Where Are They Now? Side Quests To Become An Engineer

Alright, hello everyone. Welcome to another Kuile courageous conversation. I am Sheldon from the Kuile outreach program and I am Alfie, the other person in the Kuile outreach program. Yes, there's two of us. There's two of us. Happy New Year. Yeah. Happy New Year. Here we go. Another exciting season of our podcast, 2026 and Fun Fact. This year I believe is the 80th anniversary of Kupeo Line Community College. Wow. Yeah. Wow. And I think you dropped a little, as well, that we've been doing this for six years. We've been doing this for six years out here. Wow. And we still have the same people listening to us for six years. Oh, five. Oh, five of you. Thank you. Thank you for listening. Who do we have up for this 2026? Wow. Wow. Our first guest, you'll hear it for a minute or a second, highly evolved KCC. And we kind of looked at our grades and we're like, we didn't see any bad grades at all. They're like, okay, great on. And this student at that time when she was at Kupeo Line was one of our pre-engineering students. And I think she is now an engineering student or soon to be graduate of UHM. Graduating with an engineering degree. And I thought we need to talk to her. Yeah. And my experience with her was actually through her job as a student leader. She was a chair of student conversation. And I think this is kind of a testament in terms of like the more active involved you are in school, then you're going to go please. You know, and this, our guest is definitely going please. Yeah. And doing a lot of things. Yeah. Yeah. And the student we're talking about is Miss Jenny Brown. She has done, like you said, many amazing things on campus. Super involved her grades, demonstrate her engagement and her studies. Without further ado, here's Miss Jenny Brown. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Here you go, gang. So hey, Alfie, we're back. Happy 2026. Happy 2026. We're actually almost done with the first month. That is so crazy. Yeah. Today is January 26. Oh my gosh. January 26, 26. Oh my. So crazy. Yeah. And super excited. Like we mentioned in our introduction earlier, we have former Kapiolani community college student, Jenny Brown. And yes, that's how we roll. So Jenny, tell us a little bit about yourself. I was born and raised here in a wahu. I went to Kalani high school because I went to Roosevelt. Oh, there you go. Okay, Falcons. And then I went to here KCC. Yeah. And I'm currently transferred over to UH Minon. And I'm my first semester grad school. Wow. That's it. That's it. Wow. Okay. No, I was going to say I feel a little bit old because I think I might have met you, Jenny. I think when you first started, when you're transitioning from Kalani to Kapiolani. So to know that you're going from UH Minon to grad school, that's huge. That's amazing. And she's a full 2025 grad of UH Minon. You just graduated. Yes. And people are like, oh, let's do it. That's about pretty accurate. When I just like two weeks later, I'm like, well, I'm back. Like that was the rest. Wow. Okay. So how let's let's talk about this. How did you end up at KCC? Oh, man, it was mostly like by necessity. My parents, I love my parents, but they're like, you got to pay for your own education if you want to pursue your degree. And KCC is like literally less than 10 minutes away from where I lived. And they're really popular, well, known for their STEM degrees. Like I saw their website. It was very like flushed out and had a lot of opportunities. So I was like, KCC, it speaks to me and my wallet. Yes, yes. But let's go back to that. I'm guessing you were heavily involved in high school. Is that a safe assumption? No. No, let's talk about that. So because to go from, I mean, just to everyone has told me that electrical engineering is one of the most difficult degrees out there. So how did you go from where you're at at high school to that? So what was it like in high school? Shopping, like being in the back of the class, like kind of on my phone, which wasn't really like, it reflected in my grades. So going from high school to college and having to pay out a pocket is like, okay, if you mess around or if you're slacking, that's your own money. And I would give a lot of success or like really encouragement of like, because a lot of people are very scared of the math and they're like, oh, if I can't do like calculus in high school, I can do it in college. I'm like, that's absolutely not true. I started at like math 82 because I did not test in calculus in college. So I had really good professors shot out to Raider, Nadine, Mary, they're both professors. Yes, they are great. They're fantastic. A. A. Ron, Hanai. He's also fantastic. A. A. Ron. A. Ron. I'm going to get that skit. What math were you in at Kalani High School? I think I was in pre-Algebra, pre-cal- I know I was not in pre-calculus. Yeah, little like humbling moment was like, I failed that class. I'd take the summer where you have to do the freshman support, I believe, but I didn't go above like, definitely not calculus in high school. And the students I would meet who are in engineering and college were involved in some former fashion in high school. Was that your case? No, I feel like the moral of the story if I had a like reflect back from high school to college, it's never too late to start now. I did not do any, the common things like robotics, they go to competitions like, I didn't do that in high school, but in college, like you have a lot of opportunities, there's emails being sent out through KCC that I just like, on a whim, been like, I never worked with microcontrollers or those little raspberry pies. And this went for it. But I want to talk about this math 82 thing, because when you think of the engineer, that is a ridiculously high level math. So what, how did this math 82, I guess, happened? I went to the testing center, they're like, oh, like, I got high report back. They're like, you got to start at your foundational math. And here's for all the listeners. There's a reason why it's foundational. It will come up as you get higher up. It won't