Hawaii Community College — Palamanui held a drive-up commencement ceremony Saturday with 106 students graduating.
There were 68 students who graduated through the University Center, West Hawaii. This is where they are enrolled in an academic program at another UH campus, but can use the student support services at the University Center at the Palamanui campus.
Among graduates, there were eight students who were part of a pilot program in Automotive Mechanics Technology, the first of its kind in the state.
The program is a partnership between Kealakehe High School, Hawaii Community College, Hawaii P-20 and Kona area auto shops.
The students started taking “dual credit” automotive mechanics classes three years ago as juniors at Kealakehe. By the time they graduated from Kealakehe last year, they had already completed half of the associates degree in Automotive Mechanics from Hawaii CC.
“Dual credit classes have become pretty common but this was/is unique because it’s Career and Technical Education, cohort-based, and leads to a career-oriented associate degree,” said Thatcher Moats, external affairs coordinator Hawaii Community College
This past year, they completed their degrees through work-based learning at Kona area automotive shops, plus English and Chemistry classes at Palamanui.
The program was developed to meet the needs of West Hawaii students and the local automotive industry. Due to the distance from Hawaii CC’s Hilo campus where the AMT program is based, few students on the west side of the island enroll in AMT, leading to a shortage of qualified automotive technicians in the area.
This was a unique way to provide Career and Technical Education to local students and address the shortage of local auto technicians in Kona.
Also noteworthy is graduate Kymani Alani, who received two associate degrees and a certificate at Saturday’s commencement. She will be graduating Saturday from Konawaena High School.