[intro music plays] HIKI NŌ, Hawai‘i's new wave of storytellers.

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

My name is Emi Sado and I'm a sophomore at Maui High School.

I'm excited to host this special episode of the 2022 HIKI NŌ Winter Challenge and share with you the winning entries.

For this winter challenge, HIKI NŌ asked students to submit their videos based on the prompt “Our New Normal: A Day in the Life.” Most of us are back in school in-person, but the ongoing pandemic continues to shape our lives.

Teens had just five days to complete a video that encapsulated what school life is like for them now as we enter the third year of the global pandemic.

I've participated in HIKI NŌ challenges before, and let me tell you, it's exhilarating.

Tonight, we'll reveal the winners of the middle and high school divisions.

Scoring was based on how well students met the prompt “Our New Normal: A Day in the Life,” along with production quality and storytelling finesse.

Now without further ado, let's watch the pieces that wowed the judges.

And now in the high school division of the 2022 HIKI NŌ Winter Challenge receiving an honorable mention is Pearl City High School on O‘ahu.

Congratulations.

Their story is how a sewing class had to pivot and stitch new ways to accomplish their fashion design goals.

[sound of sewing machines] On O‘ahu, Pearl City High School fashion students are hard at work creating garments for the end of the year fashion show.

Luckily this school year students are back in classrooms.

But unlike past years, the new normal for fashion students comes with a lot more challenges.

Well, the pandemic really hit, you know, schools so hard last year and the year before, which affected the amount of time students could be in the class.

We have very little, um, hands-on time to do skills as well as machine work.

So, it really did affect the productivity.

The pandemic really put like, a hold on everything we have planned.

It's just because this is our first year like, actually learning these things in person.

So, there's just so much to learn, and just such little time to actually get it done.

We didn't get a chance to actually sew with machines, because some people didn't have machines at home or didn't have access to them.

So right now, this year we've been catching up a lot of what we were supposed to do last year.

But it's been really good because I think it got us more excited to get back up there and actually make stuff.

Due to unpredictable circumstances, preparations for the end of the year fashion showcase might look a bit different.

So, in the past, we actually had an in-person fashion show where they would, um, have students and models at the auditorium, and, um, we would invite guests and parents to physically be there at the show.

We may need to pivot a little and to kind of make a fashion showcase, but a video.

We can have a lot more people actually see the product, if we're just going to have to kind of change a little bit about how we do the showcase.

With the obstacles ahead, fashion students continue to persevere to make this year's virtual fashion show the best one yet.

I think students really want to showcase what they make because we work so hard on it.

It's just really cool to show our peers like, this is what we're working on.

This is what we can do, especially for our families, too.

It's just something that you don't really get to see us working on often, so.

Well, the fashion show is a year-end showcase, and it really shows off the skills and all the hard work that our fashion students have put in throughout the year.

The fashion students are so proud of the work that they've done that to share it with the public is such an important part of the process.

This is Olivia Faiola from Pearl City High School for HIKI NŌ.

And now in the middle school division of the 2022 HIKI NŌ Winter Challenge receiving an honorable mention is an elementary school that competed in the middle school division.

It's Ernest Bowen de Silva Elementary School on Hawai‘i Island.

Congratulations.

The following winning entry follows sixth grader, Hannah Hodges, who tells us how the pandemic continues to affect her and her classmates’ ability to attend school and learn.

Hi, my name is Hannah Hodges and I am a sixth grader at Ernest Bowen de Silva Elementary School.

When I started school this year, I was hoping for a normal life.

I couldn't wait to come back and make new friends.

Back at New York, I could only see kids on a screen instead of face to face.

I thought that kids getting vaccinated should have helped the COVID cases go down, but now because of a new variant, the COVID cases have gone up.

A new problem is that even though some kids are vaccinated, a bunch of kids in my class are still getting marked absent because they are either in close contact or testing positive.

Nothing has changed.

We are still socially distant and wearing masks.

I think that all we can do is hope that everyone gets better so that everything can go back to normal.

We can take extra safety precautions to make sure everyone is still safe at school.

All we can do right now is pray that those who are absent can come back safely.

And now in the high school division of the 2022 HIKI NŌ Winter Challenge receiving an honorable mention is Hawai‘i Technology Academy on O‘ahu.

Congratulations.

Here's their behind the scenes look at two HTA students' daily routines.

[alarm clock beeps] [slow piano music] [ID card beeps] [school bell rings] [piano music continues] Coming in third place of the middle school division is Highlands Intermediate School on O‘ahu.

Congratulations.

