Year: 2018

86-year-old Carl Wheeler can be found in the library as a math tutor at the study hub. Wheeler started teaching math in classrooms back in 1956; he’s taught everywhere from Mid-Pacific Institute, Punahou School, and even Kapiʻolani Community College.

He retired from teaching in the classroom in 1997 and started tutoring because he said he has time to do it, he can be of help, and he likes math. Wheeler chose his field of teaching when he was in junior high school and while he tried other things he was always coming back to teaching math in the end.

Wheeler also provides private tutoring at $60-70 an hour, though that is rare these days, or for free if it is family or friends. While private tutoring has its benefits, he prefers tutoring at KCC as there is more variety. More students come from a variety of math courses in which he can help.

“Language, what do the words mean. The meaning of words,” Wheeler said. “How it helps one understand. … I’ve long held the belief if one understands why a particular word is chosen for a concept one understands the concept better, and I stick that in my teaching all the time.”

From Kapolei, Tim Phillips is a 19-year-old in his second-year at KCC. Initially having entered KCC as a Nursing major, Phillips decided to pursue his studies in Psychology instead after taking a class in the subject during his first semester in Fall 2017.

Finding Psychology to be an interesting field of study, Phillips hopes that what he learns will help him to find a career in the medical field. Despite being undecided in a specific future job, Phillips said that his decision to go into medical work is based upon his idea of wanting to help people and make a difference in the community.