As we begin this new year, let us take a moment to reflect on 2025. During the 2024-2025 academic year, the University of Hawaiʻi awarded 2,086 degrees and certificates to Native Hawaiians. As of Fall 2025, there are 12,618 Native Hawaiians enrolled.
There are so many accomplishments by students, faculty, staff, and administrators, to programs, community outreach, and engagement to highlight. Here are a few:
- Hear personal testimonies on YouTube from Native Hawaiian community college students fulfilling their kuleana: Cathryn Krueger, Hawaiʻi CC; Kamananui Anderson, Honolulu CC; Melanie Camat, Kapiʻolani CC; Hiʻilani Cremer, Kauaʻi CC; Stevie Puna, Leeward CC; ʻAleʻa Kimokeo, UH Maui College; Kauakaweli Haili-Nakamoto, Windward CC.
- UH Hilo honored Mary Kawena Pukui with a panel that coincided with Women’s History Month and her posthumous selection as a 2025 honoree for the U.S. Mint’s Native American $1 coin.
- The Hawaiian collection at the UH Hilo Edwin H. Moʻokini Library was named the Edith Kanakaʻole Hawaiian Collection.
- UH West Oʻahu hosted a two-day ʻAha Hoʻoponopono with 300 haku hoʻoponopono, social sector professionals, aloha ʻāina practitioners, and community members.
- UH Mānoa’s Hawaiian Theatre program celebrated its 10th anniversary with its latest Hawaiian language production Puana, and an invitation to perform at the Kia Mau international Indigenous-led performing arts festival in Aotearoa.
- Windward CC extended its Hawaiian studies program to paʻahao incarcerated at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona, with 25 students enrolled in their first course.
- Haʻina Ko Wehi: Celebrating West Maui in Mele a project by students from UH Maui College’s Institute of Hawaiian Music was named Compilation Album of the Year at the 2025 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards.
- Honolulu Community College hosted a two-day Indigenous education symposium ʻAha Kūkalahale 2025, uplifting Hawaiian knowledge funded by the Kūkalahale Title III Grant and in partnership with Kanaeokana and Pacific Rim Concepts.
- UH Mānoa Native Hawaiian Student Services’ Hawaiian Youths Abroad program Japan took a cohort of 13 students and 6 faculty/staff to explore Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, while retracing connections between the Hawaiian Kingdom and Japan.
- Kuiokalani L. Gapero succeeded Ernie Kaʻaumoana Wilson Jr. to the UH Board of Regents for a 5-year term.
- Winners of the Board of Regents Medal for Excellence in Teaching included: Mapuana Antonio (public health associate professor, UH Mānoa); Ashlee Kalauli (math instructor, Hawaiʻi CC); Tracie Kuʻuipo Losch (Hawaiian studies professor, Leeward CC); Mehana Kaʻiama Makaʻinaʻi (Hawaiian studies instructor, UH Mānoa); Peter Kalawaiʻa Moore (Hawaiian studies professor, Windward CC); and Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio (political science associate professor, UH Mānoa).
- Kenny Kaʻaiakamanu-Quibilan received the UH Mānoa Pākela Award for being an outstanding academic advisor.
- Shayla Spotkaeff, a business management major and undergraduate research assistant at the Center for Oral History received the UH Mānoa Student Employee of the Year Award.
- Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law at UH Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law celebrated 20 years.
