Humans Of UH Hilo: Hannah Blue, president of UHHSA

By Lichen Forster

Meet your UHHSA president, Hannah Blue! You can just call her Blue; everyone does. While this is her first year as president, Blue has a long history in student government. Last year she was UHHSA’s data director, and the year before that, a senator from the College of Natural and Health Sciences college. Before graduating from Waiākea High School in 2016, she worked on their class council, finding joy in making decorations and working out choreography for student events.

For her first two years at UH Hilo, Blue was on the pre-med track, working towards a biochemistry degree. But upon taking her first college physics course, she discovered a field she loved more than anything she’d studied before. After spending some time in the physics department, she naturally drifted over to astronomy as well.

“I always had an interest in astronomy just [from] growing up here,” Blue said. “Getting to see the stars and the Milky Way in my backyard, and going to planetarium shows and learning about that, I always thought [that was] really cool.”

Now, Blue is double majoring in astronomy and physics and has her sights set on graduate school after graduating from UH Hilo next May.

“I want to go and get my PhD in optical sciences,” Blue said. “I really want to go into space tech; I feel like it’s the dream to get to work on something that’s sent out into space, like a probe or something like that.”