[sound of ocean waves] HIKI NŌ, Hawai‘i's new wave of storytellers.

[intro music plays] Aloha, and welcome to this week's episode of HIKI NŌ, Hawai‘i's new wave of storytellers.

I'm Kate Nakamura, a junior at Kaua‘i High School.

I'm excited to be here at the PBS Hawai‘i studio on O‘ahu to join you tonight for a very special occasion.

HIKI NŌ is teaming up with PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs to share stories and insights from students across the country.

Tonight's special will feature an array of teen voices about how we are balancing the challenges facing our generation, preserving our mental health during a pandemic, navigating social media, and rethinking what educational experiences we deserve.

And who says you can't be in two virtual spaces at once?

I have the honor of co-hosting two special episodes the same day.

In addition to being a HIKI NŌ student reporter and your host tonight, I'm co-hosting the Student Reporting Labs hour-long special episode entitled Our New Normal: How Teens Are Redefining School Life, which premiered on YouTube the very same day as the show you're watching now.

Student Reporting Labs, or SRL, is to the PBS NewsHour what HIKI NŌ is to PBS Hawai‘i.

SRL empowers student journalists from all across the U.S., including Hawai‘i.

To watch the full SRL show, you can visit PBS NewsHour's YouTube channel, but tonight we at HIKI NŌ have the privilege to share some highlights with you.

Let's start back on campus.

Most of us are back to learning in-person, but things are certainly not the same.

In other words, school's back.

It's weird.

Let's watch these student reports from SRL students from around the U.S. about what the new learning normal looks like.

Everyone's back in school, but you can't see them smile.

You just see their eyes.

It feels like, almost like a ghost of what high school like, should be.

With almost 400 students out, classes have become empty, and hallways have become quieter.

Making friends in high school is already difficult enough, but with the rises and falls of COVID-19 it seems almost impossible.

I stopped hanging out with the friends I used to hang out with during tenth grade, so now I find myself isolated from everyone else just so I could stay safe.

A lot of my friendships from my freshman year have since faded, especially because I switched from e-learning to brick and mortar while most of my friends stayed online.

My once large group broke into different pockets of one or two I would still talk to only every once in a while.

I think this universal struggle of adjusting to the new restrictions set upon us has actually made it easier to connect with others since I have something that I can relate to.

Of course, there are still some concerns with the pandemic around.

For example, I don't walk around lunch anymore.

My friend and I like to stay at the same table every day just to avoid contact with people we don't really know.

But overall, I've made new friendships and found myself going out more.

The pandemic has definitely changed the way I socially interact with my friends who are at school.

But contrary to popular assumption, it's not actually in a negative way.

I believe that because of the pandemic and being isolated away from everybody for so long, it actually motivated me to be more social.

I started making plans with my friends more.

At lunch, I always hang out with them, always.

It's always fun to be together.

During quarantine I actually picked up a new interest in making music, so that actually pushed me to joining a music club here at Poly.

And in that club, I've met tons of new people; friendly, talented people, but I'm honestly glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone to interact with all these new people.

Things are normal.

Just weird.

[sound of an ocean wave] Hearing what other students across the nation are feeling really makes you see how we're all going through this together.

Let's meet two local HIKI NŌ students who share how they're handling the transition of returning to class.

[sound of ocean waves] Aloha, my name is Evalani Keawekane, an eighth grader at Kamehameha Maui Middle School.

It’s almost been a year since Covid-19 forced the campus to close unexpectedly.

But as of this month, February 2021, our school leadership has us back on campus twice a week, all while following strict safety guidelines.

Before entering campus each morning, we have to answer a long list of wellness questions and do a thermal scan upon arrival to campus.

You’re in there.

Next.

Once okayed, we get a sticker which shows everyone that we have been cleared and okay to be on campus.

‘Iwa birds are painted on the walkways to show us the safe direction to move about, and orange dots on the ground remind us of how far apart we should be.

