Category: Remarks, Messages, & Writings

The Hawai‘i State Legislature is soon opening its 2025 session and University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo’s priorities are foremost on my mind.

At the UH System level, we join the 10-campus system in again asking state lawmakers to expand the Hawaiʻi Promise Scholarship program from the community colleges to include the system’s four-year institutions — UH Hilo, UH Mānoa, and UH West Oʻahu. The program covers qualified students with their direct costs of education that are not covered by federal grants and other scholarships. We believe this program will enable more Hawaiʻi students to complete four year degrees.

Here at our home campus, we are seeking permanent funding in two key areas that support UH Hilo’s community stewardship. We’d like to make permanent UH Hilo Athletics funding for team travel expenses, training table for athlete nutrition, and training and conditioning supplies. We are also asking for a full year of funding of the FY 25 appropriation for the bachelor of arts in educational studies and the Kahuawaiola Indigenous Teacher Education Program.

In our quest to increase our enrollment and provide students with the support they need in an environment that’s conducive to learning, we’d like to secure several positions, including a student achievement and retention specialist, several positions dedicated to implementing a strategic enrollment management plan to address critical staffing and operational needs in enrollment services, and an internship coordinator who will work closely with local businesses on internships that support workforce development.

I think it’s important to note here that internships are one of the most valuable out-of-class experiences we can provide our students, and having more centralized support will allow us to work with our local community to create more internship opportunities and make sure that these are high quality experiences that complement our students’ classroom learning. There are also numerous compliance requirements for internships that will be much easier to track with a centralized support person.

For workforce development, we also are asking for positions and funds for the School of Nursing to increase the baccalaureate of science in nursing pre-licensure annual graduate size by 40 students to meet general Hawaiʻi island and State of Hawaiʻi nursing workforce needs. In addition, we’d like a position and funds for our Department of Administration of Justice program to support state and community needs in law enforcement and criminal justice reform.

I’d like to mention here that for an administration of justice career, students who want to go into law enforcement cannot do so straight out of high school — they have to be 21 or older. So it makes sense to pursue a university degree, giving them the needed knowledge to not only enforce the law but also understand administration of justice in the context of the communities we serve. This is also the only free-standing program for this degree in the UH system. We can thus serve other Hawaiʻi residents outside our island.

Two additional programs in need of position and funding support that are crucial for future workforce development needs are UH Hilo’s new bachelor of science in data science program, and the biocultural science program to train students in Hawaiian biocultural studies and Hawaiian conservation biocultural studies.

Our campus is also in need of more groundskeeping and maintenance workers to care for and mālama ʻāina our campus grounds to provide a beautiful and welcoming atmosphere, enhancing the overall campus experience for students, faculty, and staff.

Our primary mission at UH Hilo is to fulfill the needs of our county through challenging students to reach their highest level of academic and professional achievement. The goal is to improve the quality of life for families and communities by producing highly skilled graduates who can answer the workforce needs of our island, state, and region. With the full support of the State Legislature, we can continue to get the job done.

With aloha,

Bonnie D. Irwin

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One of the issues around student success that has gotten a lot of attention in the last few years is “belongingness.” Students flourish when they believe they belong in college and are comfortable being there. If they feel like outsiders, they will repeatedly question their competence, their future, and any number of other things. In that regard, students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo are no different than other people in other communities. We all feel better about ourselves and our chances for success if we believe we are meant to be in a place and have good relationships with the people who surround us.

Belongingness efforts at a university begin long before students apply for admissions. It is important that we have keiki and families visiting our campus to be more comfortable in our spaces and see what role we can play in their futures. Our faculty and staff often visit local high schools to connect with students and help them find the best pathway into college life.

The pandemic made belonging a challenge. While we can create community online, it is certainly more challenging, and certain events just had to be suspended or changed. For the last two years, however, we have brought back in-person classes, student-led campus events that address social issues such as domestic violence and civic engagement, theater performances that bring together people of different cultures, outreach activities that strengthen our ties to the community, internships connecting our students to local organizations, seminars and forums covering local topics that encourage dialogue and the sharing of manaʻo and ideas.

