{"id":74340,"date":"2018-02-05T14:04:11","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T00:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=74340"},"modified":"2019-03-19T13:45:48","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T23:45:48","slug":"come-back-to-manoa-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/02\/05\/come-back-to-manoa-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Second time\u2019s the charm for students to complete their degree at <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa"},"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\"> 3<\/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\/-HfAEs-3iBA?rel=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Among the 900 graduates who earned a University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> degree in December 2017 was <strong>Miles Nishikawa<\/strong>. Nishikawa is not a traditional student, having left school in 1985 to work full-time. He returned last year through the Outreach College\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.outreach.hawaii.edu\/credit\/come_back\/\">Come Back to M\u0101noa<\/a> program to finish his studies and earn his degree in psychology.<\/p>\n<p>Come Back to M\u0101noa reaches out to eligible undergraduate seniors who voluntarily departed <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa before completing their first bachelor\u2019s degree. Students in this situation most often cited personal reasons, financial concerns and academic issues as a reason for leaving. Others were near completion but unable to finish degree requirements.<\/p>\n<p>Since the program was initiated during summer 2014, more than 1,962 students who left <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa were identified as in good standing with a significant number of completed credits&#8212;but without a degree. Given the statistics that show the value of a college degree, helping these students complete their education is one of the main goals for the Come Back to M\u0101noa program.<\/p>\n<p>Of the identified students, 384 (more than 19 percent) responded, 168 became active in the program, and 113 students&#8212;more than two thirds&#8212;graduated, with another 17 on their way toward completing their degree.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_74359\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74359\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/manoa-outreach-come-back.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/manoa-outreach-come-back-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-74359\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/manoa-outreach-come-back-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/manoa-outreach-come-back-630x353.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/manoa-outreach-come-back.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-74359\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miles Nishikawa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>A success story<\/h2>\n<p>Nishikawa stumbled across the Come Back to M\u0101noa website in a pursuit of new interests. He found out most of his credits were transferable and he would need only one year of classes. <\/p>\n<p>Designed to fit around participants\u2019 employment and family schedules, Come Back to M\u0101noa also helped him overcome his fear of returning to school and the experience inspired him to explore different opportunities. Nishikawa supported his knowledge in the classroom by participating in internships at Kalihi-P\u0101lama Health Center and volunteering with at-risk youth at the Kalihi <abbr>YMCA<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The Come Back to M\u0101noa program was encouraging because it provided for me the opportunity to enroll the very next semester,&rdquo; said Nishikawa. &ldquo;It was designed according to my schedule and basically it was very non-intimidating.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It tells people like myself that they\u2019re not quitters or they\u2019re not giving up on their education,&rdquo; added Nishikawa.<\/p>\n<p>Come Back to M\u0101noa coordinator <strong>Shannon Johnson<\/strong> sees the program as being most helpful by acting as a single point of contact to help students navigate the final hurdles to graduation in a non-judgmental environment.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What I do see in Miles that I often times see in other students that I\u2019m working with through this program is the interest, the excitement about learning coming back,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;I\u2019m here to assist them in whatever way they need. I can help them navigate the system. I can review their records with them.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Johnson provides one-on-one coaching and advocacy to help identify a plan for the student\u2019s quickest path to graduation. She provides individualized support to discuss course programs, financial status, and semester registration to help students overcome barriers to completion.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_74366\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74366\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/manoa-outreach-come-back-castro.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/manoa-outreach-come-back-castro-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"One student working on an art project and one student at a laptop\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-74366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/manoa-outreach-come-back-castro-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/manoa-outreach-come-back-castro-630x353.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/manoa-outreach-come-back-castro.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-74366\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amilia \u201cMimi\u201d Castro (left)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Second time\u02bbs the charm<\/h2>\n<p>For <strong>Amilia &ldquo;Mimi&rdquo; Castro<\/strong>, the second time was the charm. In 2015, Castro stopped attending <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa when her commute from Waianae became a challenge. Castro met Johnson through a knitters group. At Johnson\u2019s recommendation, Castro reached out and by spring 2017, Castro was attending <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa full-time, and is pursuing her degree in art.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I think what\u2019s most valuable about this program is that you feel like you have someone specific helping you, it\u2019s not just this anonymous email or like a mailing bot,&rdquo; said Castro. &ldquo;So, it just feels like a really personal experience that helped me feel so much more comfortable coming back and it\u2019s almost like a support system within <abbr>UH<\/abbr> helping me.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We tried to innovate this program so that the students would be very successful at the program and finishing their degrees,&rdquo; added Outreach College Dean <strong>William &ldquo;Bill&rdquo; Chismar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.outreach.hawaii.edu\/credit\/come_back\/\">Come Back to M\u0101noa website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Come Back to M\u0101noa reaches out to eligible undergraduate seniors who voluntarily departed <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa before completing their first bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12],"tags":[204,49,9,56],"class_list":["post-74340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","category-video","tag-education","tag-outreach-college","tag-uh-manoa","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\/74340","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=74340"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92980,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74340\/revisions\/92980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}