Year: 2018

From Nu’uanu, 20-year-old Dylan Khoe hopes to have a future in animation. Khoe spends his free time drawing digital paintings, making animations, watching anime, and playing video games on the computer. While he finds that painting and making animations are fun, they can get frustrating when things don’t go the way he wants them to so he relaxes in those situations by looking up references or watching some anime or playing his games, mostly Team Fortress 2. He got into digital painting from watching YouTube videos and went from drawing to digital.

Khoe is waiting to apply to the New Media Arts Program with his portfolio at the end of the next semester for the beginning of the next school year. Despite having his hobbies and enjoying what he does, Khoe is also dedicated to learning more about his trade as he studies resources and attends lectures from guest speakers when animators come.

“I’m waiting [to get connections] until I get into the program,” Khoe said. “Right now I’m just looking for knowledge I guess.”

Loreto Mendoza Jr. was born and raised on Maui. He joined the Marine Corps right after finishing high school, in 2012. He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014, for about seven months. When he was there, he did patrols and convoys.

He was also stationed in California for a few years after coming back from South Asia. Mendoza is currently using his GI Bill benefits to further his education as he decided to end his active service. He’s working towards the Radiologic Technology Program at KCC.

“[The military] gave me a lot of opportunities, education-wise. … I had to grow up fast. I was a 20-year old, 19 year-old in charge of guys who were 25-year old guys.”

In his free time, Mendoza enjoys spear fishing.