Scholar: Allyson Ijima
School: Kapi’olani Community College
Hometown: Kaneohe, Hawaii
At the beginning of senior year in high school, I solidified in my head a plan for my college years. It went something like this: After graduation, I would attend Paul Smith’s College (in upstate New York) for four years, where I would major in business with a focus on entrepreneurial studies. While attending school, I would find time to give back to the CFES program. Then I would graduate with my bachelor’s degree in spring 2014.
When I received my acceptance letter from Paul Smith’s on New Year’s Eve of 2009, I was determined to put my plan into action. But as the second half of senior year started, obstacles arose that would delay my opportunity to attend a Mainland college. I was crushed to learn that I had missed the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s deadline to apply for the fall semester, and that I would be attending a community college instead. I still wanted to experience college in a distant setting, and now that meant the other side of the island. Thus in fall 2010, I officially became a Kapi’olani Community College student.
Although community college had not been my intended plan, I still took learning seriously and was not going to let anything, even the name of a school, affect my plan for academic success in college.
Now that it has been almost two years, I do not regret any part of MY college experience. During my two years in college, I have learned to balance my time for work, school, and play; switched my intended major three times; met (and probably will continue to meet) amazing people; been invited and joined the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society; and started the first-ever HEROES program within the Hawaii CFES schools – and I still found time to mentor CFES Scholars in the various schools here!
My new plan is to either take all the classes I can for another year and then transfer, or graduate from Kapi’olani Community College with my associate’s degree in New Media Arts, with a focus on Interface Design (fancy talk for “graphic arts”). Either route I choose will lead to additional course work at one of my two current choices: the University of Alaska in Anchorage or California State University in Northridge. I will graduate with at least a bachelor’s degree in Art, with a concentration in Digital Art/Graphic Design. I currently do not have a “college graduation date” goal, but I do know that I want to start my career by the time I am 24 years old (basically, I am giving myself five years to complete this plan).
The most important lesson about college that has been etched into my brain and that I can share with future college students is, your college experience is what you make it – no matter which school you choose to attend. It does not matter whether the higher education institution is private or public, in state or out of state, two years or four years. College is college!
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