OBUN HAWAII GROUP The first issue of a Honolulu-based magazine is designed for teens thinking about college and careers.

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Transitioning teens get
new, cool magazine

"Transition! Magazine: You're in Control," was conceived by Obun Hawaii Group to help Hawaii's youth identify their passion, dream big and plan well for the future. Oh, and it's supposed to be fun to read and look at as well.

"The goal is to make education relevant to the teens, to give them direction before they graduate," said Publisher Raymond Nishigaya, president of Obun Hawaii Group.

Making classroom education relevant to a student's dream or career goal and setting them on that path early can eliminate hopelessness and despair about how to get into and pay for a college, said Editor Cynthia Emoto.

"As far as college and money is concerned, there's so much help out there," she said.

The magazine reports on where to look, on the Internet for instance, for information on colleges and financial aid.

The key in formulating the magazine was to zero in on the major decisions teenagers are making about their lives' direction "because if you find a passion in life, you're already on your journey ... and that passion is going to keep you trying and excelling. If you love something, you'll naturally want to be good at it," Emoto said.

The magazine's secondary audience is parents of high schoolers "because often times they're so busy and caught up trying to keep families afloat, that they are not able to be as up to date on how educational opportunities are evolving," she said.

Success stories from 20-somethings such as local kolohe-boy-turned-Olympic medalist Bryan Clay are meant to convey to teens that the path to success is rarely straight or smooth.

Obun is better known for its publications aimed at Japanese visitors, but the decision was made to branch out, Emoto said. Some advertisers "immediately saw what we were trying to do and they came on board," while others wanted to wait to see the first issue before deciding whether to buy in.

"Transition!" does have fashion and lifestyle sections "to make it fun and attractive to young high school students," but it is not in competition with say, "Sassy" magazine, Emoto said.

To keep the hip-factor high, "Transition!" has a student advisory council, whose members were active in producing the first issue, from planning to writing to modeling, Emoto said.

"While we're still having a lot to do with the Japanese publications ... we also want to do a lot of community-oriented projects," she said.

As part of its 35th anniversary, Obun's publisher thought the community project should be education-focused, Emoto said. "We hear so much on the news ... about how public schools are struggling and we thought something in the way of education would help the students."

It will be published three times a year, but Obun hopes to make it a quarterly publication in the future.

Colleen Umetsu, Mililani High School career and technical education coordinator, is stoked by the magazine.

"I think it's great," she said. "I think there's a lot of stuff that will be really relevant to them, like people they can identify with talking about adversity in the past and stuff. I think it'll help them."

College is more important than ever for high school students, Umetsu said.

"It's real important that students get at least a two-year degree because all the jobs out there are demanding that they have some sort of skill," she said. "It's not like before, when you could get a job and advance from there."

The magazine profiles a mix of students in its pages "from all different parts of the island. The students will have somebody to identify with," she said.

Umetsu's students will receive the magazine Wednesday and she's excited to hand them out.

"This couldn't have come at a better time, because I (am) beginning the unit on careers ... this ties in perfectly," she said.

Obun's 120,000-copy press run will be distributed through other high school career and technical education coordinators statewide, at Oahu WorkLinks offices, community colleges and public libraries.

The magazine's Web site has been delayed because of a decision to make it interactive, for reader input and student contributions for possible publication.

It should be live by the end of the month, Emoto said.

"We've been blessed every step of the way and we thank the Lord for paving the way to see the fruition of the magazine. It's almost like we saw one miracle after another," Emoto said.