One definition or illustration of what a hero is… Our classes operate in small cohorts that stay together all day.

Even lunch is different.

Rather than being in the dining hall, we now use reusable takeout trays on green wagons.

Our return to campus brought lots of mixed feelings.

The new routines are so odd and a bit intimidating.

However, it’s been comforting to have people around me and to be out of my house.

Although we are all wearing masks, I can still see the smiles of my friends and kumu in their eyes.

Not even a pandemic can keep us from sharing our aloha for one another.

[sound of ocean waves] Hi, this is Isaiah Matsunaga, and I'm recording this at Waikīkī Elementary School on April 22, 2021.

It's been an interesting year.

Now that we’re back in school, I've been thinking more and more about what class was like online, what it was like before the pandemic, and how things have changed since then.

One of the first things I noticed when we came back to school was how much taller my classmates look.

Some even older, or just different than they do on Zoom.

I feel like I'm seeing the real version of themselves.

I wonder why that is.

When I first got back, everyone was pretty quiet and didn't say much.

Mr. Marvel would ask us something, and I was one of the only people to answer.

I think we are all a little nervous and maybe surprised by how things have changed.

It's hard making friends online, so I didn't really have any friends in our class.

Most of my friends are in a different group in another class.

But this past week, we got pool noodles, so we can play tag during recess without touching one another.

It's been lots of fun, and sure enough, I've started making some new friends.

It's funny how friendships are made.

So being back in school has its pluses and minuses.

Yes, we can't play certain games like we used to, like the ones that involve touching one another, but we can think of new ways to play together, like the noodles.

It was nice not to wake up so early to get to school.

It was nicer not to look at a screen all day and be sitting now for so long.

Now we're standing up and moving around more often, doing Zumba, and PE, and working in the garden.

Being back in school has been, well, different, but I'm grateful.

I'm grateful to get a chance to come back to Waikīkī Elementary School and have one last time with my friends and teachers before I graduate on to middle school and begin the next part of my life.

Things change.

Change is good.

If you hope, let it be.

[sound of an ocean wave] The pandemic has given a lot of us time to think, especially when it comes to our own education.

Sometimes it feels like some real-life lessons are missing from the classroom.

Let's hear from SRL students about what they’d like to learn in school, and the issues they think adults should take more seriously.

I think that there are a lot of things that they don't teach us in high school that are going to be important in the future but that just get tossed aside now because they don't matter now; uh, most importantly, being financially literate.

Money you need to understand in order to get anything or go anywhere in the world, and quite frankly, a lot of people are afraid of it.

I wish we had like, a more in-depth economics course because I took econ my sophomore year for only a semester, and I feel like that wasn't enough time to learn a lot of stuff.

Things like taxes, uh, debt, um, credit score building, those aren't taught enough in school, and I think it's necessary for us to know how to be financially successful in the real world.

That was something I had to learn outside of school from my grandpa.

He actually took all the grandkids and he made us go on Zoom calls with him, and he taught us all of his financial knowledge about the stock market.

I actually learned how to write a check from social media.

Um, it was just things that they thought kids should know.

And it was really interesting because I thought, you know, in school, they teach stuff like math and numbers like that, but they don’t teach you like, the important numbers.

One way I discovered stuff like this out of school was through the social media platform, TikTok.

Users, um, make videos to educate young people on money management, and I think that's been really helpful.

These aren't really things that we learn in school, and I think it could be helpful for students to prepare for college and young adulthood.

Schools should really reevaluate their priorities and see kind of what they want to come out of their schooling systems, and if it's going to be a ton of broke young adults, or if they want intellectual and stable and happy young adults.

One of our own HIKI NŌ students from Hilo also discovered some financial advice online.

Let's hear what he learned.

[sound of ocean waves] Hi, my name is Camrenn Cabalar.

I'm a junior in Hilo High School in the Big Island of Hawai‘i.

I'm recording this at my school on October 12, 2021.

During the shutdown, I spent each day playing video games and browsing the internet.

