HIKI NŌ 1222 [intro music plays] [sound of beach waves] Aloha.

Welcome to the second episode in a two-part series on Outstanding Graduates from the HIKI NŌ Class of 2021.

I'm Frances Uy, a proud HIKI NŌ alumna from Moanalua High School’s Class of 2021.

I'm also the HIKI NŌ Assistant Editor here at PBS Hawai‘i.

In last week's episode, we introduced you to four out of the eight Class of 2021 honorees selected by their media teachers.

Tonight, you'll see the unique ways in which HIKI NŌ changed the lives of four more graduates: Ethan Morse from Farrington High School on O‘ahu, Chazz Coppa from H.P.

Baldwin High School on Maui, Hope Kanoa from Kalāheo High School in Windward O‘ahu, and from Kaiser High School in East Honolulu, Sam Tiwanak, whose HIKI NŌ experience came late in his senior year and set him on a course to pursue his life's passion.

At the beginning of the school year, I was in a computer science class and, I guess I really, it didn't really click with me.

So, during the pandemic, of course, I was creating a lot of videos and I really developed a more of a passion for it.

So, I had, uh, known about the video production class, at my high school.

So I decided to join it just because I wanted to do something more that I enjoyed.

And I was already kind of struggling with the new online classes.

So my teacher, uh, Ms. Misi, introduced me to HIKI NŌ, for the first time during my senior year, and, uh, I thought it would be something that I would be interested in doing.

So, I said, “Well, hey, this, this seems really cool.” I guess she was kind of impressed with the work I did and didn't know that, I guess, uh, since I was in the first level of class, but I kind of had been practicing, making my own short little films.

So, she had told me about a student reflection I could do for, uh, HIKI NŌ.

When COVID hit at first, it was very hard to adjust to.

I know for a long time, it was.

A HIKI NŌ Student Reflection is essentially a mini documentary, in a way, about yourself.

Uh, maybe an experience you're going through or, or just experience in your community that's related to you.

It's something really, it's a story that connects with you that I think is really personal.

So, I got started on the HIKI NŌ student reflection by creating a pitch sheet that went through a few changes.

It was originally the rough idea of a friend of mine in senior year going through a difficult time.

It wasn't about me totally, yet.

What helped me turn around the story was HIKI NŌ had assigned me a mentor, Ryan Kawamoto, and he was cool to work with.

He's a great guy.

I know he's a director.

And yeah, so he would give me feedback on the scripts that I would write as a preparation for the shoot.

And then, eventually, I met him on Zoom.

Ryan had told me that the, the guys up in PBS were like, “Hey, we need something more about you, but, we liked what you're doing here.

But, we’d appreciate it if you could create a piece that's personal to you.

And, we think that would really connect with people.” And yeah, so that's what really clicked.

It was to create something personal to me.

And so I just had to think about the story that I already created.

I just wanted to maintain what that story was.

It was already there, but, um, I needed to make it more focused from my perspective.

After giving Sam the initial feedback about his student reflection, Sam was extremely responsive and very diligent, and he, he took what we said to heart and went back, looked at it and, you know, came back to us with a completely different piece and he, he made it his own and he made it personal and he, he told us his story.

And, as a mentor, that's a really great feeling to see that light bulb go off when your student gets it and, and figures out how to tell that story.

That was actually really helpful.

It was, it was new to me and, uh, it really gave me an idea of how maybe the industry might edit their videos.

I thought it was really interesting to me.

It improved the way I, um, was able to pace the story.

The feedback from Ryan I felt, I really appreciated it.

I definitely was busy in school.

I was kind of like, “Oh man, like, uh, I messed this up again.

I have to go fix this.” So, I have to email him like, “I, I fixed it.

Here's the next cut.” But no, yeah, I agreed with all the suggestions that he made.

I think it really improved the overall final product.

As a HIKI NŌ mentor my job really is to offer constructive criticism and to take a look at the rough cuts along every step of the way, whether it be, you know, how to tell that story better by leaving very specific comments or examples, or it can even be technical things, like how to frame your shots better, or how to record better audio.

So, you know, Sam took all of these things into account, and really was able to improve things both on the technical level, but more importantly, just on the story level, to make the story more about himself.

Oh, this project was definitely different than anything I'd ever created before because it was for an actual organization.

Everything else was for myself.

I do think collaboration is necessary because collaboration really opens you up to a new idea.

Someone else might have an idea that you may have never thought of, and it brings a new perspective that could really improve, uh, your creative piece.

I think the hardest part was, uh, shooting my lines that I had to memorize, and I get to say it a certain way like, ‘This is, this is my student reflection.

I'm recording this on so and so date.’ So, if I messed it up, I'm gonna have to retake that.

