Aster Sarte will be a KCC student in the Fall 2017 semester, returning to school after a nearly 10-year hiatus. Aster was born in the Philippines but moved to Madrid, Spain before he was a teenager. Though he spent much of his youth in Madrid, Aster is a die-hard Barcelona futbol fan, all despite having grown up next to Real Madrid’s stadium and hearing the roar of those fans during home games. At age 19, Aster moved again – this time west to California where he studied filmmaking in college.

After spending time working in film, Aster surprised his friends (and maybe himself) when he decided to join the armed forces. He saw combat overseas, returning to California and filmmaking after his tour of duty. Now, living on O’ahu, Aster will be taking a variety of classes in the realm of sustainability. He has taken a permaculture and design course outside of KCC and wants to increase his knowledge base in that field. On switching from his former role in the armed forces to working with plants and harvesting crops, Aster laughed candidly, “part of it is healing, too. In a way, because of course, all the damage that I’ve done in the military. [War] is the total opposite.”