really be like, oh, can you do these complex like calculus or it's like, do you have your foundation? So I just see the algebra, like really, really smart people in my class. The common mistakes is the foundational stuff you learn. And you're like first semester of college or like in high school that they mess up on. I'm like, wow. And usually when, when, when students see that, it's, it's kind of like this humbling experience, like, oh, my gosh, I didn't place. So like, did that serve as like a, oh, gosh, or was that more like a motivator for you to kind of do better? And like, I'm going to grasp everything and just going to charge. That's a good question. I guess the motivation came from like, I have to make the best of, like, this situation. And I was originally in a biology track. So I had to go all out to calc to anyways. So I'm like, okay, if this is foundational, each step the way. And I, like, don't really build my foundational skills. I'm setting myself up for failure. And I'm going to have to keep retaking those classes. Like, I remember those, um, was it the freshmen support class in high school? Retaking that was kind of like, I don't want to do this again. So when you're staring math 82 in the face and knowing your goal at that time is calc 2, what was running through your mind? You know, I guess that could be like the light at the end of the tunnel or like maybe like, I have so much to get through, but I literally just took it day by day. I had fantastic professors, um, who just as focused on your assignments right now, like, you're, it's okay that you don't know. And I'll help you get through it. So it was a lot of encouragement from my professors to say, focus on what you have right now. You'll eventually get there. If you just keep focusing at the end, your goodness could be like, oh, I don't know. Like, that's okay. And you didn't take it lightly because in that same semester of the math 82, she was an ENP 141. And here's a crazy thing. The next, the following, sorry, so we're going through a whole history, we're going through the whole history. We're going to go, yeah, we're going to line. But that following semester, she, I guess you did an accelerated math 103 and 135 in the same semester. Yes. I learned that was wrong. Wow. That was wrong. That was character building. I was like, okay, like I did my pre pre algebra. Then I'm going to do algebra. I can do it. I did it, but I learned very quickly that my limits on there's a reason why it's called accelerated. Let's talk about those limits. And I'm going to actually go back to how you discovered STEM while at Kalani High School. I don't, I want to go back to that. But going back to the building character because we have quite a bit of students who see engineering as an option. They're very excited to go down that path. And when we do a, like those what if journeys and start with them, it outlines the kind of math, the kind of physics that they would need. And for often, when we show them that, the conversation changes. And so talk about the character building because at a young age, that's a very deep thought. Like when you were tested, how did you, or what did you do to overcome those challenges? Because I'm thinking you just graduated from high school. You're in accelerated 103 math 135. I mean, like how did you mentally get through all that? I guess the motivation or like, I get through it is like, you don't know what you don't know. If you come into this mindset being like, oh, I'm just going to be naturally good at it, which some people are naturally good at math. Those people can be mad. I'm so angry. Math 100. Um, I get through it. It's just, I literally don't know what I don't know. And if I, I've noticed every time I take an exam, where I'm like, I got this, I like, I think I know everything. I get my grade back and I'm like, oh, I didn't know. And it's funny because, oh, my God, I went to my pre-calc professor and learning that class you're mentioning. Yeah. And I'm like, I get my exam back. I'm like, I studied so much. I like did so much. And like, I was like, I don't know if you knew this, but I was kind of crying the day before. And I was like, I just, I didn't do good on the exam. And then he was like, I know I saw your exam. You want to tell me twice? And I'm like, but he did it in such a way that I was able to laugh about myself. And he was just like, okay, you did bad, but like, let me help you get through it. So it's just like these people, these professors just go out of your way and care that as long as you show the effort and just like the intention to get better because it becomes the mindset being like, I already know all this. I'm so good at math to a literal professor of like 15 years of teaching. They're going to look at you being like, come on. As you're going through your career here, I could peel on you, as you saw earlier your list of accomplishments, how did you get involved? So I would highly recommend anyone listening to this is you're going to get email blast from all these resources. Yeah, I apologize for that. That's a lot. Look at a fly. So please apply. It's some, I just got to focus. I just do these postings. And you know, I don't want to study all the time and make school my main focus. Like, you have to have a life or maybe you don't want to have a life. But I wanted to have a thing and I was like, sure, why not doing soccer on the great field with, oh, sorry, great one. Like, why not? Like, I feel like that's a really good mindset. Just like, why not? Why not do the side quest? Where did the student congress, right? Yes. Where did student congress come into play at what point in your KCC career? Oh, I would say it's like my first or second semester. I think it was my, oh, it was pretty early on email blast. I recommend. It literally said get involved. And I was like, okay, I will. And I had to get involved because at the same time, I was paying for my school. Right. And they are offering like an hourly wage. So I'm like, okay, this is like a good opportunity to focus on my studies. You know, like, put, pull my attention into bettering