And then, um, sometimes I would, you know, they would want me to redo it.

So I was like, I finally got it.

But maybe my head was in the wrong spot in the frame.

So yeah, I mean, it was, it can be frustrating at times, but I understand, uh, why they wanted me to fix it.

Because there's a standard to set you know, for broadcast.

…We find experiences to help uplift us.

Hopefully this story was able to uplift seniors, or anyone going through a difficult time during this pandemic.

This is Sam Tiwanak from Kaiser High School, for HIKI NŌ.

I think it's really important that student stories are able to get out and people are able to hear them.

I think that it will help other students possibly relate.

But even a parent might be able to understand maybe, maybe this is what school is like now, you know.

I know that a lot of kids don't really tell their parents what's going on in school.

They’re kind of just, they're like, “Oh, I don't want to have to explain all this.

But if you can see this, maybe through a HIKI NŌ broadcast, you might get an idea of what it's like.” As a mentor, my impression of Sam as a storyteller is that, you know, Sam is on his way to becoming a great storyteller.

Yeah, I think that HIKI NŌ process has really, uh, helped me understand what it's like to collaborate and work with a, a larger company even, uh, like feedback from mentors and everything like that, um, I, I wouldn't have got if I never, uh, had done HIKI NŌ.

So in the fall, I'm going to be going to UH Manoa and I’m going to be majoring in digital cinema, because I have a real interest in film.

And hopefully it'll help me gain some experience and knowledge to possibly, hopefully become a film director someday.

[Violin music plays] Ms. Roy’s approach with us as students, like, going through video and digital media, like, it's very interesting.

Like, she drills us, and she makes us like, to a point where like, we have the story that we want, and like, we cut it down, we edit it to where it's the important parts that we need.

And then she always told us rules like more b-roll is better than none.

And she always had this rule, or this is like, her number one rule, is if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

And that was just something that inside her class, it was like, religiously lived by.

Ms. Roy, she was talking to me during lunch this one time, and she turned to me she was like, “You're working right?” And I was like, “Yeah,” and she goes, “Do you want to, do you want to do a story?” And I'm like, “A story on me?

Miss, I'm not really that interesting.” And she kind of turns it on me.

She was like, “Everyone has something interesting about them.” And that's how “Chazz’s World” was made.

We were struggling on top of rent and stuff.

My parents, they had like, uh, they had a flat tire in the beginning.

So then they needed to buy new tires, and I had 400 in cash that I was going to pay my grandma with, but then I gave it to them because they needed new tires.

And then the following, after, they were behind on rent and cable needed to be paid.

So, I ended up giving them another $800 to support that.

Along with loss of free time, taking on additional jobs takes a toll on a student's mental and physical health.

At first, like I said, I was like, there isn't really much of a story about me.

But through, like, filming and making it and with the final product -- Ms. Roy showed me the final product and I was like, maybe there actually was a story about me that I just didn't really see.

Because he's been stressed, and I mean, I've talked to him many times about it, you know, we've had our talks, and, and I understand, like, he's stressed out and everything, and he has all his struggles, and he deals with a lot of stuff.

Despite these struggles, Chazz remains optimistic, determined to finance his family and his future.

You know, that story was about the, um, the fatigue, the exhaustion on a kid who should be living the most exciting, fun time of his life.

I mean, it must be hard for you to see that.

It was heart wrenching.

I'm pretty sure Ms. Roy told me that the panel was crying and stuff, and it had a really huge impact on them.

But I'm honestly really grateful that it could have an impact on people, that my story can have an impact on people, and that they can see how things are, not just from their point of view, but from others that are struggling.

And maybe, and hopefully, it can lead to like, solutions to problems that we’ll have.

And that's just my only hope for it.

[Music plays] Humans are difficult to understand.

We have a conscience that allows us to think freely, move freely, speak freely, and we can just about do everything we ever dreamed of.

My state of mind was, like, all over the place.

And um, at the time, this was after my grandma had passed.

So there was just a lot going on, like a lot of emotions.

So, I was just, there were a lot of questions that I had for myself, and I was trying to figure it out.

Like, and a lot of them were like identity questions like, who am I?

And who will I turn out to be?

Will I become this person that I imagined five years ago?

Why do we overthink?

Just causes stress and unnecessary feelings to be present.

In a few months, I'm leaving for the mainland to pursue a better life.

But I'm quite scared.

I'm scared that I won't find what I'm looking for.

Although, what I'm looking for does not exist yet.

I think that like, creating a story, during a hectic time that I was going through, it was actually really beneficial because it was a way for me to like, vent, and express how I was feeling and what I was going through at the time.

