{"id":79931,"date":"2018-05-15T16:36:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T02:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=79931"},"modified":"2020-08-03T12:17:11","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T22:17:11","slug":"senator-kahele-hawaii-cc-commencement-keynote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/05\/15\/senator-kahele-hawaii-cc-commencement-keynote\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Kahele challenges Hawai\u02bbi <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr> graduates to chase dreams with \u201creckless abandon\u201d"},"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\/Sm9FB3NYIiM?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" frameborder=\"0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>State Senator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.capitol.hawaii.gov\/memberpage.aspx?member=kkahele\">Kai Kahele<\/a> encouraged about 250 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community College<\/a> graduates to chase their dreams at the college\u2019s commencement ceremony on Friday, May 11, at the Edith <span aria-label=\"Kanakaole\">Kanaka&#699;ole<\/span> Stadium in Hilo. Kahele, who represents the greater Hilo area, delivered the keynote speech to a capacity crowd that included graduates, friends, family and <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr> faculty and staff.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_79958\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-79958\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/hawaii-commencement-kahele-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/hawaii-commencement-kahele-3-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-79958\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/hawaii-commencement-kahele-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/hawaii-commencement-kahele-3-630x353.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/hawaii-commencement-kahele-3.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-79958\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left to right, <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr> Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Dorinna Cortez; <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr> Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Joni Onishi; Sen. Kai Kahele; Regent Douglas Shinsato; <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr> Chancellor Rachel Solemsaas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kahele described his own journey from a kolohe (Hawaiian for mischievous) teenager who did poorly in school to a student at <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr>, then University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo and ultimately <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa, where he was part of the men\u2019s volleyball team that made it to the national championship.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If there is one thing I hope you take from my story, it\u2019s that anything is possible,&rdquo; said Kahele. &ldquo;You only live once, so dream big dreams, have a powerful vision of what you want to accomplish, set goals to bring it to fruition and then chase it with reckless abandon.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Kahele also told graduates that the greatest joy that they will ever feel is the joy of helping others succeed.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 675 students graduated from <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr> in spring 2018, an 11 percent increase from spring 2017 and the second highest total ever. The youngest graduate was 17 years old and the oldest was 73.<\/p>\n<h2>More about <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr>&#8216;s Early College graduate<\/h2>\n<div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b5ZaNjQwSh8?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Craig Okahara-Olsen earned his associate in arts degree a week before he is set to earn his high school diploma from Wai\u0101kea High School. Okahara-Olsen is the first <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island student to earn his associate degree through Early College classes taken as a high school student.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kahele, who represents the greater Hilo area, delivered the keynote speech to a capacity crowd that included graduates, friends, family and <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr> faculty and staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,12],"tags":[234,61,71,56],"class_list":["post-79931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-video","tag-commencement","tag-hawaii-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\/79931","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=79931"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93429,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79931\/revisions\/93429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}