{"id":230638,"date":"2026-03-10T15:24:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=230638"},"modified":"2026-03-11T16:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T02:51:07","slug":"hissi-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/10\/hissi-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"东精影业<\/abbr> Community Colleges celebrate innovation, community at Student Success Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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From left, Lui Hokoana, Guy Kawasaki and Wendy Hensel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 950 faculty and staff from the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> Community Colleges gathered at the Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort on March 6 for the annual Hawaiʻi<\/span> Student Success Institute<\/a> (HISSI<\/abbr>). This year\u2019s theme, “Embracing Change, Shaping the Future,” focused on how campuses can adapt and innovate in a rapidly evolving higher education landscape.<\/p>\n

Participants attended breakout sessions featuring practical strategies, innovative teaching approaches and leadership ideas designed to support student success across 东精影业<\/abbr>\u2019s seven community colleges.<\/p>\n

Keynote speaker Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur, former chief evangelist of Apple and 东精影业<\/abbr> advisor, presented “The Future of AI<\/abbr> and Human Creativity,” encouraging participants to embrace artificial intelligence as a tool to enhance creativity, learning and problem-solving. He shared practical advice on how faculty, staff and students can become “remarkable” by pursuing their interests, staying curious and using AI<\/abbr> to create unique and valuable contributions.<\/p>\n

“This event is a call to action for our faculty and staff to embrace change and shape the future of learning,” said Lui Hokoana, interim vice president for the 东精影业<\/abbr> Community Colleges.<\/p>\n

Change agents, community builders<\/h2>\n

The event also highlighted the achievements of faculty and staff through the 东精影业<\/abbr> Community Colleges Wo Learning Champions<\/a>, an initiative that supports professional development across 东精影业<\/abbr>\u2019s two-year institutions.<\/p>\n

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Change Agent Award: From left, Scott Wo, Nancy Wo, Ashley Wo, Vincent Kimura, Chris Pokipala, Corey Adler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Change Agent Award, which recognizes innovation in teaching and service delivery, was presented to the first-place team of Vincent Kimura (Leeward CC<\/abbr>), Stephanie Furuta and Waynele Yu (东精影业<\/abbr> Mānoa<\/span> College of Education); Juli Chun (东精影业<\/abbr> Community Colleges); Kalani Lum (TheBus); Hahn Fuata (Teamsters); and Julie Saldania (City and County of Honolulu, Department of Facility Maintenance) for addressing Hawaiʻi\u2019s<\/span> CDL<\/abbr> (commercial drivers license) driver and examiner shortage by developing master trainers, expanding training capacity, standardizing curriculum and strengthening a culturally grounded workforce pipeline.<\/p>\n

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Community Building Award: From left, Scott Wo, Nancy Wo, Ashley Wo, Lexer Chou, Sanford Low, Erica Lei Balbag-Gerard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Community Building Award honors initiatives that strengthen connections across campuses, the 东精影业<\/abbr> Community Colleges system and local communities. This year, two first-place awards were presented.<\/p>\n

The first went to Leeward CC<\/abbr> Professor Lexer Chou and the IM<\/abbr> LeeGaming student assistants—Azriel Burcham, Bryce Alexander, Tyler Hudson, Lee Kobashigawa, Zachary Gray, Chester Ceredon and Kainoa Kaeha—for creating a welcoming, student-centered gaming space at Leeward CC<\/abbr> that fosters belonging, well-being and student retention.<\/p>\n

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Community Building Award: From left, Scott Wo, Nancy Wo, Ashley Wo, Mary Ann Esteban-Geil, Maiana Minahal, Tracey Arakaki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second award went to Kapiʻolani<\/span> CC<\/abbr> Professor Mary Ann Esteban-Geil for building a culturally grounded STEM<\/abbr> learning community that connects Kapiʻolani<\/span> CC<\/abbr> students with local elementary schools through kaʻao<\/span> (story)–framed, hands-on service learning that integrates Indigenous knowledge and strengthens community partnerships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

东精影业<\/abbr> Community College learning champions utilize AI<\/abbr>, train commercial drivers and build better student futures.<\/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":[1602,61,62,63,64,65,71,14,9,60,947,59,66],"class_list":["post-230638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-ai","tag-hawaii-community-college","tag-honolulu-community-college","tag-kapiolani-community-college","tag-kauai-community-college","tag-leeward-community-college","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-manoa","tag-maui-college","tag-uh-system","tag-uh-west-oahu","tag-windward-community-college","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230638","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=230638"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230708,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230638\/revisions\/230708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}