Aloha!
Mahalo for visiting Native Hawaiian Student Services! Our programs and services are designed to support the approximately 2,600 Hawaiian students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the largest body of Hawaiian students in any post-secondary educational institution in the world. Our 1,900 undergraduate and almost 700 graduate Hawaiian students (including 135 PhD students) are pursuing the 90 different majors available at our Research I institution.
Native Hawaiian Student Services (NHSS) prepares Hawaiian students to build upon a legacy of excellence, with creativity and confidence, in order to fulfill the kuleana of their time, thereby leading Hawaiʻi into a thriving, life affirming, de-occupied future. Our programs are designed to improve institutional access, student-faculty engagement, research, leadership, and success, by fostering Hawaiian identities and cultivating Hawaiian scholarship.
Growing Hawaiian leaders
Strengthening Hawaiian research
Empowering the Lāhui
As such, the learning outcomes we have articulated for our student program participants and the larger university are:
- Students recognize they are a part of and have kuleana to continue a legacy of Hawaiian intellectual and professional excellence.
- Students are able to recognize social, economic and political contradictions and take action to provide informed solutions.
- Students access institutional resources and support services and are able to navigate the University system and the degrees offered within–from “K” through Kuleana.
- Students actualize the concept of aloha ʻāina as a methodology for their research for moving Hawaiʻi toward a life-affirming de-occupied future.
- University system acknowledge (and is materially committed to) its complicity in the occupation of Hawaiʻi and the institutional barriers that have resulted in limited access to higher education for Hawaiian students.
Our programs are designed to highlight the fact that higher education is not new for us, as we have always been scholars, scientists, navigators and leaders. Our students, then, are invited to continue our Hawaiian intellectual genealogy, side-by-side with other Hawaiian students and the over 100 Hawaiian faculty on our campus. Throughout our programs and services, we create experiences that intentionally engage Hawaiian identity because we believe it is integral to supporting student success. As such, we strive to provide co-curricular learning experiences that help to build leadership, life balance, and community among our students. Whether you are thinking about college, already in college, ready to return to college, or preparing to enter into the workforce we are here to help you succeed. We strive to provide you with a variety of opportunities to engage in higher education wherever you happen to be on your educational journey.
If you are unable to find what you are looking for on our website, please do not hesitate to call us. We are here to support you!
Me ke aloha,
Willy Kauai, Ph.D.
Director of Native Hawaiian Student Services