{"id":41814,"date":"2016-01-12T13:52:12","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T23:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=41814"},"modified":"2020-01-07T13:30:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T23:30:37","slug":"thomas-iannucci-first-waialeale-graduate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2016\/01\/12\/thomas-iannucci-first-waialeale-graduate\/","title":{"rendered":"<span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai\u02bbale\u02bbale<\/span> Project celebrates its first graduate"},"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\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8oW4Nzi_RAg\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>In May 2015, <a href=\"http:\/\/kauai.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Kauai\">Kaua&#699;i<\/span> Community College<\/a> student <strong>Thomas Iannucci<\/strong> graduated with a bachelor of arts in history. He is the first student who participated in Kauai Community College&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/a\/hawaii.edu\/waialeale2015\/\"><span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale<\/span> Project<\/a> to achieve this goal.<\/p>\n<p>Iannucci says he was an underachiever in high school and had no plans to attend college, especially because he was unable to afford it. His school counselor, Joyce Ballesteros, saw his potential and encouraged him to apply to the <span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale<\/span> Project.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I failed a few classes in high school and was a very inconsistent student,&rdquo; Iannucci shared. &ldquo;The <span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale<\/span> Project was a great source of motivation for me. In college, I consistently made the dean&#8217;s list and finished my last year with a 4.0 grade point average. I&#8217;d never dreamt that was possible!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_41819\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-41819\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/kauai-waialeale-iannucci-t.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"310\" class=\"size-full wp-image-41819\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/kauai-waialeale-iannucci-t.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/kauai-waialeale-iannucci-t-260x130.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-41819\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thomas Iannucci<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Helping non-college-bound students succeed<\/h2>\n<p>Established in 2010, the <span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale<\/span> Project finances non-college-bound students to attend, and successfully complete, their first year of college. Statistics have shown that, in comparison with those who have never been to college, people who have attended one year of college make 35 percent more money, are 28 percent less likely to be unemployed and live seven years longer.<\/p>\n<div style=\"float:right;margin:0 0 15px 15px;\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lji1I4B0sq8\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" title=\"YouTube video player\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<strong>Related <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> News video<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2012\/10\/29\/unlikely-students-in-college-thanks-to-waialeale\/\"><em>Students in college thanks<br \/> to <span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale<\/span><\/em><\/a>, October 29, 2012\n<\/div>\n<p>&ldquo;The results of having these individuals attend college will directly impact our economy, community and the overall quality of life for the students and their families,&rdquo; said <strong>Rebecca Yund<\/strong>, <span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale<\/span> Project Coordinator.<\/p>\n<p>Iannucci credits the <span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale<\/span> Project for making a huge positive impact on his life. &ldquo;For one thing, it gave me the opportunity to go to college and get my degree&#8212;something I&#8217;d never have been able to do on my own,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I made some family history last month because I am the first person in my family to graduate college with a four-year degree. That was a very special moment for my family and me.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Iannucci is currently the day manager at his father&#8217;s pizzeria, Pietro&#8217;s Pizza, in Harbor Mall. &ldquo;Being a part of this business venture has been very exciting, and I&#8217;ve been able to use many of the skills I learned in college and through the <span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale<\/span> program in my new job,&rdquo; he stated.<\/p>\n<p>Iannucci is also pursuing his passion for music as a rapper under the name Illtalian. He recently released his first <abbr title=\"extended play\">EP<\/abbr> on iTunes and is working on his next album.<\/p>\n<h2>Growing Impact<\/h2>\n<p>This fall, the <span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale<\/span> Project welcomed its sixth cohort to <span aria-label=\"Kauai\">Kaua&#699;i<\/span> <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr> and has served more than 450 students from ages 18-66. Many of these students attend college while working and raising families. To date, 100 <span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale<\/span> Project students have earned 210 certificates and associate degrees. Eight students are currently pursuing their bachelor&#8217;s degree.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;On behalf of all the <span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale<\/span> Project students, I would like to extend a big mahalo to all of the individuals and organizations who have contributed to the program to make these scholarships available,&rdquo; said Yund. &ldquo;Without the <span aria-label=\"Waialeale\">Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale<\/span> Project, these students would not have attended college. We hope to be able to provide this opportunity to an increasing number of students in years to come, and we welcome additional donations from anyone who would like to support this worthy program.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<em>A <span aria-label=\"Kauai\">Kaua&#699;i<\/span> Community College story, photo and video courtesy of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uhfoundation.org\/gift-impact\/first-waialeale-student-earn-ba\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Foundation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Camilla Matsumoto<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kaua&#699;i <abbr>CC<\/abbr>&#8217;s Thomas Iannucci becomes first Wai&#699;ale&#699;ale student to receive a bachelor&#8217;s degree.<\/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":[64,660,71,319,56,482],"class_list":["post-41814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-kauai-community-college","tag-student-recognition","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-foundation","tag-video-2","tag-waialeale-project","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41814","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=41814"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108741,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41814\/revisions\/108741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}