This is the final episode of a special series in which outstanding HIKI NŌ graduates from the Class of 2020 gather together to discuss their HIKI NŌ experiences and how they feel the skills they learned from HIKI NŌ will help them in college, the workplace and life. They also discuss their disrupted senior year of high school and thoughts on the future as they transition into adulthood during a worldwide pandemic.

This episode features Kehaulani Bringas, who graduated from Kalāheo High School on Oʻahu, and is now a Liberal Arts major at Windward Community College on Oʻahu; Gerald Salud, who graduated from Kauaʻi High School and remains on Kauaʻi, while taking online classes from Biola University in California as a Cinema and Media Arts major; and Heather Osterstock, who graduated from H.P. Baldwin High School on Maui, and continues to live on Maui while taking online classes from the University of Washington in Seattle as a Biochemistry major.

Due to travel restrictions and social distancing guidelines, their conversation took place via Zoom, with HIKI NŌ Class of 2018 graduate Marlena Lang (now a journalism major at Biola University) serving as interviewer.

In the show, Kehaulani discusses her experience creating a story about Kinai ʻEha, a non-profit organization in Windward Oʻahu, that teaches trade skills to disadvantaged youths. Gerald talks about what he learned from working on a story about Mālama Hulēiʻia, a conservation group based on Kauaʻi. Heather reflects on what she gained from working on a story about a fellow classmate who was holding down multiple part-time jobs to help his family make ends meet.

HIKI NŌ 10|22|20: HIKI NŌ Class of 2020, Part 4

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HEATHER OSTERSTOCK (HIKI NŌ graduate from H.P. Baldwin High School on Maui): I think the part of HIKI NŌ that I’m taking with me into college is how to listen to other people and take their advice into account when making decisions. I’m listening to my parents and other teachers that I’m still in contact with and other college students to figure out how I’m going to make this semester work. I need to be really self-directed, which is another thing that HIKI NŌ showed me how to do, because no teacher is going to do it for me and no teacher is going to tell me when to do it.