  {"id":206178,"date":"2024-11-06T14:42:45","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T00:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=206178"},"modified":"2024-11-15T10:36:04","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T20:36:04","slug":"high-school-freshmen-explore-careers-uh-west-oahu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/11\/06\/high-school-freshmen-explore-careers-uh-west-oahu\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of high school freshmen explore careers at <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> West O\u02bbahu"},"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\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_206180\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-206180\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/west-oahu-career-fair-0224.jpg\" alt=\"Tents with students and employers on the lawn at U H West Oahu\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-206180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/west-oahu-career-fair-0224.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/west-oahu-career-fair-0224-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/west-oahu-career-fair-0224-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-206180\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image credit: Kiran Polk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Nearly 2,000 high school freshmen explored career opportunities with about 50 businesses as part of the Kapolei Chamber of Commerce\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kapoleichamber.com\/student-career-expo\/\">5th annual West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> Student Career Expo<\/a> in October at the <a href=\"https:\/\/westoahu.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span>&#8211;West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Students from seven schools in the region engaged with industry leaders and professionals\u2014across healthcare, energy, agriculture, trades and more\u2014and had the opportunity to interview them to discover fields of interest and potential career fits. They included freshmen from DreamHouse \u2018Ewa Beach Charter School, Island Pacific Academy, Kamaile Academy, Kapolei Charter School, and <span aria-label=\"Waianae\">Wai&#699;anae<\/span>, James Campbell and Kapolei high schools.<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr> West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> Chancellor Maenette Benham said it was important to welcome the students to campus.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Many of our students are coming from homes that may not have the option or the thought that college is a place for them, and so coming to our campus first and foremost, provides them with the opportunity to see that this place can be their home after they graduate from high school,&rdquo; Benham said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The Career Expo is more than a networking event&#8212;it\u2019s a crucial step toward strengthening the talent pipeline in our community,&rdquo; Kapolei Chamber of Commerce Executive Director and <abbr>CEO<\/abbr> Kiran Polk added. &ldquo;We\u2019re bringing businesses and students together to spark inspiration and real conversations about what lies ahead in each career field. Events like this directly support students in envisioning their future careers.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Originally launched by the Kapolei Chamber in 2018, the West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> Student Career Expo reflects the chamber\u2019s dedication to preparing students for higher education and creating a 21st-century workforce. Through this initiative, the chamber also serves as a career hub for West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>, working in close collaboration with educators, employers and job training programs to provide students with meaningful mentoring, internship and employment opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>For more visit <a href=\"https:\/\/westoahu.hawaii.edu\/kaloinews\/?p=21677\"><em>Ka Puna O <span aria-label=\"Kaloi\">Kalo&#699;i<\/span><\/em><\/a>.<br \/>\n<em>&#8212;By Zenaida Serrano Arvman<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Students engaged with leaders across healthcare, energy, agriculture, trades and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-206178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-uh-west-oahu","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206178","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=206178"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206471,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206178\/revisions\/206471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}