And the fact that I can put it into a video for other people to see, it was, I don’t know, I think it's cool.

I'm really appreciative of, like, the HIKI NŌ platform.

Like, it, like, it does give us, uh, a place where we can tell our stories and not just like, tell our stories, but we can also grow from them.

And it's a way to like, connect to others and how we can reach out to one another.

And I think that's like, really awesome.

[Music plays] My four teammates and I, um, a group of four, we had four days to complete this HIKI NŌ challenge, and the prompt was kuleana, which means responsibility in Hawaiian.

It was very challenging for us to complete, because obviously making a story in four days is pretty hard.

And in the brainstorming process, we kind of were stuck.

We couldn't think of anything that involved responsibility that we really wanted to make a story of, or that people might be interested in.

Or that might have like, an important message to tell to everyone.

But, um, Kehau, brought her idea up, and that was her sister, Kamalani, that passed away in 2013.

So she said that it would be okay for her to talk about that, and she really wants to talk about it.

For Kalāheo High School’s story, we chose to do the story on a tragic death that happened in my family, which was the death of my sister due to a drunk driving crash.

And she and her family obviously went through a really hard time with this, but I'm glad we were able to share their message.

It was their first time that they actually like, really talked about it and brought it to other people's attention because Kehau’s mom does a lot of work with MADD, uh, Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

But this was the first time she talked really personally about her experience, um, with her daughter and, um, the first time that Kehau has really talked about it with them.

She was an amazing child.

Very easygoing, very smart.

She was a four-star gold Dolphin at Kainalu Elementary in sixth grade, and she was in eighth grade, her final year when the accident happened.

Well, I would like to go back six years ago, my, my life had changed drastically.

On May 5, 2013, my daughter was killed, Kamalani was killed in a car accident.

A drive, drunk driver.

She was with her friend, and her friend's father.

On the way home from Waikiki, they got into the accident up in the Pali.

For this video, I was mainly the editor, but I did help out, help out with some of the script writing and, um, camera work, but mainly the editor.

Um, I just, it was really hard for me to do this because I've known her since she was a kid.

We've went through a lot of stuff together, and, uwe were in fourth grade when this, accident happened.

And I just remember like, it being like, a really big deal because her sister used to go to our elementary school, Kainalu, and, um, it was just a huge thing, you know, little, little elementary school.

But yeah, and it was really hard for her to get through, um, but now we kind of want to just talk about it to prevent this from ever happening again, because we've experienced it and we -- I wouldn't wish this upon anyone.

My role in the production was that I was the cameraman, and I actually interviewed my parents.

It was just really awkward at first, but after a while, it felt like my bond grew close with my parents.

And now like, they're really proud of what we've made.

I'm so grateful that PBS and HIKI NŌ allows us to tell our stories and to tell these experiences, because a lot of the times we see people and they have stories to share, but we will never know if we don't give them a platform to share it on.

And so, for the kuleana video, um, about drunk driving, it's very important to spread that message that drunk driving is very irresponsible and can cause lives to be lost.

According to the Department of Transportation, in 2017, more than half of drivers involved in fatal crashes in Hawai‘i had tested positive for alcohol and/or drugs, accounting for 73 deaths.

All it takes is one time to just destroy someone's life.

It's still affecting us in our lives today.

It's, it’s never gonna go away.

When getting behind the wheel, it becomes your kuleana to remain focused and clear-headed.

Making the conscious choice to not get behind the wheel when intoxicated can ultimately save lives.

To avoid drunk driving, you can call for a ride from a friend or from a driving service.

Take responsibility and drive safely.

This is Sora Cheng from Kalāheo High School for HIKI NŌ.

So in the fall, I'm attending University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and I'm going to be studying environmental science with teacher certification.

So, I'm planning to be a science teacher.

From my HIKI NŌ experience, I feel I've learned a lot of real life skills that are very applicable in science.

So, um, science is very collaborative, and PBS HIKI NŌ is very collaborative.

I have to work with a team of four people and create something in four days.

Like, we're pretty much family that four days.

So, um, working together and working under a time crunch is something that is pretty much applicable to any field today.

Um, you can't go through life just working by yourself, I feel.

You're going to always meet people and you're going to always have to work with people.

So, having this experience in high school and making me more comfortable working around people is definitely going to help me in my career path.

Our next Outstanding Graduate from the Class of 2021 was bitten by the filmmaking bug early on in life, years before the start of his HIKI NŌ experience.

From Farrington High School in Kalihi, here is the irrepressible Ethan Morse.

[Music plays] So, these people on YouTube are also making movies.

I always thought they were movies.

I was like, I have to learn how to make this.

And that's basically how it started.

