Author: Lexus Yamashiro

Makaʻa Watson is a first-year student attending KCC majoring in Liberal Arts. From Honolulu, HI, the 17-year-old decided to come to KCC after struggling to get accepted to UH Mānoa over this past summer. Beyond this challenge, Watson’s decision in attending KCC was also influenced by the several great aspects that he has heard about the campus, the affordability for tuition, and how small the campus is.

Watson is taking five classes this semester and enjoys how straightforward his professors are with the learning material. Once he earns his Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Arts, Watson is hoping that it will help transition him into a Pre-Engineering major at UH Mānoa or another university.

Tevin Reiger is a first-year student attending KCC majoring in Business. Reiger chose to attend KCC because of its convenient location and closeness to home, and also because he felt that starting off at a community college rather than a university was ideal.

When he earns his business degree, Reiger, who is openly gay, hopes to open up a restaurant similar to Hooters that would be made comfortable for anyone of the gay community. He explained that at night, the restaurant would turn into a nightclub setting that would host drag shows and more.

“Another business that I kind of want to open is a place where gay teens, and just teens in general who are under the age of 18 or 18 and under, can go have fun and be themselves but in a safe environment,” Reiger said.