My dad would always tell me that there is more to life than just being in front of your computer screen.

He was right.

After a while, I grew tired of it.

One day, I was scrolling through TikTok and I stumbled across people giving out financial advice.

Something clicked in my head.

I have time now to plan my future to become a financially stable adult.

I dove deeper into these financial TikToks.

I’ve learned about credit cards and what they are used for.

I learned how I can invest all my extra money into stocks and real estate.

From my family, I learned the importance of having multiple skills for different sources of income.

With this knowledge, I feel as though I am a step ahead.

I have time now to set up the foundation for my future.

Looking back, the time that was given to me was an opportunity.

Now I am focused on reaching my goals of becoming a financially stable adult in the future.

[sound of an ocean wave] Some things you can't just learn in school or online.

This HIKI NŌ student from Kupa‘a High School on Kaua‘i teaches us exactly that.

By sharing how learning to hunt for invasive wild boar is not only sustainable, but it also helps provide for her family.

Warning though, the following Student Reflection does contain some graphic imagery and sounds of pig hunting, which may be too disturbing for some viewers.

[sound of ocean waves] Hi, my name is Tristyn Rivera, a sophomore at Kapa‘a High School on Kaua‘i, and I'm filming this video at my home on December 15, 2021.

My family and I are hunters.

We use hunting as a way to put food on the table and save some money.

Wild pigs are an invasive species, and our role as hunters is to help control their population.

They search through anything they can find like rubbish bins, spreading trash and making a mess.

They love rooting, which destroys our native plants.

Wild pigs try to survive by any means.

Wild pigs also have a rapid rate of reproduction.

They have five to six piglets per litter and can start mating at a really young age.

And in Hawai‘i, pigs have no natural predators.

This is the role I play with my family.

There has also been an increase in general food prices with meat being impacted the most.

This can be very hard for families that are just able to scrape by.

To adapt, my family relies on doing what we love.

Hunting for our own food saves us a lot of money and provides fresh meat from the land.

It benefits our health because the meat we get from wild pigs has more nutrients and less saturated fat than your average store-bought meat.

I've learned different cooking techniques to tenderize the meat and make it really tasty, like marinating with cubed green papaya.

It’s just like any meat that can be used for cooking, and the texture depends on the size of the pig and how we prepare it.

I am so proud to be a hunter.

I'm able to learn so much, which other people don't understand.

Hunting gives me the opportunity to help out my community with controlling the population of wild pigs.

[sound of an ocean wave] The importance of maintaining your mental health is more crucial than ever during this pandemic.

Let's hear from HIKI NŌ student reporters about how they found a healthy balance.

COVID's been hard on my family and me.

Both of my parents lost their jobs.

My father worked for the forest reserve and now looks for part-time work.

My mother was a prep cook, but the restaurant she worked at closed during the pandemic.

I am feeling torn.

I am tired of staying at home all the time.

I miss seeing my friends in-person.

Due to a lot of homework and not being able to hang out during school, I lost a lot of my good friends.

My workspace has been merged with my home environment and it's hard to switch between the two, making it impossible to focus in class.

Now, every little thing seems to bother me.

I got anxious about homework, the new people, and all the new responsibilities put on to me.

It was all very crushing.

Since I'm in online school, you would think, "Wow, this is much easier since I'm at home."

But now I barely know the difference between work and rest at my own house.

I would become stressed and overwhelmed, and I would find myself becoming unmotivated and lying in bed not being able to move.

I would grow anxious over everything, and angry at the smallest things.

COVID-19 forced me to rethink my lifestyle and establish a new routine.

Change is hard, but it can open new opportunities.

I took the extra step to help myself from feeling so stuck.

And even though I'm not as great as I was before it started, I'm better than I was when it began.

And that's a beginning.

I want to do well in school, and I'm still trying my best.

So please be patient with me.

I'm still a work in progress.

There are brighter days ahead.

We just need to be patient.

