Molokaʻi Graduation Happens Only Once Every 4 Years

A collegiate graduation ceremony that is held only once every four years on Molokaʻi took place this past Friday, May, 13, 2016.

Between 2012 and 2016, the Molokaʻi Education Center awarded 87 associate degrees, 17 bachelors degrees and 12 masters degrees.  Forty-one of those 116 graduates participated in the 2016 UH Molokaʻi commencement ceremony.

The graduates ranged in age from 17 to 59. Seventy-five percent of them are Native Hawaiian and include three military veterans, three couples and two siblings.  Some of them completed their degrees in two years, while others worked diligently over 20 plus years.

This year’s commencement ceremony also had the youngest graduate ever for the program with a 17-year-old earning her associate degree.  It was also the first ceremony where an associate degree in Hawaiian studies was awarded.

The Molokaʻi Education Center first started offering instruction in 1970 and currently averages 250 students each semester with an average of 80% being of Native Hawaiian ancestry and 75% female.

The center provides a wide rage of credit and non-credit courses, certificate and associate degree programs as part of UH Maui College. It also provides selected courses from other community colleges and receives selected bachelors and masters degree programs from UH Mānoa, UH Hilo, and UH West Oʻahu via UH-ITV.