This special compilation show features some of the top stories from the Fall Semester of the 2017/2018 school year. In all of the selected stories, HIKI NŌ students explore the truth about the people they are featuring.

This episode features stories from the 2017 HIKI NŌ Fall Challenge. In September of 2017, five high schools and nine middle schools participated in a challenge in which teams had exactly four days to conceptualize, shoot, write, and edit a HIKI NŌ story based on a specific theme.

TOP STORY Students from Pomaika‘i Elementary School in Kahului, Maui make their HIKI NŌ debut with a primer on “How to Better the Community.” Their tips include: pick up trash from your local park; provide folding chairs for bus stops without benches; volunteer at an assisted living facility, school, food bank, or animal shelter.

TOP STORY Students from Kaua‘i High School in Lihue present a personal essay called “The Bigger Picture.” It bemoans how smartphones and other personal electronic devises get in the way of our enjoyment of the natural world around us.

TOP STORY   Students from H.P. Baldwin High School on Maui trace a fellow student’s road to recovery after he was hit by a drunk driver. In May 2017, Baldwin senior Jerome Ribao suffered a severe leg injury from the accident. Despite this setback, Jerome found ways to remain active.

TOP STORY   Students from Sacred Hearts Academy, an all-girl school in the Kaimuki district of O‘ahu, tell the story of their school’s professional mentoring program called Girls Got Grit. The program places Sacred Hearts students in professional work places where they are mentored by female staffers.

TOP STORY Students from Konawaena High School on Hawai‘i Island tell the personal and inspirational story of one of their teachers. Emma Erwin hiked all 2,650 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail – from Mexico to Canada – as part of her recovery from the trauma of sexual assault.

TOP STORY: Students from Wai‘anae High School in West O‘ahu go aboard the Hōkūle‘a voyaging canoe, back from its celebrated worldwide voyage. They show us how the current crew is teaching traditional navigation techniques to a new generation and how this experience is connecting Hawaiian students to their culture.

The final installment of the four-part Focus on Compassion HIKI NŌ series focuses on peoples’ compassion toward animals, including house pets, working pets, exotic animals and endangered species.

The second of four in a special HIKI NŌ Focus on Compassion series emphasizes the unique and sometimes misunderstood relationship between parent and child. This four-episode series is hosted by Crystal Cebedo, a 2016 HIKI NŌ and Wai‘anae High School graduate in her second year at Menlo College in Atherton, California.