I know it's been hard on a lot of families, but helping us come together as a community brings us hope that life will go back to normal.

[sound of an ocean wave] To put these experiences into a professional context, let's watch this special interview from PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs with a mental health counselor.

Hi Ms. Porter, thank you for speaking with me today.

Hi, Teri.

Thank you for having me.

So what have you seen this school year?

This school year I have seen more students, uh, referring themselves to, uh, mental health therapy, teachers emailing, more parents coming into the school, um, looking for help for their children.

I've seen a lot of children bring their peers down.

I'm finding that the conversations about grief have increased because, as you know, Teri, um, you know the pandemic, there was a lot of loss.

Um, a lot of the students have lost family members.

Um, they haven't been able to grieve properly, and they haven't had any grief counseling.

What mental health issues are you seeing students struggle with this year?

And is it the same as last year, or are new issues becoming more common?

A lot of kids are struggling with how to stay organized, making classes, um, how to balance work life, being introduced back into having friends and socializing, um, with a mask on in the school.

Some kids have struggled over COVID with, um, substance issues, you know, smoking, vaping, drinking, things like that, and parents have contacted me to, um, sort of give resources and help those kids.

What do you think students need most right now to improve their mental health?

One of my favorite things is people need to be held, heard, and understood.

So, a lot of times, we need to ask young people like yourself, what do you need?

How are you doing?

How does that feel?

And not be afraid of what the answer is, because sometimes you guys can say some interesting things to us.

And as an adult, my job is not to judge you in mental health.

It's to hear you, and to understand what's going on, and allow you to say it and express yourself and know that you're okay.

If you could give one piece of advice to schools around the country to help their students with mental health, what would it be?

Mental health therapists in the building, licensed mental health therapists, knowledgeable people that can provide resources in and out of school, able to train the staff and the importance of mental health, and understand that this is something that's not going away.

That's something that we need to continue on, um, for years to come.

[sound of an ocean wave] See the full interview and the other Student Reporting Labs stories we've highlighted, please visit the PBS NewsHour's YouTube channel.

Now, let's talk about social media.

We're always on our phones, but that constant hyper connection is not always a good thing.

Let's hear from students across the country about how they managed social media in their lives.

Dear Middle School Lola/Rebecca, As your middle school years begin, what do you notice social media is already evolving into something all-consuming.

It makes you pick yourself apart the way you look, act, talk and think.

And unfortunately, you're already learning to analyze every photo you take of yourself, to scrutinize your flaws, find fault in the way you smile and the way you pose.

You constantly ask yourself and your friends, "Is this weird to post?"

and hope their answer eases your stress.

The stress of posting a picture, a concept that 20 years ago was gibberish, now consumes your thoughts and has way too much control over your self-esteem.

Your mom doesn't understand why you're in a bad mood because you didn't think you look pretty enough.

The hair is so scary, mom.

I don’t know why I look like that.

Lola, why are you so mean to yourself?

Or why you were sad after the boy you like didn't like the picture you posted.

She can't understand, and you can't get out of the horrid headspace that the algorithm of social media has trapped you into.

And it's not your fault.

That algorithm was crafted to make you spend more time on apps by predicting what you want to see and giving you more of it, even if it makes you feel left out or not good enough.

You and your friends are victims of this algorithm.

That's a terrible cycle, a time-sucking habit that causes a flood of insecurity and self-doubt.

Looking back, the way you feel isn't crazy.

So many other girls all over the world are feeling the exact same way.

They experience the same defeat when they don't like the way they look in a picture, or the same disappointment when they don't get enough likes.

And they, too, feel the wrath of the algorithm telling them they are not good enough.

Now I'm a senior in high school, and although I'm not perfect, I know I'm more than just a picture.

The most important things in my life no longer include the number of likes I get, or the immense amount of stress I felt when my smile was a little too crooked in one post.

I promise everyone is so focused and worried about their own insecurities that they don't even notice yours.