This semester we’ve also opened a new outdoor eating area conducive to interaction, are holding a series of mini concerts on the library lanai for people to connect through music, and launched volunteer campus beautification activities grounded in the Native Hawaiian values of kōkua in the spirit of laulima (many hands working together).

Our longstanding community programs have also relaunched post-pandemic, all of which engender a sense of connection and belonging.

Returning last year after a two-year hiatus is a summer tradition for nearly 50 years that connects us with the keiki of the Hilo community. The annual Coach Jimmy Yagi Vulcan Basketball Camp, named for late UH Hilo Hall of Fame Coach Yagi, is a four-day camp for boys and girls aged 9-17 to inspire team spirit through drills, games, contests and a host of motivational speakers. The camps also strengthen youth basketball on Hawaiʻi Island, an important activity for keiki health, building character and a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves, preparing next generations for their place in our island communities.

Magnificent Me is sponsored by the Zonta Club of Hilo to help adolescent girls build their confidence. The half-day conference brings about 100 middle-school girls from East Hawaiʻi to UH Hilo for workshops that teach the importance of developing a strong sense of self and inspire participants to build their confidence “tool box.”

Our annual Barrio Fiesta, just held on Oct. 26, celebrates Filipino American History Month and features music, dance, Filipino attire, and an array of engaging activities that showcase the richness of Filipino culture. Attended by a wide range of people from the university and our local community, the event is hosted by several academic programs and Filipino cultural groups from throughout Hawaiʻi Island. Itʻs a wonderful annual celebration to bring together the local Filipino-American community in Hilo.

In October, we also hosted the 11th Annual Pacific Youth Empowerment for Success (PacYES) conference. The event welcomes a large group of local high school students of Pacific Islander heritage and offers a day of workshops, speakers, and break out sessions on vocational opportunities, financial aid for college, and more. The activities motivate, inspire, and prepare the students for college and career opportunities and also foster their cultural connections within their own communities.

In my remarks at the PacYES event, I encouraged the students to listen with intention, think and dream about what their voyage will be, letting them know that there are teams of people ready and waiting to help them realize their dreams. This is basically the sentiment of all our events, both internal and external: UH Hilo is a place to connect with others, a place to belong and flourish, and we welcome all into our university ʻohana.

With aloha,

Bonnie D. Irwin

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The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is holding a series of a dozen weekly gatherings on campus this semester where students, faculty, staff, alumni, university retirees, and members of the local community are invited to come share their manaʻo, their thoughts, around a common topic.

Named “Kuleana and Community: Building Community Through Conversation,” the goal is to strengthen our connection with the local community through talking with one another. It’s about building relationships and expanding our understanding of community and the world around us.

The talk story events are sponsored by the UH Hilo Office of the Chancellor, Kīpuka Native Hawaiian Student Center, Kilohana Academic Success Center, Center for Global Education and Exchange, with support from Assistant Professor of Communication Colby Miyose and Associate Professor of Sociology Alton Okinaka.

Topics cover Maunakea stewardship, mental health, preservation of Hawaiʻi history, business and entrepreneurship, the role of higher education in our community, and more. Following a short talk by the featured guest, attendees break out into discussion groups and then share their manaʻo with everyone.

The weekly program launched Aug. 30 with Assistant Professor Miyose as the featured guest, who shared his thoughts on communicating with empathy, focusing on conflict resolution.

Next was Gerald DeMello, former director of UH Hilo’s university relations and external affairs now retired, who shared his current work and advocacy showcasing Hawaiʻi history via plaques, wall murals, and walking tours in Hilo and the former plantation town of Honokaʻa. A number of the attendees in the audience had their own connection with Honokaʻa, leading to a rich discussion on the importance of our history.

