Ha’åni San Nicolas is a Graduate Coach with InGenius Prep. She identifies as an Indigenous Pacific Islander scholar, poet, educator, and community organizer, and is CHamoru and Samoan. She earned a Bachelor of Science in General Biology and a Bachelor of Arts in Ethnic Studies from the University of California San Diego. She graduated with high distinction from the Ethnic Studies honors program and received a Ronald E. McNair scholarship for her research on CHamoru cultural celebrations in Guåhan.
Ha’åni also received an advanced graduate certificate in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (UHM) and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science specializing in Indigenous Politics at UHM. She has taught undergraduate Political Science classes at UHM and has mentored students in research and advanced degree pursuits.
In 2023, Ha’åni was awarded a Mellon/American Council of Learned Sciences Dissertation Innovation Fellowship to support her doctoral research. She has extensive experience in writing and publishing essays, editorials, and peer-reviewed journal articles.
Ha’åni is also a poet and writer, named an inaugural Indigenous Nations Poets fellow in 2019. She curated her first poetry collection through a residency with the literary magazine Hawai’i Review, and her work has appeared in publications such as the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day Series. Ha’åni’s coaching approach is collaborative and student-centered, focusing on recognizing and developing each student’s unique strengths and aspirations.
