This compilation show features some of the top stories from the fall semester of the 2018-2019 school year. Each of the stories presents a variation on a theme that has become a hallmark of HIKI NŌ storytelling: empathy.

This special edition features stories from the Middle School Division of the 2018 HIKI NŌ Fall Challenge. On October 19, 2018, ten participating high school teams and twelve participating middle school teams were given four days to complete a HIKI NŌ story based on the theme “the story behind the food”.

TOP STORY   Students from Konawaena Middle School and Konawaena High School in Kealakekua join forces to tell the story of the Dancing Goat Sanctuary on Hawaiʻi Island. The sanctuary is situated on an organic farm and is dedicated to providing abused, orphaned and abandoned goats with a safe environment in which to thrive.

HIKI NŌ presents the last of its four-part Class of 2018 Specials, in which outstanding HIKI NŌ graduates 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.

TOP STORY Students from Kapa‘a High School on Kaua‘i tell the story of Vietnam War veteran Bobbie Paik, a Purple Heart recipient who suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A major source of Mr. Paik’s PTSD was the fact that twenty-two soldiers in his company were killed during the six months they were together.

TOP STORY Students from Wai‘anae High School in West O‘ahu tell the story of Matthew Reyes Jr., an enterprising young pig farmer who helps his parent run Reyes’ Hog Farm in Ma‘ili. Matthew is so dedicated to his family’s business that he sacrifices any semblance of a social life.

TOP STORY Students from Maui High School in Kahului present an inspiring story about Keizhawn Daquis, a Maui Waena Intermediate School student who was born with spina bifida, a birth defect in which a developing baby’s spinal cord fails to develop properly. As a result Keizhawn needs a wheelchair to get around.

TOP STORY   Students from H.P. Baldwin High School on Maui trace a fellow student’s road to recovery after he was hit by a drunk driver. In May 2017, Baldwin senior Jerome Ribao suffered a severe leg injury from the accident. Despite this setback, Jerome found ways to remain active.

TOP STORY   Students from Maui Waena Intermediate School in Kahului, Maui, profile urban farmer Larry Yonashiro. After a thirty-year career as an I.T. professional, Yonashiro wanted to return to his family’s farming roots (his father worked on a pineapple plantation), but in a modern way.

TOP STORY   Students from Wai‘anae Intermediate School in West O‘ahu tell the story of Leihali‘a Panui, a female place-kicker and senior at Kamehameha Schools Kapalama who played on the school’s men’s varsity football team during the 2017 season.