The ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to challenge Hawaii’s high school seniors.

Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education, together with the University of Hawaii Community Colleges (UHCC) and community partners, have committed to support this year’s Class of 2022 Hawaii high school graduates.

For a third consecutive summer, partners are providing graduating seniors and families free advising and counseling services to support students’ transition towards a promising future.

“The Next Steps to Your Future program started as an emergency intervention to the pandemic, and this year, we will continue to help students with their transitions to college and career. 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,” said Stephen Schatz, executive director of Hawaiʻi P-20.

Every student who opts into the Next Steps to Your Future program will be connected to a professional virtual advisor. Advisors will provide customized one-on-one support to all 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 will consist of virtual advising appointments, mobile texting and access to on-demand resources.

To sign up for the Next Steps To Your Future Program, go to nextsteps.hawaii.edu or text “nextsteps” to (808) 400-9725 by May 31, 2022.

Eligible Next Steps students who previously took early college classes in high school will also have the opportunity to enroll in a free online six-week summer class (July 5 to Aug. 15, 2022) through the University of Hawaii Community College’s Momentum program.

The Momentum program seeks to build upon high school graduates’ early college experience by providing them support over the summer, so they will successfully enroll at a UHCC campus in the fall. Sign ups for these classes will begin in early April.