Class acts: Introducing college graduates of 2002
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
Liane Koanui has been raising a baby, working nights at Costco, working days as an intern at Kawananakoa Middle School and going to class full time for her master of science degree in counseling psychology.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
When she got her diploma Monday night in Chaminade University graduation ceremonies at Blaisdell Concert Hall, it meant she could now look for a job in her field as a school counselor — and her husband, Sam Filipo, could go to law school while holding down his own full-time job.
Hawai'i Pacific University students prepare to receive degrees at the Waikiki Shell. Each wore at least one lei.
"After 9/11, I was more determined," said Koanui, 27, and a Kamehameha Schools graduate. "OK, I really need a degree now to put myself above and beyond."
This week and in the weeks to come, more than 5,400 students from the Class of 2002 at Hawai'i's 17 colleges, community colleges and universities will receive associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in ceremonies awash in lei, balloons, speeches and tears.
It's a class of students, like Koanui, that has felt the need to work harder in facing the reality of terrorism and economic uncertainty at home.
Employers have canceled recruiting trips to college campuses and unemployment rates have risen for college graduates. At UH-Manoa alone, job notices posted at the Career Services Center have fallen by half.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
"Compared to the graduates of five years ago, the class of 2002 has been exposed to a rocky economy for awhile," said Lianne Maeda, director of the Career Services Center at HPU. "As a result they're much more in tune with the potential job market ... and more open-minded and flexible and willing to try different types of opportunities not limited to their area of study."
Edwina Gaea of Kalihi earned a bachelor of science from Chaminade. She has three children.
Pat Nishimoto, interim director of career services at the UH-Manoa campus, agrees.
"They really are rolling up their sleeves and are willing to compromise, to work as a waitress, for instance, while volunteering at the judiciary," Nishimoto said. "They lament to us, 'Oh my God our timing is terrible, this is not a good year to be graduating,' but that's it. They don't sit back and kick back. Instead they're persistent. They get out and find resources. Their antennae are out."
They're putting résumés on the Internet, moving to the Mainland to stay with friends or relatives to pursue job searches; volunteering in their fields even when jobs aren't available. They're willing to bide their time with lesser jobs to rack up experience. They've fine-tuned their educational track to make sure training they get now will give them a fulfilling future.
• Numbers: A breakdown of degrees for the Class of 2002 at Manoa — which totals 1,818 of the more than 5,000 graduates statewide — shows that the College of Business topped the majors with 176 of the 1,121 undergraduates. • Majors: The UH-Manoa graduates offer the most telling snapshot of the student community as a whole and include: 148 teachers; 50 nurses; 45 engineers; 34 architects; 18 social workers; 17 with degrees in fine arts; two musicians and 30 hoteliers. Another 81 earned degrees in tropical agriculture and human resources; 22 in Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific studies; 49 in science that would include computer science and information technology; and a large group of 417 who received bachelor of arts degrees in subject areas that included history, English, political science, sociology, psychology, American studies, communications, economics and East Asian languages and literature. • Advanced degrees: The advanced degrees included 78 lawyers, 52 doctors, 64 social workers, 35 business administrators, 92 educators, 12 accountants, 5 architects and 134 master of arts degrees.
"People want to be sure they're doing something they're going to be happy with (in the long run) and not just settle for anything," said Sandy Ra, a 22-year-old UH graduate in marketing.
Class of 2002 at a glance: UH
Today's students are spending longer in school than those 10 years ago.
"The 18-year-old graduating by the time they're 23 is no longer the norm," said UH dean of students Alan Yang. At Manoa, a majority of the students (63 percent) graduate in anywhere from four to six years, with the highest number taking five years to get undergraduate degrees.
And older students continue to return to school to retool their lives.
At Hawai'i Pacific University, Brandon Hughes, 31, kept his full-time job as a Budget Rent-A-Car branch manager, while earning a bachelor's degree in business "after 13 years." Taking one or two classes a semester, racking up $15,000 worth of debt and counting on his fiance to do the laundry. He wanted to better his chances for top management.
"Now I need my M.A.," he said.