myself. And, you know, being involved in the community here. But how, so if we're talking about your first couple of semesters at KCC, and I'm looking at your classes, how did you balance that? I know you're a math person, but there's only 24 hours in the day. So if you do the equation. Oh my god. Google calendar. I had this amazing advisor, Shannon. Yeah. We're the little clap. We gotta give her. Okay, I got it. Google counter. I had to be on top of it. And this is where it came in where like, okay, and this is where a on tonight, he was, I'm not looking at the same. I don't know. Hey, a wrong. Oh boy. He's like, once, once I saw him in the meeting, I think he was in the meeting, but also in the treadmill. Really? Yeah. Because he, in the meeting, he was doing this. I'm like, okay, the guy's grooving. And then I think later I was shared. He was on a treadmill. I'm like, that's brilliant anyway. Multi-task. Multi-task is interesting. You know how they're following. You're on. But just get to the point. I spend five hours, five hours studying, but I know like, at a certain point, my limits, I'm like, okay, after like the first hour, there's no return on this. So I feel like it's just breaking up your time into valuable challenges. But student congress was like, at that time, you had ridiculous amount of initiatives that you're doing. You guys were working so hard. I remember it from those times. So again, like, how did you balance all of that? Accountability, having mentors like Shannon, being like, if you don't respond within like, I don't want to call it on this. But like, 24 hours was our rule for emails. Wow. And it really ingrained in me like, you got to respond to those emails fast. So like, try to balance. You had to balance it because there was like, multiple people waiting on your phone and just looked bad, both on yourself and on the organization. I'm afraid of Shannon. I'll wear a smile in the hour. I just text her already at this point. I will go to her house. I fear Shannon. So back to the accountability. Because debt too is a, that's a trade a whole lot of college students are still trying to wrap their brain around. When did that come to you? I guess you had the first semester when I had to pay out a pocket because if I don't pay for my college and I want a certain future, like I knew I wanted to go to like grad school. You're shooting yourself in the foot. If you don't choose that every single day to hold yourself accountable to make that happen. Yeah. So we're seeing that. Sheldon and I see that like two things I think we're seeing with the high school students is accountability and grit. Oh, grit. So can talk a little bit about grit? Oh, a moment of grit. Yeah. Um, comes when you least expect it when you get really confident. Um, I had this class and this was like in your junior, in my junior year. So I was going through the weirder class and like think your worst classes were like this is what an engineer is supposed to look like. But when you're in the weeds of it, you're like I'm doing math eight hours a week at least in homework. Like how is this engineering and you're like why am I even doing this? Um, and I feel like that grit moment was like I was like on the border edge of dropping out. Yeah. So I was like I had my transcripts ready to go and everything and I was talking to my micro electronics professor who I worked for now. Um, ironically. Um, we were just going through like my exam. So this is where the key is like find a mentor, make sure like the walk you kind of through like helping you out. But I just remember him like carrying so much about like if I like succeeded in that class. But the first thing is like I had to show up in the first place. So you can't just have grit by expecting it to come to you. You've got to show up and make that initiative and accountability accountability. Yeah. Having that professor there being like listen you got your below average and like you've got to work on this, this, and this. I'll see you next time. Um, having that county of another person watching over you but like making that initiative to do that work is a whole another beast that comes with grit. So what was that breaking point where you could have changed paths? People think it looks like anger. Like you're like, oh screw this. I don't want to do physics anymore. It's not. It's like when you stop caring that I think some words like like we just stop caring and you're like, I don't care if I pass or not. I'm just going to make it through and then I'm going to leave. Like that was that breaking point and I knew I was like in the like red zone where I'm like, oh, this is dangerous. Like I've been working towards my engineering degree at that point for at least four years and to just drop it like that was. It's very interesting mindset I had at that time. So I know I might be jumping around here but there was a moment where I was monitoring one of the surf breakout rooms. Student undergraduate research fair and I believe you're in the room. The discussion was about drones and I was the guy who just had to make sure things were flowing. But the conversation I had no clue what you guys were talking about. They were talking parts and gadgets and I think it was like topography and then you got into velocity and then math kicked in. I was like, what are they talking about? But the passion was there. So you talk about, so you talk about how almost like you, I don't know, I don't know if that was the point where you turned that corner, but I just felt that Rome's energy and that, you know, Jenny's going to do stuff. She's going to do amazing things because just the way you were engaged in these conversations was really cool. Like you were I think in the room with other UH Manila students were about to graduate with a degree and you were like, oh man, those projects, I got to admit they were always my favorite part of engineering just because I wasn't naturally good at math or like, you know, on the exam, like I didn't do the best. Like there's projects I did at KCC that counted towards credit and you get money for it. Thank you