{"id":226587,"date":"2025-12-08T13:04:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T23:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=226587"},"modified":"2025-12-08T13:06:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T23:06:34","slug":"mother-son-commencement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/12\/08\/mother-son-commencement\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother and son will share a milestone at 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> West Oʻahu commencement"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>
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Tanya H\u014dk\u016blani Racoma (right) and her son Brendan Isaiah ʻOnipaʻa Racoma<\/san><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the Racoma family, the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span>–West Oʻahu<\/span><\/a>\u2019s December commencement holds special significance because of who will be sharing the stage–Tanya H\u014dk\u016blani Racoma and her firstborn, son Brendan Isaiah ʻOnipaʻa<\/span> Racoma.<\/p>\n

H\u014dk\u016b, as she is known, is a mother of three—ages 23, 16 and 13. She took a nearly two decades-long break from college to focus on raising her family.<\/p>\n

“My biggest reason for coming back to school and completing my bachelor\u2019s degree was to teach my kids when you start something, to always finish it,” said H\u014dk\u016b, 43, a professional songwriter. “It was always a dream of mine.”<\/p>\n

H\u014dk\u016b and Brendan, of Waipahu, are among nearly 190 students participating in 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> West Oʻahu<\/span>\u2019s 2025 Mid-Year Commencement Ceremony<\/a>. H\u014dk\u016b will graduate with honors, earning a bachelor of arts in humanities with a concentration in English and a certificate in music. Brendan will receive a bachelor of arts in public administration with a concentration in disaster preparedness and emergency management.<\/p>\n

H\u014dk\u016b and Brendan\u2019s shared success resulted from similar paths (although different timelines)—both transferred to 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> West Oʻahu<\/span> after each attended two 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Community Colleges, and each earned two associate degrees and various certificates.<\/p>\n

“We didn\u2019t plan it,” H\u014dk\u016b said and smiled. “It just happened like that.”<\/p>\n

Brendan, like his mother, feels a strong sense of achievement as graduation nears. For him, navigating college life with work, as well as other obligations and responsibilities, came with inevitable challenges.<\/p>\n

“Truthfully, in my point of view, it wasn\u2019t easy,” Brendan said. “But it was really all worthwhile. And having mom with me is like an added bonus.”<\/p>\n

For more visit Ka Puna O Kaloʻi<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

—By Zenaida Serrano Arvman<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tanya H\u014dk\u016blani Racoma and her firstborn, son Brendan Isaiah ʻOnipaʻa<\/span> Racoma will participate in 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> West Oʻahu<\/span>\u2019s commencement ceremony on December 13. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":226588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1536,234,224,660,59],"class_list":["post-226587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-arts-and-humanities","tag-commencement","tag-public-administration","tag-student-recognition","tag-uh-west-oahu","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/west-oahu-commencement-feature.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226587"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226631,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226587\/revisions\/226631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}