In this episode of HIKI NŌ on PBS Hawai‘i, the first of two special episodes, meet six exceptional graduates from HIKI NŌ’s Class of 2024 as they share their experience being part of HIKI NŌ productions and reflect on what they learned.
Dillon Catlett and Denise Cabrera, graduates from Wai‘anae High School on Oʻahu, look back at their media program journey. For Denise, it began at Waiʻanae Intermediate School when she interviewed Dillon as part of a story about the school’s robotics club.
Since then, both of them have gone on to contribute several pieces to HIKI NŌ on PBS Hawaiʻi as well as host the show.
Catlett will attend University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to major in computer engineering and Cabrera will attend Yale to study computer science.
“I love the idea of HIKI NŌ,” said Cabrera. “The way that students are able to produce professional work and learn things in the trade, especially in journalism, I think it’s amazing to have that, especially as a student with a dream.”
Alys Tolentino and Samuel Paci, 2024 graduates from H.P. Baldwin High School on Maui, shared the studio to talk about their whirlwind high school careers which were affected by a global pandemic and devastating fires. Storytelling became a point of healing for both of them, they said.
Tolentino, who lost her grandmother during the COVID-19 pandemic, produced a touching HIKI NŌ Personal Narrative about how she coped.
“I don’t really express my feelings that much,” said Tolentino. “So, it was way tougher to write this Personal Narrative about myself. And I learned a lot through this. I actually had to film, edit everything on my own… Every part of the process is like, part of me, and I enjoyed it.”
Paci produced a HIKI NŌ Profile story about his step-father, who was one of the firefighters called to duty during the Maui wildfires in August 2023.
“This entire town just burned down, and (with it) so much history,” said Paci. “But the news articles — they don’t really exemplify that. And when you hear it from someone who personally grew up in Lahaina and has so much heritage like, ingrained in there, and then hearing his perspective, I feel like it’s just a totally separate thing that brings a lot of value to the conversation.”
Paci is headed to the University of Portland to study communications and Tolentino plans to attend University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa with a focus on film and Korean language.
Tamar Wachi and Kiara Haid, 2024 graduates from Hawai‘i Technology Academy on Oʻahu, also shared stories about their growth personally and in the media production field during their high school careers. With each HIKI NŌ Challenge they entered, they felt more encouraged to strive to do better the next one.
“I myself learned what my own strengths were when working with a group, and I also got to learn more about my group members and how they work, and I was able to take that knowledge and apply it to future group competitions,” said Haid.
Wachi said producing stories for the show during the school year outside of the competitions was also a ripe time to learn from real professionals.
“One of my favorite parts about working with HIKI NŌ is getting to work with the mentors in post-production,” said Wachi. “I think that’s a really valuable resource for pre-professional students like us, and we’re just really grateful to get to work with mentors like him.”
In addition to producing stories for HIKI NŌ and competing in Challenges, Haid and Wachi used the skills they learned through HIKI NŌ to produce a feature documentary project for the National Museum of American Indian with the Smithsonian Institution.
Wachi is headed to Ithaca College in New York as a television and digital media production major and a Park Scholar this fall and Haid will attend University of Hawaiʻi West O‘ahu for film production.
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