Grants. I legitimately love the engineering process. Like I worked with a mentor and every semester you can change your projects. There's a lot of flexibility. So it's a pretty good observation. It was one of the reasons why I stayed because just because you're not good at something doesn't mean you don't like care for it and you're not passionate about it. Right. So as I'm looking through this, we're counselors. We're counselors. All my grades. Yes, all your grades, which is a pretty easy I chart, I will say, but as we kind of look through it, you kind of took classes at different community colleges. Can you, but I also noticed one that's not within the UH system, Eastern Gateway Community College? Yes, so well, can you tell us a little bit about what were you doing at Eastern Gateway? What was your schooling there like? So that was an online college where you give context. This was during COVID. I got out of a job and I was just like, okay, my parents were like, what do you want to do with your life? And I'm like, oh, I want to like, you know, study biology originally, but they're like, you should do business. So obviously, I'm like, well, I have no money at that point. I'm like, okay, well, I'll do business. It was a good school. I learned some pretty valuable lessons and like skills, but did I want to do finance or business like accounting for the rest of my life? Like, no. Because you're there for a while. Yeah. My parents are like, see it through, stay through. And I feel like I hear that a lot. Like people in my degree program, they're like, their parents tell them like, do engineering because a stable job, it is a stable job. But when you're doing hours of math and like that, it kind of takes a back seat. And so I felt like my equivalent was studying business where I was like, okay, this is useful and it can be stable. And I'll do stuff with it after. But is it? Is it your passion? Is it my passion? Is it my like reason why I get up like every day? No. So this could be kind of you does like this kind of confirm like, you know what, this is not for me. No, that's valuable. That's still valuable. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, okay. So going back to your time at Kalani High School and you had shared early on that you saw STEM or you heard STEM is a great program at Kapio Alani. And for full disclosure, when Alfred and I go into the community, there's a lot of attention to the larger institutions, you know, schools and the continent and the community colleges. People know the value, but they don't get the attention I think it deserves. How did you stumble on it in your college search? You might college search. I knew I wanted to stay on island because my family's here. I like the community and I was like, I don't want to be in debt. That was the main thing. I didn't know what I wanted to do. At that point, I knew I wanted to do like biology-ish, but I'm like, that's at least what, $30,000, $40,000 a year. And my parents were very did like, adamant, you're going to pay out a pocket. So the community colleges were great as in they made education extremely accessible and like an open opportunity. I didn't even know about. So now we're entering our 80th anniversary at Kapio Alani community college. And you talked about your instructors a lot and how they've just provided you all types of support. Talk about them for a bit because we want to celebrate these goods. Oh my god, they're amazing. I feel like, okay, Raider, he's one of our algebra classes. He really brought a lot of humor to these classes. Like, you can tell someone's a good teacher. I remember in class, like, this was Zoom. So he made math funny? He made math funny. I know. What are we? It's possible. It's possible. Okay. So it was like the personality types of these professors and it really brought humor. Like, I'm looking at a line for like two hours, but at least like they made the class entertaining. And he's able to like spot like, when I would ask these questions, like, oh, I don't know when I'm coming from. I have a specific thing on this topic. I don't know how to word it, but he would be able to pinpoint what my problem was, address it and we would move forward. I'm like, that is crazy. That's amazing. Yeah, the professors here are fantastic. I mean, they're cool everywhere, but cool. Okay. So that's Raider. That's one. The dean. She is. The dean. Yeah. Yeah. She's an eight pack. She's, oh my god, she was so kind. She's also a fantastic professor in a way that I took her Calc 2 class. And this is supposed to be your weater class for engineering, the worst of the calculus. I remember emailing her, me and my group, because there's only like three people in her class. And she usually professors respond through an email. She responded through a video, walking step by step, like where we got wrong and like, holy moly. That's above and beyond. That is above me. It's dry for the highest. So she sent you the video tutorial. And then what else about her class? It just, because I heard too, I heard also that Calc 2 is like, that's another weater class. You can't do Calc 2, then you got to think. You got to retake it. She just cared a lot. Like, what I want to emphasize about these professors is they have personality and care behind what they teach and how they teach. Like, you can kind of get a vibe from a professor if they're like, I don't really, which isn't like their fault. Like, oh, you're just like a person taking my class. But like, these professors went like above and beyond being like, I'm going to get you know, you as a person because that helps them teach better. And I want to see you succeed. And that is very like motivating for me. Like I said, with the count abilities, like, I got to do better because I have the teacher cares. You mentioned in actually math, math 82, how that was a foundational class. How many math courses did she take within the UHCCs? You know how your scroll bar starts getting released. Within the CCs, I see. She went to 244. Oh my, that's count four. