Class of 2022 gets boost with Next Steps program

Free services to help graduating Hawaii high school seniors shift into college, job training, the military or work will be offered by the Next Steps to Your Future program for a third consecutive summer.

The nonprofit Hawai‘i P-20 Partnerships for Education, University of Hawaii community colleges and other community partners are teaming up again to provide one-on-one virtual support to seniors graduating from Hawaii public, charter and private schools.

Next Steps to Your Future started as an “emergency intervention” in response to challenges touched off by the COVID-19 pandemic, and “this year, we will continue to help students with their transitions to college and career,” Stephen Schatz, P-20’s executive director, said in a news release.

“We need to collectively work on supporting the transition between high school and students’ next steps, as we have learned that it’s an important but often missing piece of support,” Schatz said.

Every student who joins the Next Steps to Your Future program will be connected to a member of the program’s advising team of public high school counselors and teachers. Individualized counseling starts June 1.

Advisers will provide “customized one-on-one support” to students who plan to enroll in college, enter the workforce, enlist in the military, or who may still be undecided. Personalized advising support for the eight-week summer program will consist of virtual advising appointments, mobile texting and access to on-demand resources.

May 31 is the deadline to sign up. Go to nextsteps.hawaii.edu or text “nextsteps” to 808-400-9725.

Eligible Next Steps students who previously took early college classes in high school will also have an opportunity to enroll in a free six-week online summer class through the UH community colleges’ Momentum program. Sign-up starts in early April, and the program runs July 5 to Aug. 15.

Next Steps class of 2022 participants will also be eligible for a Next Steps scholarship to attend a UH campus this fall.

The Next Steps to Your Future 2022 program and scholarships are funded with support from GEAR UP Hawai‘i, federal CARES Act funding awarded to UH, Kamehameha Schools and the Central Pacific Bank Foundation.

Since the program launched in 2020, nearly 2,700 students have participated in Next Steps virtual advising services, more than 1,600 have completed a UH community colleges Next Steps course and more than 1,000 have been awarded scholarships worth a total of over $2.8 million.