Maui Business Report

Higher Education, Closer to Home

UH Maui College business and technology degree comes to Molokai

Stephanie Lauifi had gotten out of her family’s old business, and was wondering what to do next, when her husband had an idea. “He told me, why don’t you try to go to school?” she recalls. “I never thought I would like it.”

Still, Lauifi enrolled in the University of Hawaii, Maui College, and began taking classes at the school’s Molokai campus, studying subjects like accounting, marketing, cyber security, and web design. Now this spring, Lauifi and three other Molokai students are expected to be the first from the Friendly Isle to graduate with a bachelor of applied science degree in the university’s Applied Business and Information Technology program, or ABIT. The hybrid degree combines business, technology, and entrepreneurship classes.

Photo: Courtesy of University of Hawaii

“I figured since I had a business background, I might as well get more updated,” Lauifi says.

But the degree almost didn’t happen. Lauifi and her fellow Molokai students were able to complete the coursework for an associate degree, but the additional classes they needed to finish ABIT were not available on the island. “We said, ‘We can’t come to Maui — we can’t just pick up and leave,’” she says. UHMC eventually made the courses available online. “We were able to finish it here on Molokai,” Lauifi says.

Lauifi says she hopes to apply her new skills to some of the many nonprofits and community organizations where she volunteers, including her homestead association. “We’re building a new building. We need an accounting system, a website to do our rentals,” she says. “I think my knowledge can help.”