Bridging the Gap between Hawaii High Schools and CTAHR

As the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, we have been working to bridge the gap between Hawaii High Schools and CTAHR.  During my time in this position, I have learned that Hawaii high school students know very little about CTAHR if anything at all.  And upon doing more research, I learned that the number of Hawaii high school graduates who enroll in CTAHR has declined by 10% in the last ten years, while the number of mainland students who attend CTAHR has increased by 13% in the previous ten years. 

More recently, Hawaii P-20 has shared that the college-going rate for the Hawaii Class of 2020 shows a decline from 55% to 50% for Fall 2020 from the previous year.  And further analysis revealed that our state’s most vulnerable populations are experiencing more significant difficulties – mainly Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students (a decline from 44% for Fall 2019  to 35% for Fall 2020).  But why?  There are many theories out there, but we can take this information and use it to help our Hawaii students now.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how we recruit students into CTAHR.  While we shifted to a virtual format for most events, we continue to work towards our goal of 1) working with CTAHR faculty and undergraduate programs to develop recruitment plans and materials, 2) working with CTAHR alumni to build partnerships with our local stakeholders, and 3) executing virtual high school presentations for Hawaii high schools.  Here are some exciting projects and collaborations our ASAO Office and Gene-ius Day have to help with Hawaii student recruitment.