Kauai Community College celebrates nearly 200 graduates in misty ceremony

Nearly 200 Kauai Community College graduates, award recipients and certificate earners crossed the Puhi campus lawn under cooling wind and mist, in a ceremony that underscored how the college feeds Kauai’s workforce in nursing, social work, education and other island jobs.

The 61st commencement began at 4:30 p.m. Friday, May 15, with public access starting at 3:30 p.m. on the lawn in front of the ahu/social sciences building. The college had relocated the ceremony site near the ahu and the Hawaiian Studies building, and the event was livestreamed for families who could not make it in person.

Many of the graduates had pre-registered, filling a program that recognized completers from summer 2025, fall 2025 and spring 2026. That mix reflected Kauai Community College’s graduation policy, which invites students finishing in summer or fall to take part in the spring commencement, bringing multiple terms together in one ceremony instead of splitting the class across the calendar.

The result was a ceremony that stretched beyond a single graduating class. Kauai CC’s lineup included Early College students from Kauai high schools as well as learners finishing higher-level degrees through distance learning, a reminder that the campus serves teenagers beginning college credits, working adults returning to school and students preparing for careers that need training close to home.

Selected student speakers highlighted the range of those pathways. Erika Catiggay represented Hawaiian Studies, Gillian Perdido spoke for Nursing and Joanna McCormack represented the Master’s in Social Work. Other remarks were recorded with permission from Lexi Bonachita-Taniguchi of Culinary Arts and Alysha Palacio of Early Childhood Education, fields that point directly to local labor needs on an island where healthcare, caregiving, food service and early learning are always in demand.

Faculty honors added another layer to the day. Brian Yamamoto, a professor of natural sciences at Kauai Community College, received the Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. The University of Hawaii says the award recognizes dedication and demonstrated excellence in teaching undergraduates, and says Yamamoto has embodied that spirit for more than 40 years. Mark Ombrello was named the recipient of the Board of Regents Excellence in Teaching Award, which the University of Hawaii describes as reserved for faculty who show extraordinary subject mastery, scholarship, teaching effectiveness, creativity and values that benefit students.

The 2026 turnout topped last year’s more than 160 graduates and extended a spring tradition that now spans students from Kauai high schools to master’s candidates. Under a gray island sky, the ceremony made one point plain: Kauai Community College remains one of the county’s most important pipelines for the people who will staff classrooms, clinics, kitchens and public agencies across the island.