A Student Publication of the University of Hawai`i • Honolulu Community College • April/May 2016
Ka LĀ photos by Kiki Williams
Michellie Barbadillo found the support she needed at home and at HonCC to graduate with two degrees.
Finally ready to take on the whole world
With help from family, friends and the HonCC ohana
By Vania Graves Ka LĀ staff writer
Michellie Barbadillo has finally made it to the graduation stage. After six years of hard work, Barbadillo is graduating this semester with a double major in liberal arts and Occupational & Environmental Safety Management. However, the pathway to this point was anything but easy for
this mother of two. Like most of the 600 or so students receiving degrees and certificates this semester from Honolulu Community College, Barbadillo had to juggle classes, jobs and family obligations and had to overcome many academic frustrations and challenges. And like all the others graduating, she was able to overcome those challenges with hard work, endurance
and the help of dozens of people who offered support and encouragement along the way. Barbadillo started at HonCC back in the Fall semester of 2010, launching herself on a journey that would change her life forever. “I was tired of being in construction labor and wanted to be a safety inspector,” Barbadillo said. In her first two years she passed all her classes with fly-
ing colors, making it to Dean’s List twice. But like many other students, her smooth ride ended when she started taking math classes. “I got stuck in math,” Barbadillo said. “I struggled a lot.”
OESM has a minimum requirement of passing Math 115, Introduction to Statistics and Probability. Although Barbadillo was Continued on Page 2