Let's hear from Isabella Seaman, a seventh grader who tells us how she managed to keep an upbeat attitude, even as the pandemic kept her away from one of her favorite hobbies: soccer.

[school bell rings] Hey, my name is Bella and I'm a middle school student attending Highlands Intermediate School in Pearl City on the island of O‘ahu.

Before COVID, I played soccer and mostly hung out with my friends.

Then COVID happened.

COVID-19 had a big hit on me, that’s for sure.

I didn't expect it to happen in such a short amount of time.

I was so used to living my life without a mask, but now, it became an everyday thing.

Wearing a mask, putting hand sanitizer into my hands, sanitizing computers and tables, social distancing, and just so much has happened.

And those are just precautions for COVID.

It's hard for me.

Change is such a big and a hard thing for me.

I was just doing so well until COVID hit.

It was a big change in my life, but I didn't let it stop me.

I had to learn to adjust to this new normal.

So, I did that.

I started getting used to all the precautions and restrictions.

I didn't let this overcome me.

At the least, I can say this is weird, because all I saw was facemasks everywhere on people's faces.

But like I said, I gotta get used to it.

It's a part of my life now, sort of like a new lifestyle.

Coming in third place in the high school division is Kea‘au High School on Hawai‘i Island.

Congratulations.

The judges thought this was an extremely creative visual essay about how one student is balancing schoolwork and play.

[classical piano music] [Frenzied classical piano music] Coming in second place in the middle school division is Kaimukī Middle School.

Congratulations.

The Kaimukī Middle School eighth graders take us along for a typical day at their O‘ahu campus.

Aloha.

We are students of Kaimukī Middle School, on the island of O‘ahu.

Today we'll be showing you a day in the life.

Come along with us.

From schoolwork to what we do after school and at home, we’ll show you all the secrets, especially since the pandemic.

Before the pandemic, we could hang out closely with friends, participate in group work, and do hands-on projects.

However, after COVID-19 head, we had to wear masks, isolate ourselves and do our assignments individually.

Now as a new year has started, we are back in school, and our days tend to look like this.

[bossa nova music] The environment at school consists of social distancing, sanitizing, and piles of schoolwork.

Life has been hard lately, but hey, the world is not all bad.

Nonetheless, we still managed to have some fun.

Here is what it looks like.

[music continues] The pandemic has taught us the importance of staying connected with friends and family.

Sometimes it can feel a little lonely.

Other times we're surrounded with overwhelming love and support.

Without these people in our lives, we probably would not have any mental sanity.

Coming in second place in the high school division is Kalāheo High School on O‘ahu.

Congratulations.

The judges were wowed by this thoughtful and thorough report about life on the Kalāheo campus.

As of January 2022, there was an average of more than 600,000 new COVID cases per day in the U.S., with roughly 3600 coming from our home state, according to The New York Times, this national pandemic has impacted the lives of the entire country, but in what ways has it changed student lives?

Hundreds of students worldwide were forced to adapt to a new way of life.

In spring of 2020, there was a complete shutdown of schools across the nation.

Students switched from the classic in-person learning to a new era of online schooling.

For high school junior Keenan Kawakami in O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, online education hindered his learning.

I'd say the pandemic has like, greatly affected my education, as online school I felt like really didn't cater to me much, personally.

I, like, during online school I missed hanging out with my friends at school.

I missed, you know, doing group activities, and just being in class because at home I personally cannot focus at all.

As regulations loosen, students transition from online to hybrid learning to fully in-person schooling.

Out with the old hybrid learning and a regulated school environment became the new normal.

But the pandemic has not only impacted students’ education, but also their extracurriculars like sports and clubs.

With new stricter spectator regulations due to the rapidly increasing nationwide COVID case count, sports have taken on a new form.

Sports have definitely changed.

We have to wear masks all the time.

It's like, suffocating when you run.

And, um, not really much on the social distancing for like, volleyball and basketball and soccer, but mainly the spectators.

Like, you can't really have fans.

Your parents can't go to cheer you on, and it's all live streamed.

For students, the global shutdown and modified schooling have weakened student relationships and interactions.

Social distancing and event regulations have put a dent in bonds with friends, families and peers.

High school freshman Venti Jao in O‘ahu, Hawai‘i talks about how COVID has affected their social life.

So before the pandemic, I thought it was easier to – with my social life because you go to school every day, and so you had people to talk to.

But then during the pandemic, when everyone is in lockdown, you couldn't see anyone.

So like, you had to talk either online or like, just call, which was not the same.

So, it was vastly different.

Social interactions have been limited because of regulations and restrictions.

The global pandemic has greatly affected our daily lives.

Life doesn't seem like it's going to be going back to normal anytime soon.

