In her third year of school, 20-year-old KCC student Michelle Bonilla is taking prerequisite classes as a pre-nursing major. The Honolulu native initially began her college experience at UH Mānoa in Fall 2017 but after experiencing difficulty due to the competitiveness of Mānoa’s Nursing program and feeling small within the university’s large population of students, Bonilla decided to take a step back and transfer into KCC.

“I realized that sometimes you just have to start small and you just have to do things at your own pace …” Bonilla said.

Since becoming a KCC student, Bonilla said it is easier to communicate with professors and become closer with classmates. This has encouraged her to run for vice president of Student Congress for the 2019-2020 school year being that she hopes to explore new avenues while getting to grow her connections with those of KCC. 

Eventually, Bonilla plans to transfer back to UH to achieve a bachelor’s degree in nursing.