I've learned that it is unfair to judge myself based off of one still picture.

As you get older, you will learn to separate real life from what's online.

You will learn that the posting and comparison never stops, but you can take control of the narrative.

As my high school years have progressed, I’ve become a journalist and learned to take a critical look at social media and how it affects me and the people I love.

I want to tell you it will all be okay.

Nobody else can be Lola Nordlinger, and you can't be anyone else.

So, fight to be yourself.

Don't edit your life, embrace it.

With love, [in unison] Lola/Rebecca.

[sound of an ocean wave] Here's another HIKI NŌ student who figured out a way to get a handle on social media in her life.

[sound of ocean waves] Compared to life before this pandemic, it seems like we have more time, time to learn a new language, lose five pounds, gain new skills, or even talk to friends, virtually, of course.

But sometimes, if we get caught up in trying out new things, we can forget to prioritize what's important to us.

In my life, nothing brought this issue more to light than the pandemic.

At the beginning of the pandemic, my relationship with my phone, social media, Netflix, and YouTube was stronger than with people.

I connected to the outside world in the wrong ways.

Each time I chose my screen over the people in my life was a chance that I miss out on to bring value to my life and to others.

I was comparing myself to new trends, watch new shows, instead of focusing on the tangible needs of myself and others.

My reliance on superficial things disconnected me from real relationships.

Progressively I found myself emotionally isolated and lost.

My mental health came to a breaking point until I realized I was already surrounded by the people I needed.

I finally opened up to family and close friends.

I knew I had to do better, so I got to work to spend my time wiser.

I had set goals for myself for what I had to do, like spend more time with family and check in with friends.

However, consistency was key to make sure that I stuck to these goals.

For example, I used post-its as a visual reminder.

Every day I use it to balance out my life between school and leisure.

My new habits ensured me that I would play with my brother at least once every day, and I take an opportunity to spend time with family in and out of the house.

Now I am learning to better appreciate and value my relationships with my family, close friends, and my community.

I thank the best and the worst parts of this pandemic for teaching me how to be closer to others.

[sound of an ocean wave] Now, this next Student Reporting Labs segment comes from a HIKI NŌ 2019 graduate.

She's done some great work for HIKI NŌ and was selected as a national Gwen Ifill fellow, named after the late iconic PBS NewsHour anchor.

Let's take a look at her piece entitled A letter to My Middle School Self.

Dear Tiffany, I'm so proud of how far you've come.

From the countless nights of studying, new opportunities, achievements, I'm proud of your ‘yes’s’ and will to get out of bed.

And to my middle school self, I know it feels intimidating.

Schoolwork feels hard.

Trust me, you'll understand the parabolas.

But life is a whole bunch of curves.

You cared so much about your appearance, Tiffany.

You don't need a big group of friends to feel wanted.

I want you to know that you have potential.

Don't let the C's or the D’s make you feel like a failure.

So many times you believed you weren't worthy for people, when self-love and worth comes from within.

And lastly, Tiffany, don't let your fear and anxiety stop you from chasing your goals and dreams.

I know back then in middle school, you didn't think much about them.

And it's okay.

Because everything falls into place when you feel like everything's falling apart.

So middle school, Tiffany, don't give up.

High school Tiffany, keep on going.

And Tiffany today, keep on growing.

To you middle schoolers out there, I want you to know that it's okay if you're not following the crowd.

It's okay if not a lot of people have the same interest as you, because that's what makes you unique.

From your future self, Tiffany, you're right where you're supposed to be.

[sound of an ocean wave] Mahalo for watching our HIKI NŌ PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs special.

Don't miss Student Reporting Labs, Our New Normal: How Teens Are Redefining School Life, on PBS NewsHour’s YouTube channel at YouTube.com/PBSNewsHour.

You can also find more HIKI NŌ stories online on YouTube and PBSHawaii.org.

We'll see you next week for more proof that Hawai‘i students HIKI NŌ, can do.

[outro music plays]