So how has the pandemic changed your life?

What new normal is now a part of your day?

This is Christina Uchibori from Kalāheo High School for HIKI NŌ.

And now the first-place winner of the middle school division of the 2022 HIKI NŌ Winter Challenge is Maui Waena Intermediate School.

Congratulations.

Maui Waena Intermediate School told a compelling story about what happens at their school on Maui when teachers are absent due to COVID-19.

Get to work and be quiet, please.

There's a lot of yelling going on in here, and then the teacher, like, tells everyone to like, stop talking, and then it gets noisy again.

And then it goes on like that for quite a long time.

I hate walking to my classroom and seeing a sign or somebody tells me, "Oh, Miss Kay's in here,” or “This teacher is in here," and I have to go, "What?"

And then I walk all the way back, and then I have to sit here and do nothing for an hour.

It's kind of not fun being, just doing the computers every day.

It's like, it's more fun if you're with a teacher teaching you.

And where is this?

The cafeteria at Maui Waena Intermediate School.

They are here because of a serious teacher and substitute shortage.

So, when teachers are out, which is more often now it COVID, up to six classes are sent to the cafe to be monitored by administration, and students do work via Google Classroom.

I do feel kind of sad, because I do like participating in class and like, it's really boring just staying in the cafeteria and working on what the teacher assigned us to do.

Even teachers agree with this.

I'm, I'm sure it's no fun.

I could only imagine if I were a student, and I was just stuck in front of my Chromebook for possibly two or, you know, maybe more classes a day.

I think they'd rather be in a classroom than when they're stuck in the cafeteria for their math class, or whatever class and then go cafeteria.

That's got to be tiring.

Both teachers and vice principals also have new jobs on campus.

If it's not into their own classroom, I put a sign on the doors where they should go, and that usually takes up the entire morning before school starts.

When we don't have enough teachers, I will have the classes of students go to the cafeteria.

Now here - You can see that I have a wheel class, and I don't normally have wheel classes.

And so, since we came back for third quarter, um, probably 90% of the days, I'm helping to cover someone else's wheel.

But the students are affected the most.

I feel like I could have learned a lot more if my actual teachers were here to teach me, instead of just making us do online, like, assignments by ourselves in the cafeteria.

Definitely different, and it makes me feel like, more disappointed than before because I really don't like staying in the cafe.

But no matter the circumstances the new normal brings, the students will always persevere.

Nobody's had an easy time with the past three years, and we just have to do the best we can.

The ‘best we can’ won't look like it did pre-COVID, uh, but we just got to keep moving forward.

This is Sarah Rosete from Maui Waena Intermediate School for HIKI NŌ.

And now, the first-place winner of the high school division of the 2022 HIKI NŌ Winter Challenge is Waiākea High School on Hawai‘i Island.

Congratulations.

This personal day in the life account of a new normal as a teen during the pandemic was extremely creative, and even includes animation.

I am so excited for my last year of high school to be in-person, but that also means that I have an entirely different schedule than what I've been doing for the past year and a half.

My normal day usually starts with me completely ignoring all my alarms until the very last one.

Then I finally get up.

I go through the motions of my routine: skincare, teeth, makeup.

And by then I'm honestly on the cusp of being late for school, so I have to rush.

I got my learner's permit recently, so now my mom lets me drive around Hilo with her.

I'm an amazing driver.

I get to school right as the bell rings, and first period is broadcast media.

My second period is my engineering class where I have to seriously be clean.

I have to wipe down my desk and the computer.

Our school has added testing on campus, which makes going to school feel safer and more comfortable.

Sociology is my last class of the day.

Our teachers want to be prepared in case school is forced online again, so most of our work is on Google classroom.

I go straight home nowadays.

Seeing my friends kind of puts me and my family at risk.

I make sure to wash my body before bed.

I don't know.

It just feels like I'm taking whatever germs on me from the day off.

After that I finally have some free time to watch shows or go on my phone.

Then I go to sleep.

And that's what tomorrow's gonna be like, too.

That's my new normal.

[sound of an ocean wave] That was an incredible mix of stories that really gives us a glimpse of what life is like at school these days.

It goes to show it doesn't matter how young you are, or where you go to school; we are all affected.

That concludes our special showcase.

Mahalo for watching the results of the 2022 HIKI NŌ Winter Challenge.

We hope you've enjoyed the work of Hawai‘i's new wave of storytellers as much as we've enjoyed sharing it with you.

Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.

You'll see some bonus behind the scenes content and keep up to date with the latest and best stories from Hawai‘i’s youth.

That's it for our show.

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

[outro music plays]