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Anyway, so the reason I'm asking, going from Kapio Line Community College to UH Manoa, the love of rigor, what is the difference? Or is there any? Weirdly. So I took all my pre-wax at a community college, which I highly recommend. I saved like a ton of money. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. This month, I put a shower there. At a four year is all my engineering classes. And I went from a class of like eight to 12 people here. Yes. Community college. At a university, it's between like, I would say at least like 20 to 30, maybe 40. So I was already like past that introduction of engineering and I want to like my basic like core foundational engineering classes. So I wouldn't say there's a difference in rigor, but there's a difference in resources and accessibility that I noticed between the two campuses. And you do still find pockets of professors that care like at the same level of community college students, but their responsibilities are different where like I can understand why they're more distant. So what are some of the differences? So to give context at a university, they have research, they have other classes. So you're not really getting the one-on-one attention you get at a community college. So I can see why a lot of students. That's where they're like, okay, that accountability, but he's not really there anymore. It's on you. If you failed, like you got to retake it and there's yeah. And I also it's another thing when I say there's cohorts. So at community colleges, like you have people coming in and out, different people, you get new faces at a university. I guess that's also like kind of a good thing. You're moving with the same people. So if I like, if you feel a class, you're cohort that you're with. You're with you. Yeah. Going back to the instructor. So you mentioned Shannon quite a bit. And so let's talk about these wraparound service because you had amazing support in the classroom. Let's talk about the support outside of classroom. What did that look like? Oh man, Shannon's just amazing. We turned in an adult counselor, which weirdly, she was also my first counselor. I saw when I first started here. I was like, I applied for a job and I see her again. I'm like, I know you. She's following you. She's right. She's right outside. Oh man. She told like not to me, but she is the same type. We're like, you show up, you show initiative. And she will like bestow you like this amazing knowledge in like soft skills. Like she's the one that is still me respond back within 24 hours. Always reply back to emails, follow up, always follow through on things. And this goes a lot back to like student congress reason why we had so many initiatives is like, I would say a lot of it is from Shannon's like amazing leadership in that program. You said the Wi-Fi was one of the student congress initiatives. Yeah. What does it take to? Yeah, can you walk or see that? How did that happen? Oh my god, then we're getting bureaucracy. No, no, no, no, no, no, this is about accountability and character building because this is adulting stuff. This is adult. Yeah. Oh, okay. So the Wi-Fi hotspots. It didn't just come up at like night or randomly. With accountability, we send out surveys to our student population. What are your needs? Your basic needs. And it's your job in student congress to follow through with those initiatives. So that was just like a ton of hunting down as in like coming back from Shannon's like, okay, you want to follow through and help students like get free Wi-Fi. I'm like, I don't know how like no one gives me the instructions. You got to find out how like it's not going to just the instructions are going to be there. So I had to hunt down a lot of people. Like I said, the emails that came in a clutch, how to get a vendor, how to talk to the library. It was just like a lot of yeah, following through it looked a lot of like circles going around and around, but eventually we got those hotspots and I'm like, oh, I can like leave this campus with a closure. I did one good thing. And it's a huge thing. I got to tell you, I think there's students out there who are benefiting from what you guys did. I think there's now people with more access to stuff, right? Right. I think they call it the daffodil effect, right? Like the initiatives that, because I was part of student life with Bolsa, right? So we're going to come up with these initiatives that that current group of students are not going to see. So it's like, oh, I'm not going to take advantage of it. No, when you come back to campus and visit us, then you can take advantage of it kind of thing. But you're planning, so the planning these seeds for future generations to kind of, you know, for the betterment of the campus life and all that stuff. So that was like the mindset, like the lot of the student leaders are like, oh, I don't get to take advantage of the resource. Like, yeah, but you're giving this resource to future generations of students, that something that you didn't have. And they're like, okay, I can take comfort in that. I guess. I'm happy the community. Yeah, higher education. That's right. That's a really good mindset, because the mindset I had was like in what Shannon like helped us with was like now or like never. Like if you have the ability to do something now, do it now because then it's never going to happen. So much in school, it's like, oh, we'll get to it. You know, we'll get to it later. No, do it. Do just do it now. Like that's that was my inner model. You just do it now. So let's go down your accomplishments. I'm going to go down this list and because it was a lot. So associate's degree, two of them, ASN Natural Sciences, both in engineering and biology, 23 and 24. And I saw the word honors next to it. And then here we are, 2025 batches degree in electrical engineering. Oh my gosh. And so what master's degree are you pursuing right now? And electrical engineering, surprisingly, that one class where I was like, I don't know if I'm going to do well. That's going to be part of my master. So I was like, okay. So what would you tell this? So what would you tell your 