{"id":79536,"date":"2018-05-10T12:59:32","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T22:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=79536"},"modified":"2020-01-08T14:07:14","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T00:07:14","slug":"like-son-like-father-commencement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/05\/10\/like-son-like-father-commencement\/","title":{"rendered":"Like son, like father: Walking together at commencement"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SDm3nI8R0vU?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/manoa-come-back-sato-parent.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/manoa-come-back-sato-parent-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Ken Sato with his son as a baby\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-79599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/manoa-come-back-sato-parent-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/manoa-come-back-sato-parent-630x353.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/manoa-come-back-sato-parent.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, May 12, hundreds of proud parents will be in the audience as the <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a> holds its <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/commencement\/\">107th commencement ceremonies<\/a> at the <a href=\"http:\/\/hawaiiathletics.com\/sports\/2008\/5\/14\/stan_sheriff_center.aspx\">Stan Sheriff Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dad <strong>Ken Sato<\/strong> won\u2019t just be watching as his 26-year-old son, <strong>Todd<\/strong> walks up to the stage to accept his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/art\/degree_programs\/\">bachelor of fine arts<\/a> degree. Ken Sato, 45, will also be wearing a cap and gown, as he earns his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politicalscience.hawaii.edu\/\">bachelor of arts in political science<\/a> almost 20 years after leaving <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr>, just a few credits short of graduating.<\/p>\n<p>He is thankful for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.outreach.hawaii.edu\/credit\/come_back\/default.aspx\">Come Back to M\u0101noa<\/a>, an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.outreach.hawaii.edu\/\">Outreach College<\/a> program initiated in 2014 that actively reaches out to eligible undergraduate seniors who voluntarily departed the M\u0101noa campus before completing their first bachelor\u2019s degrees.<\/p>\n<h2>It\u2019s never too late<\/h2>\n<p>Helping these students complete their higher education and earn their bachelor\u2019s degrees, sometimes decades after they leave school, are the main goals of Come Back to M\u0101noa, led by Coordinator <strong>Shannon Johnson<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The program serves as an advocate for students, and provides encouragement, guidance and assistance to almost-grads like Sato, who graduated from Waipahu High School in 1991 and immediately enrolled at 糖心Vlog官方 M\u0101noa.<\/p>\n<p>Then life happened. &ldquo;It was in my second semester that I found out I was going to be a father. Probably about a semester after that I had to drop out to support my family,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wasn&#8217;t the best student at the time, so it was a real struggle.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Sato returned to <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M\u0101noa for his bachelor\u2019s degree in 1996, but stopped attending again in 1999, although he did earn his television production certificate from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/campuses\/leeward\/\">Leeward Community College<\/a>. He was employed in video production for 20 years.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I think it\u2019s going to be a little bit of pride, because I stuck with it.<br \/>\n&#8212;Ken Sato<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&ldquo;Just recently, though, I had a turn of events in my career that forced me to try to change direction,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;So that\u2019s when I contacted <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/admissions\/\">admissions<\/a> to see what I could do at that point.&rdquo; Sato was connected with Come Back to M\u0101noa\u2019s Johnson, who looked at his records, what courses were needed to graduate, how that could be accomplished and which people he needed to contact to earn his degree.<\/p>\n<p>Life happens. But it\u2019s never too late&#8212;and Saturday is proof for Ken Sato, who explained how he\u2019ll feel on earning his bachelor\u2019s degree. &ldquo;I think it\u2019s going to be a little bit of pride, because I stuck with it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I actually abandoned it at one point, but then came back. It was my dream and here it is.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Adds his son, Todd, who has advice for other &ldquo;almost-grads&rdquo; like his father: &ldquo;I would say, give Come Back to M\u0101noa a call, and inquire about what services are available, because you are a lot closer to graduating than you think.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Discover two more Come Back to M\u0101noa success stories: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/02\/05\/come-back-to-manoa-program\/\"><em>Second time\u2019s the charm for students to complete their degree at <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M\u0101noa<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Learn more at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.outreach.hawaii.edu\/credit\/come_back\/\">Come Back to M\u0101noa website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Diane Chang<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Come Back to M\u0101noa program in Outreach College helps former students, like Ken Sato, finally get their bachelor degrees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,12],"tags":[113,234,65,49,71,9,56],"class_list":["post-79536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-video","tag-college-of-arts-and-humanities","tag-commencement","tag-leeward-community-college","tag-outreach-college","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79536","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=79536"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108923,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79536\/revisions\/108923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}