in pre-med courses.<\/p>\n

Taking science classes at Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> while in high school helped him choose the medical field for his undergraduate studies, said Larson.<\/p>\n

“I was really able to explore the sciences, anatomy, microbiology, and that led me to wanting to join the medical field,” Larson said. The Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> classes will also reduce the cost of his four-year degree because some of his pre-requisites are already complete, said Larson.<\/p>\n

Jason Cifra<\/strong>, Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr>’s vice chancellor for student affairs, said Larson is a great example of why early college opportunities are provided to students.<\/p>\n

“Derek has used early college courses from Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> to become college-ready, and we are excited that he is being recognized by ACT<\/abbr>,” said Cifra.<\/p>\n

ACT also recognizes Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr><\/h2>\n

At the conference in Honolulu, Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> CC<\/abbr> also received special recognition as the recipient of the “Career Preparedness Award.”<\/p>\n

In announcing the award, the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> ACT<\/abbr> State Organization said, “Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community College made significant strides helping its students prepare for a successful career. Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community College serves as a role model institution for others.”<\/p>\n

For more information about Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community College’s early college programs, visit hawaii.edu\/runningstart<\/a> or call (808) 934-2726.<\/p>\n

—By Thatcher Moats<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

High school student Derek Larson takes Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>
\n CC<\/abbr> courses, honored with statewide college and career readiness award <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[61,828,660,71],"class_list":["post-34412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-hawaii-community-college","tag-running-start","tag-student-recognition","tag-uh-community-colleges","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34412","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=34412"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147900,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34412\/revisions\/147900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}