"Project Runway," move over. It's time for "Project Freshman" — Island edition.

Three University of Hawai'i-Manoa freshman are making video diaries of their transitional year as part of the AOL online series "Project Freshman," available only on AOL's RED, a Web site for teens.

This is the second season of the Emmy-award winning Web series, which is geared to teens age 13 to 18, to give them a taste of what it's like to go to college.

The UH trio are Bri Lagat-Ramos, Sarah Riordan and Elliot Winter, all dorm residents at the school. They beat out students from Pepperdine, Tulane, University of Las Vegas and 14 of their UH classmates for the honor of blogging — in words and video — on these important first few months.

"We're lucky," said Lagat-Ramos, who graduated from Moanalua High. "It just started to get to be a lot of work, 'cause I've got midterms going on. But I love it."

She wants to keep up the quality of the previous season, when she saw people from other colleges showing real-life campus antics, such as a Tiger Run (through the pillars) or a game of dorm dodgeball.

"I wanted to do that, but our towers are one circle," she said. "We don't have a long hallway."

With the other two UH students hailing from the Mainland, Lagat-Ramos takes seriously her role as the sole local voice.

"Being local, it's extra pressure," she said. "I have friends who are more local than me, and it's hard to say my point of view, when theirs is more real. But I'm the only one, so I represent all. It's like a basketball game, when you're down one point and you have the last shot. That's kinda how I feel."

While she hasn't received any comments on her blog yet, she also hasn't been trumpeting the experience to family and friends, though she does explain what she's doing when a curious onlooker approaches her while she's filming.

Partly, what she's doing is laying low, because her parents initially were concerned about Lagat-Ramos sharing her life on the Web.

"When I told them the news the night (I was chosen), they didn't sound too enthusiastic on the phone," she said. "My mom started lecturing me about the Web not being a safe place. But I explained I wanted to do this, and it would help other people out who are going to do this later on. She's (more OK) with it now."

Just how revealing is she?

In her first video diary entry, which went online last week, Lagat-Ramos talks about staving off the freshman 15, why she chose Hawai'i and her hopes for the future.

Her blogmates are more extreme, in the tradition of "reality" programming: Riordan, a blond, self-proclaimed party girl from Rhode Island, is having roommate trouble; Winter, from Kentucky, notes that Hawai'i's bevy of beauties has not escaped his notice.

It's not a teen free-for-all, however: Tracy Orillo-Donovan, who serves as UH broadcast manager, oversees the project. The group meets with her each week.

Does Orillo-Donovan monitor content?

"We try not to," Orillo-Donovan said. "It really is about the freshman experience. We really try to be hands-off."

Introductions to the trio have been posted online, and a new video entry from each appears weekly.

In exchange for their diaries, the three receive a stipend of $250 per week, in addition to equipment and accessories, including a high-definition video camera, boom mike and car charger.

"They have everything they need to do a documentary," Orillo-Donovan said, "and they get to keep it at the end."