Although the current school year is only hitting the halfway point, students have begun registering for courses for next school year.
For NHIS students, the 2025-2026 school year registration started on November 12. For Nānāikapono, Nānākuli Elementary, and Ka Waihona, the registration will take place in December.
Registration is the time when students get the chance to choose their top choices for their elective or pathway.
“Registration is extremely important because student interest will determine teaching lines and the number of sections offered,” said Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, the NHIS Registrar.
An elective class allows students to explore different topics that pique their personal interest. There are 6.0 elective credits required for graduation. To fulfill these requirements, students pick a class that captures their attention, starting from 7th grade and continuing till 12th. The electives offered to high schoolers are different from those offered to middle schoolers.
NHIS has now added a few new electives. This includes Foundations of Computer Systems & Tech, Foundations of Teaching as a Profession, Foundations of Fashion Artisan Design, Polynesian Dance, Spanish, and Yearbook Production.
For middle school, the new elective is Beginning Polynesian Dance. Current elective offerings, such as General Art, Band, Culinary Arts, Guitar, and more, will still be available to select.
Jennyan Anchen, a sophomore at NHIS, said, “I would say, for me, I’d be art because I enjoy that class and I would want to get in it.”
Counselors have been working with students on their registration through social studies and English classes. In addition, several videos on the new and current electives were shared in early November to help students understand the courses.
The programs of study or pathways students participate in are split into 2 Academies, the Academy of Sustainability and the Academy of Design and Technology. A pathway is a program of study that a student decides to take to better their knowledge in a certain area that will help them in a job they’d like to pursue in the future.
The pathways of the Academy of Sustainability include Business Management, Finance, and Marketing, Health Services, and Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources. This academy has a focus of creating community-minded students, giving them real educational experiences and service-learning opportunities.
The Academy of Design and Technology offers Transportation Services, Residential and Commercial Construction, Fashion Design, and Advanced Manufacturing as their pathways. The focus of this academy is to help students be innovative problem solvers who learn occupational skills.
Students must take registration seriously, as it will determine their course schedule for the next school year. Often students do not fill out their elective choices, and thus, the school assigns them to whatever they feel best fits for the student. Often this leads to unhappy students who do not want to be in certain elective classes.
Students’ choices today will impact their lives next school year and their future.
