{"id":215847,"date":"2025-05-13T14:49:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T00:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=215847"},"modified":"2025-05-17T22:23:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T08:23:17","slug":"uh-manoa-grad-on-path-to-heal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/13\/uh-manoa-grad-on-path-to-heal\/","title":{"rendered":"Fueled by family, focused on care: M\u0101noa grad on path to heal"},"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_215855\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-215855\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-commencement-spring-2025-fiaseu-sarah-2.jpg\" alt=\"2 woman waving Shaka\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-215855\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-commencement-spring-2025-fiaseu-sarah-2.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-commencement-spring-2025-fiaseu-sarah-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-commencement-spring-2025-fiaseu-sarah-2-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-215855\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarah Fiaseu with Grandma Siupolu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sarah Fiaseu arrived at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M&#257;noa thinking she\u2019d pursue nursing. But her heart and her grandma Siupolu led her somewhere else.<\/p>\n<p>Now a graduating <a href=\"https:\/\/coe.hawaii.edu\/krs\/programs\/hes\/\">kinesiology major<\/a>, the <span aria-label=\"Ewa\">&#699;Ewa<\/span> Beach native is preparing to become an occupational therapist. Her passion stems from a deep desire to help her grandmother, who helped raise her and her siblings but has since lost some mobility with age.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I have patients who kind of remind me of her,&rdquo; Fiaseu said. &ldquo;I want to help my grandma get back into health so she\u2019s more independent.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/tag\/commencement\/\">Meet more amazing <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> spring graduates<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Real-life impact<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_215856\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-215856\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-commencement-spring-2025-fiaseu-sarah-3.jpg\" alt=\"2 people doing physical therapy \" width=\"250\" class=\"size-full wp-image-215856\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-commencement-spring-2025-fiaseu-sarah-3.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-commencement-spring-2025-fiaseu-sarah-3-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-commencement-spring-2025-fiaseu-sarah-3-87x130.jpg 87w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-215856\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vice Provost Laura Lyons during a session with Fiaseu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At <abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr> M&#257;noa, Fiaseu said she found purpose and preparation through hands-on programs like <a href=\"https:\/\/coe.hawaii.edu\/krs\/cancer-exercise-rehabilitation-internship\/\">I CARE<\/a>, which pairs students with cancer patients for strength and mobility training. The initiative is a partnership between <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> and the REHAB Hospital of the Pacific.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&#8217;s very good to hear that what I&#8217;m doing helps them. And they see that in their daily lives,&rdquo; Fiaseu said. &ldquo;It makes me happy because it\u2019s working and it gives me hope.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>One of her patients is Laura Lyons, interim vice provost for academic excellence at <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> M&#257;noa and a thriving breast cancer survivor.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Sarah pushes me in our training sessions, always saying, &lsquo;Come on, you\u2019ve got this!&rsquo; More than that, though, she inspires me,&rdquo; Lyons said. &ldquo;She is grounded in her culture, intellectually and physically brave, emotionally attuned, and always willing to try new things.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Guided by gratitude<\/h2>\n<p>Fiaseu\u2019s graduation also marks a proud family milestone. Inspired by her grandparents Liuato and Sarah Tuitele who have made a name for themselves back in American Samoa, and their unwavering support for her future career. She\u2019ll be a second-generation <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> M&#257;noa graduate, following her mom. And she honors her father, who left school at an early age to support his family and later worked overnight shifts while ensuring his kids made it to school each day.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He would get off at 2 a.m., come back home, take us to school, come back home again, just to pick us up later. It was super hard for him,&rdquo; Fiaseu said.<\/p>\n<p>This summer, Fiaseu heads to Missouri for graduate school. But her goal is to return home to serve <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> as an occupational therapist, carrying forward her family\u2019s sacrifices, love for her grandparents and the values of <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> M&#257;noa that helped her grow.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_215854\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-215854\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-commencement-spring-2025-fiaseu-sarah-1.jpg\" alt=\"people at high school graduation\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-215854\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-commencement-spring-2025-fiaseu-sarah-1.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-commencement-spring-2025-fiaseu-sarah-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-commencement-spring-2025-fiaseu-sarah-1-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-215854\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fiaseu, second from left, with her parents and siblings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sarah Fiaseu shares what inspired her path to becoming an occupational therapist while pursuing a kinesiology degree at <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> M&#257;noa.<\/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":[95,234,868,9],"class_list":["post-215847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-college-of-education","tag-commencement","tag-kinesiology","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215847","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=215847"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216172,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215847\/revisions\/216172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}