In Fall 2026, among the new and transfer students flocking to the College of Social Sciences, Liliana Okimoto will become a full-time UH Mānoa student without paying a single dollar of tuition. That’s because the 2025 graduate of ʻIolani School, who spent her first year of college on the continent, is the winner of the 2026 #TakeMeToMānoa social media contest.
Open to incoming freshmen and transfer students from Hawaiʻi, the online contest asked entrants to explain why UH Mānoa is the right place for them and/or how a year without paying tuition would impact their future. Okimoto was the winner from among nearly 60 entries, and earned the year of tuition courtesy of UH Federal Credit Union.
In her minute-long social media entry, Okimoto said the initial year at Washington State University helped her realize that no college on the continental U.S. could offer what UH Mānoa would: a deep sense of community and purpose. “Hawaiʻi is where my heart is and, under the guidance of the amazing faculty and staff at UH Mānoa, I know I can grow into the person I want to become — someone who devotes themselves to learning in order to better serve their community, so take me home,” she said in her video. “Take me to Mānoa.”
Okimoto grew up in Waiʻanae and attended Island Pacific Academy before graduating from ʻIolani School. At UH Mānoa, Okimoto will pursue a degree in psychology and is also considering a pre-health track. That’s because she is passionate about art and aspires to attend medical school to become a psychiatrist, with the hope of leading a practice focusing on psychological care and creative therapies such as art.
Coincidentally Okimoto will attend UH Mānoa at the same time as her mother, Michelle, who is in the graduate program for library and information science in the CSS School of Communication and Information. Michelle Okimoto is a librarian at ʻIolani.
“It’s really exciting,” said Michelle of matriculating at the same time as her daughter. “I think it’s really cool . . . to go to the same school, go to the same events and maybe even carpool sometimes. I’m just so glad to have her home. It’s icing on the cake that we get to be students together. I’m looking forward to studying together and cheering each other on.”
For the full story, see the UH News story at https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2026/05/22/take-me-to-manoa-winner-2026/
