{"id":234088,"date":"2026-05-12T12:58:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=234088"},"modified":"2026-05-12T13:05:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:05:55","slug":"kauai-cc-library-at-the-heart-of-silva-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/05\/12\/kauai-cc-library-at-the-heart-of-silva-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"3 degrees: The Kauaʻi CC<\/abbr> library at the heart of Alyssa Silva\u2019s journey"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"women
Alyssa\u02bbs work as a student employee led her to pursue a career in librarianship.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A decade ago, Alyssa Silva first stepped into the Kauaʻi<\/span> Community College library<\/a> as a Running Start student. Running Start is a program that allows eligible high school students to take a college course at a University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> campus as part of their high school coursework.<\/p>\n

\"Silva
This will be Alyssa Silva\u02bbs third time walking the commencement stage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Silva is preparing to cross Kauaʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr>\u2019s commencement stage for the third time to earn her master of library and information science<\/a> degree from ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½<\/abbr> M\u0101noa. She was only 16 when she began her journey there, while attending Kauaʻi<\/span> High School.<\/p>\n

“I basically grew up in this library in terms of my career,” Silva said. “I came here when I was 16, and now I\u2019m 26.”<\/p>\n

Silva earned her associate degree in accounting from Kauaʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr> in 2019 before transferring to ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½<\/abbr> West Oʻahu<\/span><\/a>. She completed her bachelor\u2019s degree in business administration<\/a> with an emphasis in accounting<\/a> in 2021, while residing on Kauaʻi<\/span>. During her undergraduate years, she worked as a student assistant in the Kauaʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr> library.<\/p>\n

After graduating, Silva briefly worked in accounting before finding herself drawn back to the library. What began as a temporary position quickly turned into a permanent role. She credits University Center Education Specialist Rhonda Liu with encouraging her to pursue a master\u2019s degree in library and information science.<\/p>\n

\"2
Education specialist Rhonda Liu, left, encouraged Alyssa Silva to earn her master\u02bbs degree.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Working in a small community college library has allowed her to develop skills across many areas while helping students feel welcomed and supported.<\/p>\n

“We get students fresh out of high school, or students returning to school after a long time, and they can be nervous,” Silva said. “We\u2019re here to help them become comfortable using the library and the school\u2019s resources, and to give them a safe space to be.”<\/p>\n

Indigenous librarianship<\/h2>\n

Throughout her graduate studies, Silva said courses focused on Indigenous librarianship had the greatest impact on her perspective and career goals.<\/p>\n

“Libraries are based on Western ideas, and Indigenous knowledge doesn\u2019t always fit neatly into those systems,” Silva said. “I feel like my way of contributing to our Indigenous-serving institution is by being a careful steward of what we have, continuing to learn from our community, and finding ways to make library spaces and collections more reflective of the people we serve.”<\/p>\n

In recent years, Silva has supported a variety of initiatives at Kauaʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr>, including managing circulation operations, learning cataloging, and collection management while helping plan for future library projects and supporting projects connected to the Kikuchi Center.<\/p>\n

“As an Indigenous-serving institution, archiving helps make these materials accessible,” Silva said. “It creates greater access for the community, especially for Native Hawaiian students, to connect with and work with these materials.”<\/p>\n

Silva also recognizes the important role libraries play for local students at a time when many public school libraries on Kauaʻi<\/span> face ongoing challenges and reductions in services.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes students come into the library feeling intimidated,” Silva said. “I feel like making sure Indigenous, Pacific and local authors are represented and available to our students is crucial. It\u2019s important for students to walk into a library and see something of themselves reflected there.”<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Silva is considering pursuing a second master\u2019s degree in Indigenous language and culture education, history, anthropology or humanities to become a specialty librarian. No matter where her career leads, the Kauaʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr> library remains at the heart of her journey.<\/p>\n

—By Caitlin B. Fowlkes<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She went from high school student to careful steward through the Kauaʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr> library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":234106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[301,234,1047,64,303,71,9],"class_list":["post-234088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-commencement","tag-early-college","tag-kauai-community-college","tag-library-and-information-science","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/kauai-commencement-silva-alyssa-4.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234088","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=234088"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234124,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234088\/revisions\/234124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}