At HPU, Charles Lehuakona Isaacs Jr., 53, finished his bachelor of arts degree in anthropology after 11 years and landed a job as operations manager for the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission overseeing final clean-up and cultural restoration of the island.
At UH-Manoa, Cathy Wood, 37, took her training as a flight attendant flying to Japan and turned it into the study of intercultural conflict as an Asian studies honor student. She has dreams of joining the diplomatic corps after finishing her Ph.D.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
For Grace Quidilla, 32, who is receiving her master of science in nursing from the University of Phoenix, going back to school while holding down a full-time job at Kuakini Medical Center has meant the chance to advance in her profession.
Chaminade graduates hug each other as they leave the Blaisdell Concert Hall, where friends and family await with leis, balloons and flowers following the graduation ceremony.
For Ben Tano, 25, of Brigham Young University-Hawai'i, who will earn a bachelor's degree from the School of Computing — a popular new program on the La'ie campus — graduation means stepping into a job with Hawaiian Airlines, partly thanks to work experience on campus as part of a troubleshooting team.
Phuong Wataoka, 27, is graduating with a master's in education from Chaminade. She and her husband, John, have been working and going to school almost steadily for more than seven years. She has managed to wedge a master's degree and a special education certificate into a life dominated by a full-time job as student services coordinator at Waipahu Intermediate.
"I'll stay there. I want to help students like myself, who felt alienated in school," said Wataoka, who arrived in Hawai'i as an 11-year-old Vietnamese refugee speaking little English. Achieving a master's degree became an obsession.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
With that accomplished, Wataoka says of her husband: "Now it's his turn to go for his master's. While I was going to school we both worked, and now he's going to go to school at night. We couldn't afford for both of us to go at the same time."
Kawananakoa Middle School counseling intern Liane Koanui graduated from Chaminade University with a master of science degree. While studying full time for the degree, she also worked nights at Costco and raised a baby.
Riley Yogi, a 22-year-old jazz musician who graduated from HPU Wednesday with a degree in business administration, used an internship at the Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel last summer as "a chance to prove myself." It landed him a permanent job that starts tomorrow in the hotel's marketing department.
A little older and more seasoned, the graduating class has heaped on the responsibilities of life and stepped up to the tough job of juggling school with jobs and young families.
"Three of my classmates from Roosevelt High have babies and went to UH and are graduating, and I don't know how they did it," said 23-year-old Melanie Kim, a Chaminade graduate with a bachelor of arts major in English and a minor in psychology. "It would have been a lot of stress on me."
International student Meg Sawada of Japan sighed as she sold her textbooks back to the UH bookstore and contemplated the end of seven years of schooling that meant learning a new language and wading through extra years of hotel management before finally settling on psychology, and juggling a work schedule of two days a week at Sea Life Park and an internship five days a week at Dolphin Quest at the Kahala Mandarin.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
"I was so burned out, I missed some classes," the 26-year-old admitted. But it has brought her the job she wants: continuing to work with dolphins, a dream she was at first afraid to pursue.
The stage of the Hawai'i Pacific University graduation ceremony at the Waikiki Shell included flags of the many nations that represent the diversity of the university's student body.
While many in the class have been willing to accrue debt to get the education they want, many also strived for balance. Sawada ended up with $10,000 in credit card and loan debt and Ra has been left with about $8,000 to pay off, but neither feel their load is as burdensome as it could have been.
"It's nowhere near as much as my friends who went to the Mainland, who owe way over $20,000," said Ra. "I weighed out the options (of college on the Mainland), and it would have been too hard, and I would have been burdened with all the loans."
To make ends meet, other graduates are still living with parents or carrying two or three part-time jobs to help pay their way or give themselves a measure of independence and financial flexibility.
While Nishimoto of UH estimates that approximately two-thirds of the class is headed into the job market, the remaining third has plans for more education.
"So many people are getting master's and Ph.Ds to get a better job," said Ra, the marketing graduate from UH. "Most of my friends are going to grad school. My boyfriend is going away to be a physical therapist because there isn't a program here. Another friend is going away to be an optometrist. Several are going to med school. "
Reach Bev Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
