HAWAIIAN STYLE
Hawai'i's UNLV students feel they never left home

By Wade Kilohana Shirkey

Garrett Carpio's handle on his e-mail address reflects his dual homes: "seven02eight08."

College students Garrett Carpio and Mahina Sniffen have made Las Vegas their home away from home.

Like local-kine restaurants, slippahs and saimin, college students from Hawai'i such as Carpio are increasingly making Vegas their home away from home.

Lured by the comfortable familiarity, about 700 students from Hawai'i are attending the University of Nevada-Las Vegas this fall, said Tom Flagg, UNLV director of news and public information.

Carpio, a 22-year-old senior from Moanalua, first experienced Las Vegas during small-kid time. "Vegas was a family thing," he said, "all the aunties and cousins joining in for Vegas vacations" such as grandfather's birthday and family reunions.

When it came time to decide whether to go away for college, even his grandparents urged him, "Go Vegas!"

From day one, he said, "Everything clicked. I just loved the independence."

Fellow Kamehameha grad and UNLV student Mahina Sniffen, 26, said she moved because Hawai'i is just too slow. "I was bored in Hawai'i. (During Vegas vacations) I was so impressed by the lights and fast-paced environment. There is only so much you can do in Hawai'i," said Sniffen, who is from Makakilo.

She taught at elementary schools in Ma'ili and Wai'anae after graduating from UH, teaching largely Hawaiian populations. She is quick to admit not only a closeness to her 'aina, but a responsibility to it and its people as well.

"I knew many of my students had little parental support," she said, and felt that by venturing beyond the Islands she could serve as a role model. "I wanted them to look at me as a Hawaiian that could succeed." Vegas, and UNLV's master's program in education, beckoned.

The urge to leave gnawed at her, and this year she "dropped everything, midyear" and headed for the familiar lights of Vegas.

"The decision hit my parents hard," she said — until they realized they now had an excuse to visit Vegas regularly.

"You can tell Hawai'i people at first glance," Sniffen said. "They jus' bus' out da pidgin ... and all the (Hawaiian) bracelets. Chicken skin!"

Even non-Hawai'i friends, Carpio said, discern a certain warmth and gentleness among the Island students at UNLV, and gravitate to the camaraderie of the group.

Then there's the draw of the food, he said. Chicken katsu, Spam musubi. More times than not, he said, it's the Mainland students who make the jaunt with them across the street from campus to grind at Aloha Kitchen.

Carpio and Sniffen agree the essential draw to college in Las Vegas is you never really left home, said Carpio, who is president of the UNLV Hawai'i Club. "The people, the food, the culture. Everything you have back home, they say, you are surrounded by in Vegas now.

"When Kapena came, you've never seen so many Hawaiians in one place," he said. "And they all knew the words to the songs.

"We joked that you don't have to go to Hawai'i to go home anymore," he said. "And I think (the) school has really catered to us," adding the likes of rice and loco moco to the Dining Commons menu.

But then there's the big question: Can you go home? Both cite the high cost of living in Hawai'i and expanded opportunities on the Mainland as reasons for staying a while. With a wide range of new friends, many from the Islands, "I sorta feel I have family here," Carpio said.

"I struggle," Sniffen said. "Everyone asks the same question: 'How could you leave so beautiful a place?' I always promised if I went back, it would be to give back to the Hawaiian community, specifically to Pauahi, perhaps teach at Kamehameha.

"But I'm not homesick yet. I miss family, but Vegas is growing on me. I think if I were to go back now, I'd want to be back here."

Carpio agrees: "When I go back to visit, Mom catches me referring to Las Vegas as 'home.' "

Mom soon may, too. "Now, Mom's bought her retirement home here," Carpio said.

The Advertiser's Wade Kilohana Shirkey is kumu of Na Hoaloha No'eau o Ka Roselani hula halau at Kawaiaha'o Church. He writes on Island life.