Estimates from the U.S. Census reported that Clark County, Nevada, saw the largest numeric growth of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) in the United States between 2020 and 2021 (U.S. Census, 2022). Hostile economic conditions created by the United States’ historic and ongoing colonialism in the Pacific have forced many NHPIs into diaspora (Spickard et al., 2002). This forced migration resulted in the development of NHPI enclaves across the continent, including Clark County, which encompasses Las Vegas, Henderson, and Paradise, and Clark County has been anecdotally labeled “The Ninth Island.” Yet this Ninth Island moniker was arguably manufactured, in part, because of an elaborate, strategic business scheme to increase tourism to Las Vegas (see UNLV Gaming Law Journal, 2013). Today, while The Ninth Island directly references an extension of the major Hawaiian islands, it arguably acts as one connector amongst the NHPI community in the region. Rather than simply a “relocation destination” (Reeder, 1999), more pointedly, Las Vegas represents a diaspora of Oceania beyond the Pacific, largely shaped by U.S. imperialism and tourism.

Beyond studies examining the tourism link between Las Vegas and Hawai‘i (Van Gilder & Herrera, 2019) and the health experiences of NHPIs in Las Vegas (e.g., Lassetter, 2008; Tupu et al., 2025), research that directly contends with The Ninth Island and NHPI educational experiences remains limited. Previous research found that two of Nevada’s postsecondary institutions are among the top 25 in the United States for NHPI college student enrollment, both located in Clark County (Teranishi et al., 2019). Moreover, considering the field of higher education, with notable exceptions (e.g., Malzl et al., 2025; Uehara et al., 2018), the experiences and perspectives of NHPI students remain understudied, and even fewer focus on NHPI students attending college or university outside Hawai‘i with significant or growing Pacific Islander communities (Bonus, 2020), such as Las Vegas and the broader Clark County.

In light of these intersecting conditions and contexts, the purpose of our study is to explore the role of the Ninth Island in shaping the college experiences of NHPI students in a diaspora of Oceania. Data for this study draws on interviews with 17 undergraduate students who self-identified as Pacific Islander, from the islands, and enrolled at one postsecondary institution in Clark County. At the time of the interviews, this postsecondary institution was designated as an eligible Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI), meaning that, in addition to meeting the institutional criteria set forth in Section 312(b) of the Higher Education Act, it met the minimum 10% enrollment criteria of Asian American and Pacific Islander undergraduates. Tentatively, our findings revolve around the following themes: (a) how students engage institutional resources to create community; (b) how students negotiate their positions as college students attending school off-island; (c) how students view the role of economics and college finance in college choice; and (d) how students seek out and establish support from local or fellow NHPI communities while in college.

This study complements and extends previous research that uplifts the experiences of NHPI students (Bonus, 2020; Gogue, 2016; Malzl et al., 2025; Uehara et al., 2018) by extending it to NHPI college students in Las Vegas, representing one regional concentration of NHPIs (Teranishi et al., 2019). Furthermore, this work remains important in the midst of the current political climate we are collectively navigating, especially the continued attacks and underfunding of Minority-Serving Institutions, including AANAPISIs and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions that enroll NHPIs and other racially minoritized and other marginalized students (Nguyen et al., 2023; Teranishi et al., 2019). As such, centering on and lifting up the lived experiences of NHPI students in a diaspora helps illuminate ideas that can inform how colleges and universities can recommit to serving them.