Author: Lexus Yamashiro

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. 

Kaycee Fujiyama is a first-year KCC student. The 19-year-old ʻAiea native is in the Occupational Therapy Assistant Program, focusing her studies specifically for elderly people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Her decision to choose this major was based on the interest she drew from doing service-learning as a volunteer at ʻAiea Heights Senior Living where she realized she enjoyed working with elders.

“I decided that I wanted to help [elderly people] and I kind of wanted to encourage them to do things to make sure that they live a happy life,” Fujiyama said.

Though her service-learning project is finished, Fujiyama said she continues to volunteer at the care home.

During her free time, Fujiyama does karate, arts and crafts, and plays the alto saxophone in the band at UH Mānoa. Fujiyama said she plans to transfer to UH Mānoa within two years and is considering looking into the nursing department there. 

Gunner Woundy is a 24-year-old KCC student wrapping up his pre-requisites in order to transfer to UH West Oʻahu to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Business Management. Having already received an associate degree in Culinary Arts, the Honolulu native said he drew an interest toward the culinary field since he learned how to cook from his grandmother.

Anticipating the transfer to UH West Oʻahu, Woundy said that he hopes to learn about how to effectively run a business in the culinary field. Woundy hopes to open one of his own small shops or a big company in the future.

Woundy works as a baker at Hy’s Steakhouse in Waikīkī where he enjoys being able to whip together desserts and cakes. During his free time, Woundy enjoys experimenting with food recipes, his specialties being in sandwiches and baking.