17 year old self? Then here you are in a program that you thought you would never be in. So what would you tell like your 17 year old self? Stick through with it. Find a good mentor that cares. Like I said, back with the accountability. If you don't have that accountability, but you're just going to kind of lay all around and just like do the easiest thing, which isn't bad. But like, yeah, just stick through it. It's going to be hard. Okay. So then you have all that. So that's your academic side. So now we're going to go to like your extracurricular. I don't know, even know where to begin. So we talked about student congress a little bit. I'll start with serene. So what was your role with serene? I see resilience core leader. Like what was that? So it was a new program with sustainability and how I got into it. Oh my god. I just remember being on a bunch of committees last year. You said work life balance. I'm like, my Google counter was just a bunch of like angry colors. It was red, yes. But a thing that helped me like ground myself that I found consistently useful with my friends is going hiking. Restoration, college restoration, and serene was this new program. It's like, oh, you're in student congress. You're also in a bunch of these committees. We need someone to do like outreach and connect these committees to know about our program. And it has to do with sustainability. I'm like, add another one, add another color to the calendar. Why not? The UH Horror Culture Society. It was another random side quest. I just do all these random side quests. That one was like those email blasts. Yeah. Come to this lab to like learn how to plant a plant or get free, like, avocados. There was a point where I was like dying in my exams, but I'm like, yes, I have an hour free. I'm going to go get avocados for free. Like I have that. Now they're over there like a bunch of people. And I'm like, don't do any better things to do. I'm like, no. No, I'm getting avocado. Spensive, these things. There's like a photo of me out there. You know, like those Fisher guys, how they have like, they hold the avocado like this. I had like a bunch down. I was like holding it like. Was that your bridge from the ecology club? Oh my gosh. That's just a random thing. Oh my gosh. What is this? Akamai internship? Oh, yes. That was, I went to Hilo. This was, oh god, I want to say 2022. 2022? Yep. Right before I transferred to Manoa. I lived in Hilo. I worked at Subaru Telescope. And I made the best of that side quest. So one of my professors, two of actually people that work here works in Hilo. So I used that time to learn what I could at the telescope. And like, I met amazing mentors, but I had a good time on the island. I felt there's a lot of cookie frogs. You guys been Hilo? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. They're those cookies. Yes. They're trying to frogs trying to find those things that go scavenger hunting. So you stayed in Hilo. So talk about more of this Akamai opportunity. So you're ducking telescopes. Cookie frog. Cookie frog. Take us down along this journey. This is amazing. Email blasts again. I've signed up. Went through the interview process and they pair you up with a mentor who has kind of a similar background in you. And I didn't work, I like, sorry, I didn't work at the telescope telescope, but it was like a base kind of like 10 minutes away from you Hilo. And it was like my first time living alone for two months. That was two months. Yeah. And that was, I just, I felt like I feel like it could be summarized cookie frogs, telescope, and be more independent. If this is my first time living by myself at a roommate, but like buying food, I didn't have a car. Turns out Hilo, if you don't have a car, you're very screwed. I learned that the hard way things close early too, right? They're far and like seven, I'm like, oh, come on. Let's go visit my neighbor like two miles away. Like, oh, my gosh. You talk about the email thread. What was your takeaway from this initiative? So you did the two months. What did that lead to afterwards? Oh, so that was a weird butterfly. In fact, I transferred to UH Manoa and like, they had research grants. Get this. Black holes. So I know semester where I was just like, I don't know nothing about black holes, but like, they pair you up with, or not they, but I had a professor there. So I was researching black holes after that. That was interesting. I learned something new. What does it have to do with electrical engineering? I mean, you know, such a good question. It was a good side quest, but what it has with electrical engineering is that program has a lot to do with like making rockets. And I think they're called the epit program. There's like, there's a light laboratory at Manoa. So it was like connected to them. So like engineer, sure. There's a lot of math in astronomy. I remember escape velocity. See stuff like that. UH Manoa student ambassador. So, yeah, I'm still an engineering student. I'm a bachelor for UH Manoa. And a theme, I guess, that comes around with all these side quests is I love meeting new people and interesting people. So I was like, also, I needed a job. So I was just like, okay, well, keep me on track again, accountability buddy. And it just exposed me like, I had to get people to drink the engineering cool aid. Yes. So I'm like, how do I angle that? So that was, I'm still, still there. Does that have anything to do with the honor society that you are just doing with all this? That's another side quest. So not related to engineering student ambassador. I just, I like talking to people in my class. And you have to meet like a certain GPA to be in that society. I did not. I just want to emphasize. I was surprised I'd even got in. But I was just doing all these side quests. And they're like, oh, we notice that you do like a bunch of club stuff and you like getting funding from it. We were a club and we need funding and we need like social people. Like come in. And now I'm a pledge master for the honor society. So I'm like, this is okay. Leg master. Like the onboarding of the new people. I was