I just started in that, um, digital media program, and I just kept building myself up learning new things, all the way up until I met Ms. Ego in Farrington, and she introduced me to HIKI NŌ.

She asked me, she saw the work I was doing and said, “Would you like to help out one of my teams here to make a HIKI NŌ story?” And it was my first one.

It was about, um, the Little Leaguers, uh, how they were missing local food.

4,800 miles away from home, all originating from different backgrounds and cultures, but have a single thing in common.

These 14 boys grew accustomed to the food and lifestyle of what many call a mix plate.

So we are, yes, we are given a prompt.

And when I first heard about having only four days, I was a bit taken aback.

I was like, four days?

It takes us an entire week to make a minute of our videos here in class.

But of course, Ms. Ego egged us on, and so, four days to make a story around whatever prompt we're given.

It was stressful, like really stressful during the four days that we had to do it.

And it was, it was still a really big learning experiences because I learned a lot more how to quickly set up shots and how to quickly plan things and how to like, having to connect those two plot points together like, the Little Leaguers and food, actually be able to do that also taught me like, I can do this and that.

Like, it helped a lot with the writing process as well as I went along.

And it was just afterwards, we were all just so relieved and pretty proud of ourselves.

And we came out of that thinking like, we could definitely do better next time we do this, something like this.

Just to get to break bread with people that we've never met before.

Uh, but through food we got to know each other way better.

In our mix plate of cultures, food did help this team bring the aloha spirit not only on the field, but off the field.

So my teacher, Ms. Charlene Ego.

I have so much to thank her for ‘cause no matter how many times we would feel like you've given us, given us so much to do, Miss, or giving us too much to do.

It's like, as a teenager, of course, we have that feeling of too much work, why you gotta make us do this?

But after all of that, like in, being in her digital media, and then her advanced broadcast media class, having her expect so much from us and having her, having her make us do so much, it's like she pushed us in a way that we would be too lazy to push ourselves to.

Like, she always made sure we didn't do it, like, halfway.

We, she always made sure to encourage us to go all the way, no matter how annoyed we felt, and she should make us feel like an energy that would just feed into what we do.

Hey, I'm Ethan Morse, a junior from Farrington High School, and I'm speaking to you from my humble home in Kalihi.

Now, thankfully, I'm actually doing quite well during this COVID-19 crisis.

But... With, um, reflecting and filming it and putting it out there, it's another way of expressing.

It's another way of just venting what we're thinking instead of just keeping it in, like it's gonna go away, I can keep this in.

It's like when you write into a journal and just leave it there.

But this one, it's going out into the world and in that second half of like, letting other people see it.

I think it's therapeutic in a way to have other people see that they're thinking the same thing, that you're not alone in feeling down about this entire crisis at all.

Due to quarantine, I lost the ability to make wonderful memories with my friends and make the most out of my senior year.

To think about, think back to the challenges I faced during those reflections, it was mainly, for that first reflection, the big challenge was really what I had to work with.

I had no tripod to work with.

I literally had to use three buckets and the stand of a photo to put my phone onto to film everything.

It was just, that's what COVID-19 brought, just a lack of resources to use and places to go.

But I don't, I, I don't think back on it, like, with a hint of hate.

I just looked back as I'm grateful ‘cause now I had to work through all those little challenges, and now I'm just thinking, “Huh, you know, now if I ever want to film anything, I know what I need to do.

I know that I'm going to need my bucket.” My name is Ethan and I'm a senior in high school.

And honestly, at first it didn't seem too bad.

It’s a lot of challenging stuff, but we work through it.

Seeing it go on air and actually be, you know, accepted in a way was like, ‘Ha I did it.

I did a thing.

COVID, take that!

I'm still making videos.’ I just took that as a jab at like, because, uh, before this reflection, I always thought, how am I gonna make videos now?

I'm by myself with a phone.

And then I did this, I did the reflection, I went, what was I talking about again?

No, I can do this.

What I learned from HIKI NŌ is that it is so much more involved.

You actually have to be way more on it.

And a lot of people would be annoyed by that aspect of that, like, “I just want to chill, I want to make something fun.” But what I take away from it is, like, it's helped me know how to put together a team.

It's taught me how to properly work with others, with writing, managing time, managing resources, and it taught me so much.

Like, it's given me a greater sense of like, responsibility because now I know how it feels to truly produce videos.

[Music plays] I hope you've enjoyed meeting these outstanding HIKI NŌ graduates from the Class of 2021 as much as I have enjoyed introducing them.

Each had their lives changed by HIKI NŌ in ways completely unique to them, which goes to show that the HIKI NŌ experience is a very personal, individual event in the lives of students who proved that they HIKI NŌ, can do.

[Outro music] [END]