{"id":89296,"date":"2019-01-08T14:08:17","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T00:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=89296"},"modified":"2020-01-09T13:42:08","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T23:42:08","slug":"villanueva-academic-olympian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/01\/08\/villanueva-academic-olympian\/","title":{"rendered":"东精影业<\/abbr> West O\u02bbahu student rose from struggling immigrant to Academic Olympian"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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In December, Villanueva spoke at Governor David Ige\u2019s inaugural celebration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

University of Hawaiʻi<\/span>–West Oʻahu<\/span><\/a> junior Leanne Aira Villanueva<\/strong> remembers feeling forlorn as a fifth-grader, having gone from being one of the top five performing students at her school in the Philippines to being a troubled student at August Ahrens Elementary School in Waipahu.<\/p>\n

“It was a shock for me,” said Villanueva of her move to a new country. Determined to succeed, she approached teachers for tutoring and put in time after school learning to overcome her difficulties.<\/p>\n

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Leanne Villanueva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Flash forward to earlier this year, when her story caught the eye of Hawaiʻi<\/span> Governor David Ige, who posted to Facebook. “Despite being a young immigrant, Villanueva worked hard to get to where she is today because she is determined to realize a successful future someday,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

Villanueva is recognized as an Academic Olympian—she earned an associate of arts degree from Leeward Community College<\/a> through the Early College program, graduated as a Waipahu High School valedictorian with a 4.1 GPA<\/abbr> and is now studying business administration at 东精影业<\/abbr> West Oʻahu<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Early College program<\/h2>\n

In high school, Villanueva committed to an Early College program after hearing Mark Silliman, Waipahu\u2019s Early College director, speak about the opportunity to earn a college degree at no cost while in high school.<\/p>\n

“It really appealed to me,” she said. It was still an arduous path to take–Villanueva found herself at school from 8 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m. working on her high school class homework prior to college classes beginning later in the day.<\/p>\n