just like, what? To me that goes to show if you're able to demonstrate that you're capable of doing the job. I mean, the GPA is yes, I get it. But to be able to demonstrate it and show your passion, I mean, that speaks volumes. All you got to do is try. Like I want to emphasize in all these opportunities. Like I didn't have like a stellar GPA. Like that was not my selling point. And that's not what they're really looking for. It's like, do you want it? Because there's a ton of students like, like, do you show up? Like, do are you passionate about it? Do you care for it? And like, are you? You have like people skills? It's very low engineering. The people skills like bar. I remember me conversation with somebody. And I told them their engineer, like, I told them engineering like, wow, that's you can speak. And I'm like, I'm like, you can talk to people. I'm like, I just asked you how your day was. Like, I'm like, okay. Is that a thing? Like, didn't you have a teacher class? So yes. In my, as a grad student, Manoa, I actually had to, I taught a class. It was an IS class. It was IS 250/engineering 250. And I had to take 10, you know, IS students and the rest of them had to be for engineers. And it's for them to socialize. Thank you for your service. But I will tell you that it is such, it was such an interesting experience. Because, okay, so I'm true color certified. You know, that's one of the things I did with you all. And for the people that are familiar with true colors, I had this one semester with those 20 students. 18 of them were orange. It's explained to the listeners with oranges. They are full of energy. The engineers? Yes. Yes. A lot of the engineers had, it was very, it was a weird anomaly that happened during the time. So I taught this class like once a week for like two and a half hours after that class I was done. I was so tired teaching that class. So too much energy. I had too much energy. But for engineers, that's why I was like, as I interacted with them, like, oh, now you're not the traditional engineer that people come to know. They're like, oh, what are you talking about? They're loud and like, it was interesting class. And one of the activities is they had to do this thing called like, they've kind of played telephone. You got to pass the message on you and you have to make recreate a building or a structure. And the IS students were getting frustrated with the engineers because the engineer measurements were so precise versus the IS kids and they're like, they're like, oh, so they're, you know, it was just so fun. You're like, oh, it's about that big. And the engineers are like, what does that mean? Like, what is that? 0.25, 0.35. And they're like, I don't know. Just do this. And like, okay, fine. So it was an interesting dynamic in that class. It's like how you measure rice. It's like to the, it's to the line in your figure. I never understood that. But I don't know what an engineer would do. It's like, no, no, no, there's this unit of measurement right here. So future journey. Now you have all these accomplishments under your belt. You're also in grad school. Where do you see yourself five years from now? I'll be. Or what do you want to do? I'll be almost 30. Oh, I don't want to do. I know, for a fact, I want to stay here in Hawaii. I want to be more involved in the community. Just based on that list, I'm like, how much more can I get involved? So that's a good question. I didn't. I mean, five years ago being like, yeah, you're going to study black holes for like two semesters. Oh, there was a networking side quest. Like, I studied ICS for a bit. And like, what? So five years from now, I just hope like I'm still doing what I love. I genuinely love this community. I want to see it grow. Be more involved. So five years from now, I just want to look back being like, I just got better and I surround myself with people. What is it that you want to do in the community? Like, what do you want to change? I really love student government here at KCC, which again, happened on a whim, but just having that capacity to so many emails, so many follow-ups. But like you said, with the hotspots, like, being able to make a higher education or just like the community more accessible to basic needs, really proved to be very fulfilling on my end, on like seeing it through. I feel like that had like the highest return on like doing the work, but then just seeing it happen is really fulfilling. So I hope I not hope. I will keep doing that. You will keep doing that. Yep. So all the listeners out there, email Blast Jenny. You will jump on that initiative. Less than 24 hours. No, it's 24 hours. It's ingrained in her head. Shannon will come after you. Guys, but I'm losing my touch. It's been 48 hours. Oh, so wait a minute. So you guys have been getting really frustrated with me because I want to email like three days. Not a thing. Think about it. She's not responding to us too. I was like, oh, we got a response to Jenny. I'm like looking outside the window. I'm like, I'm here. Lucky on the window. Like 24 hours. You're getting back to me. Hello. Hello. That'll make sense. Yeah. That's our trouble. I'll take it. Thank you guys. So like I mentioned earlier before we hit record, there's going to be a lot of people listening to this. Like we showed you on our computer community college website. We have a 80th anniversary highlighting. The students who've gone through KCC, there's going to be students who are thinking about engineering that are going to be listening to this. What are some, you shared many, many gems today. What other insights do you have to share with our listeners? So very weird niche tip. But like find that kid in class who's really enthusiastic about math, really enthusiastic about the lab because I was hating myself in the lab. But then having that person next to me kind of made me annoyed by them, but we got an A in that lab. And like the people next to you, like they're super cool. Like just because someone's good at something and you're not, doesn't mean like, you know, they're still cool. And another gem I would like to like