{"id":136172,"date":"2021-02-25T13:32:48","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T23:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=136172"},"modified":"2021-02-25T13:34:31","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T23:34:31","slug":"uh-hilo-alum-thrives-in-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/25\/uh-hilo-alum-thrives-in-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr>  Hilo alumnus, now employee thrives in agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_79891\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2YsdRBLikFY?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"UH Hilo Vulcan V.I.B.E. - Jake Rodrique\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>An academic support specialist at the <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at Hilo\u2019s<\/a> Agricultural Farm Laboratory in <span aria-label=\"Panaewa\">Pana&#699;ewa<\/span> once thought college wasn\u2019t the place for him. But that all changed for <strong>Jake Rodrique<\/strong> through the guidance of a few extraordinary people. He now holds both bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from <abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr>  Hilo, and is thriving in the field of agriculture.<\/p>\n<p>Rodrique grew up in Lahaina, Maui, and enjoyed spending a lot of his time in nature. <\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_136177\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-136177\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hilo-rodrique-j-1-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Rodrique standing by a pond\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-136177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hilo-rodrique-j-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hilo-rodrique-j-1-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hilo-rodrique-j-1.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-136177\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jake Rodrique (Photo by Norman Arancon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;Growing up I loved the outdoors. I grew up not too far from the ocean and enjoyed the marine world, but also loved going holoholo up in the valleys and the mountains,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Lahainaluna High School had a strong agriculture program that fostered in Rodrique a growing fervor for the field. He tended to a wide array of plants and animals including microgreen beds, eggplant, bananas, goats, pigs and horses.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;These experiences led me to the epiphany that the best food came from the best grown plants and animals, and that solidified my agricultural life path,&rdquo; Rodrique said.<\/p>\n<h2>Early support<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_136179\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-136179\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hilo-rodrique-j-mushroom.jpg\" alt=\"man holding mushroom\" width=\"250\" height=\"350\" class=\"size-full wp-image-136179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hilo-rodrique-j-mushroom.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hilo-rodrique-j-mushroom-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hilo-rodrique-j-mushroom-93x130.jpg 93w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-136179\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jake Rodrique holds a half-pound mushroom from one his harvests  at the <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo Agricultural Farm Laboratory. (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This budding passion for agriculture wasn\u2019t the only deciding factor in Rodrique\u2019s post-high school plans.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I was not going to attend college. I did horrible on the <abbr title=\"Scholastic Aptitude Test\">SAT<\/abbr> and I had no money,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>These feelings of discouragement might have led him down a completely different path had it not been for the philanthropic support of the late Frances Hinton.<\/p>\n<p>Hinton suggested he attend <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Maui College for a semester to test the post-secondary education waters. If he enjoyed that experience, she wanted to have another conversation with him about going to a university.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;She wrote me a check for $5,000 dollars and sent me on my way,&rdquo; said Rodrique. &ldquo;Safe to say I ran all the way home crying.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Rodrique did exactly as Hinton requested. After completing his first semester of college, he knew for sure that he wanted to aim higher and attend a university-level institution. Hinton then funded his entire undergraduate experience at <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo.<\/p>\n<p>Rodrique said the program encompassed the whole gamut of agriculture he was looking for, incorporating everything from horticulture to aquaculture, chemistry to biology, and agricultural business to financial accounting.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The degree was exactly what I was wanting, which was diversity, and the ability to create a cyclical agricultural process that could give me the base foundation for my path of regenerative agriculture,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Rodrique graduated with his bachelor of science in agriculture in 2014.<\/p>\n<h2>Extraordinary mentors<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_136178\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-136178\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hilo-rodrique-j-conference-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-136178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hilo-rodrique-j-conference-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hilo-rodrique-j-conference-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/hilo-rodrique-j-conference.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-136178\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">While a student at <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo Jake Rodrique, second from right, traveled to North Carolina with Professor of Horticulture Norman Arancon, at right, to attend a vermicompost conference in 2018. (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After a couple of years of teaching on Maui, he decided to sign up for the <a href=\"http:\/\/tcbes.uhh.hawaii.edu\/\">tropical conservation biology and environmental science master\u2019s program<\/a> at <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo, after a conversation with Professor of Horticulture <strong>Norman Arancon<\/strong>. A very influential mentor, Arancon <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/keaohou\/2013\/03\/19\/arancon-horticulture\/\">pioneered research in the utilization of earthworm-worked soil amendments<\/a>, referred to as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uhhiloag.org\/home\/resources-and-facilities\/vermicomposting-and-composting\">vermicomposts<\/a>, in increasing the growth, flowering and yields of plants.<\/p>\n<p>While a student in the graduate program, Rodrique traveled to North Carolina in 2018 with Arancon to attend a vermicompost conference. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I remember feeling like a star because I was the graduate student of one of the leading vermicology experts on the planet,&rdquo; Rodrique said. &ldquo;It was an experience of a lifetime.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Before finishing up his master\u2019s degree in fall 2020, Rodrique was hired to work on the beekeeping program at the university\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/academics\/cafnrm\/farm_map.php\">Agricultural Farm Laboratory<\/a> with Professor of Entomology <strong>Lorna Tsutsumi<\/strong>. He now manages the university\u2019s 40 hives and is the point person for students during labs where he facilitates learning and research needs.<\/p>\n<p>He assists with faculty research projects and outreach projects for various crops such as papaya and sugarcane. Rodrique has also found success as an independent farmer. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;My wife and I have started our farming adventure by growing mushrooms,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We are steadily supplying Island Naturals [health food store in Hilo] with pink oyster mushrooms weekly, and need to increase our production to meet the demands.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Rodrique is thankful to get paid doing what he loves on the farm, and is especially grateful to those who fertilized his ambitious dreams.<\/p>\n<p>He said, &ldquo;I get to watch my ideas burgeon, and flourish, or decay depending on the end goal. It\u2019s all around just a fun place to be.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/chancellor\/stories\/2021\/02\/18\/alumnus-jake-rodrique\/\">Read more in <em><abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;By Kiaria Zoi Nakamura, a <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo student<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caring mentors, philanthropist made Jake Rodrique\u2019s career in agriculture possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[222,90,232,14,907,56],"class_list":["post-136172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-agriculture","tag-alumni","tag-tropical-conservation-biology-and-environmental-science","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136172"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136174,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136172\/revisions\/136174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}