give to everyone is just try do it. Like the most valuable thing like all these experiences like not everything was like, oh, it works for me. I want to do this like like that business degree like that was valuable as and I knew I didn't want to do that as my main thing. So try be open and find a buddy in the trenches. Like they'll make your life more easier. Okay. And another thing I want to bring up too is financing school. I wish I, sorry, didn't weave this in earlier. So when you talk about financing school by yourself, if you could, words of advice on that because there's a lot of students out there who feel finances the barrier. So how did you or tips on that be very resourceful. So those emails, I mentioned those research, how big is your inbox? There's 15 unread emails right now and I, one five, one five that I keep looking at and I'm like, I can't respond to you right now. I got to get back to you. We have co-workers that have 10,000 emails. You know who you are out there. And is it the tab shaming too? Yes, tab shaming. So sorry back to that. We're back to financing. So the emails, like how did you, how did you do it? You're going to have to sell yourself in weird ways. So at a community college, your STEM center, they sent out email shout out to Leanne and Irvey. They're amazing. I forgot to mention them. Like those are also awesome. They sent out like grants, internship opportunities, just apply, apply, apply. Obviously you got to tailor it, but use your resources because those people in that STEM program, you like ask them or like a people around them being like, oh how I need help to get this internship. What do you suggest? They'll be very helpful. At a four year, you're dealing with almost three, four times the cost of your tuition. And a larger population too, the competition I'm guessing is higher. Here's the thing with the grants. Most people, the reason why they don't like get it is because they don't read the instructions for the grants are like, make sure you follow this template, submit it by this. So you might not be the smartest or like have the best proposal, but if you're able to read instructions, read instructions. What imagine of that? Just read. Wow. It's like, that's how I was able to get it because there's people like curing cancer over there, but I'm like, yeah, researching cold sure, but I follow the instructions. It really just comes down to that. The reading instructions is really good. When you exit out of your bachelor's degree, you reach Manila. What's your debt? Zero. That requires. That's a lot of fun. I'm going to play this all the way through. That's enthusiastic crowd up there. No way. This degree took my sanity and my money. Like, uh, uh, it is not going to put me in debt. Although I did graduate like a year later, but still it's okay. No debt. Yeah. And going into grad school, what's pain for that? No, dad, either I am not real. So I had my RAship, which for the listeners that don't know, that's called a research assistantship. Okay. So you work underneath a professor on a project. They wave your tuition. They give you a stipend. I had that before I had my acceptance to grad school because I was like, I am not paying for a hundred dollar application fee for grad school. No, no, no, no. So you kind of have to be stumbered. Again, read the instructions and email the right people. Amazing. Now going back to going back to the words of a, uh, words of wisdom to those who again are staring engineering in the face, um, they have a passion for it, but are like deathly afraid of the rigor that they're about to take on. What would you tell them? If you're going to be 30, my mind will be 30 in an engineer anyways. You're still going to be at that age. So I feel fear, your own fear shouldn't be the thing that should be stopping you. You, you will be surprised. Just as I've seen it throughout the years, just the amount of sheer stubborn and spite that has motivated me and got me through. And the curve, I such a common thing, the engineering curve, because everyone's failing. You got the smartest kid at their old high school there. You got like people I just came in. They're all struggling. So know that you're, they're fear of failure or fear. They're not good enough. Well, it's never going to go away. Minds will just do it anyways because everyone else feels that way. And there's a, there's a phrase out there where people want to, where people encourage folks to fail forward. So even that, like when you're amongst other folks are struggling. What's that like? Pailing forward. Everyone that I know, not everyone, but most people have failed a certain class. I don't know if you want to point up that transcript when I show the audience down. Oh, yeah. He's also my advisor now. Oh, he's, he's pointing at the D minus I have on my score. Wait, that's an actual great D. D minus. Yeah, D. I failed static. Oh, sorry. No one rose about someone gave me a D minus minus. We'll talk about that later. It's not half, but it's almost there. Not cool. Anyway, there are classes. You're going to do terrible and I did terrible in my last semester of college. And I also did terrible in statics. Um, I failed that class. How do we take it? Multiple people. I know we took it. You just keep going. So that D minus I studied so much for that final exam. I got a two percent. How do you think I felt? But I took my wins. Got a A minus milestone. So I was like, I'll take it. But I'm kind of revealing a lot about my transcript. That's why I'm making you do it. And the D minus. Hold on a thought that there has to be a positive. The guy teaching it. He's now one of my advisors who's actually the chair of the graduate program. And he's super cool. So it's like, even if you do terrible, I was able to separate how I was learning in that class and like the amazing professor. So I'll keep the professor not going in that track. What an amazing story. What an amazing journey. Jenny, thank you so much. Any last word you want to tell or listen to something? Stick through it. It's worth it. Thanks guys. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]