Next in the lineup was Professor of Psychology Charmaine Higa who shared her thoughts on understanding childhood anxiety following the pandemic. Randy Kurohara from the non-profit Community First Hawaiʻi came to talk about the need to shift healthcare from treating disease to keeping people healthy and why our community needs to play a more active role in accepting kuleana for our own health and the wellbeing of others. Educator, writer, and school leader Clifton Sankofa, who loves vegan cooking, shared his thoughts on reclaiming health through food.

UH Hilo alumnus Kaleo Pilago, education and outreach coordinator for the Center for Maunakea Stewardship, shared information about projects and activities that support the management and protection of Maunakea’s natural and cultural resources. Another UH Hilo alum, Beverly Tese, community activist and co-founder of Hawaiʻi Island’s Prizma Hawaiʻi LGBTQ Center, led a conversation on the importance of diverse representation in society and media.

These are topics that everyone can relate to: health, history, owning our kuleana to care for the ʻāina, for people, for our communities and ourselves.

Attendance has been healthy at each session, in the neighborhood of 30 people, a mix of campus and community. This is a great size to get a diversity of voices in the room, but still small enough that attendees can connect around the topic.

And there is more to come.

On Oct. 18 is Carla Kuo, executive officer from the Hawaiʻi Island Chamber of Commerce, who will talk about the importance of local businesses to our community’s vitality; the Chamber plays an important role in this effort (I am a member of the HICC board). I invite the public to come to this event and learn more about the Chamber and its support of our business community, which in turn strengthens economic growth on our island and helps raise the quality of life for everyone. Chamber members are invited, too! Come share your manaʻo!

Coming soon is Brandee Menino from Hope Services who will lead a discussion on houselessness in Hawaiʻi and communities’ kuleana to address the problem, Oct. 25; Mike Miyahira, UH Regent and expert on family-owned businesses, Nov. 1; and Julie Mitchell from Kuʻikahi Mediation Center will discuss conflict and constructive engagement on Nov. 8.

The series concludes with Hawaiʻi County Councilmember Sue Lee Loy (soon to be a state representative) who will focus the discussion on UH Hilo’s role in our community.

I invite members of our university ʻohana and the local community to come join us! Each event is held from 12:00 to 1:00 at the Kilohana Academic Success Center located on the first floor of Mookini Library.

With aloha,

Bonnie D. Irwin

 

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Summertime at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is vacation time for some, but also a time of academic and social enrichment for many students and prospective students.

This summer, UH Hilo hosted Upward Bound programs wherein young people took steps to follow their educational potential. We had PIPES and Akamai interns on our campus and in our community, and we welcomed Nalukai Academy that offers intensive leadership and entrepreneurship programs for high school students. We also organized the annual symposium for the Islands of Opportunity Alliance where university and college students from Hawaiʻi and the Pacific region showcased their research projects.

Upward Bound is a year-round program with services and activities to assist high school students pursue their educational and career goals. Upward Bound Summer Academy is a six-week program where students are welcomed to stay in a university residence hall and take classes that count as credit for their upcoming school year. This year’s class was treated to one of our geology courses, allowing them to learn about the unique geologic features of the island on which we live. There are also recreational activities, sports, workout sessions, and games, all in the spirit of providing a supportive foundation upon which students can thrive academically, socially, financially, and emotionally to ensure success in college and their future careers.

The Pacific Internship Programs for Exploring Science or PIPES is a summer program that supports ʻāina-based internships in our local communities and island environments with the goal to grow the next generation of leaders in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. PIPES offers four program pathways — ancestral, ecological, community, and research — each focusing on internships and mentorships that help students track into careers that improve the quality of life for themselves, their ‘ohana, and their communities. Many alumni of this program work with state and federal agencies charged with environmental stewardship, jobs for which they are well prepared.

The Akamai Internship Program, led by the Institute for Scientist and Engineer Educators at University of California Observatories in partnership with UH Hilo, is an eight-week summer program for Hawaiʻi university and college students who want hands-on work experience at an observatory, company, or scientific facility in Hawai‘i. In addressing specific workforce needs that come with Hawai‘i observatories, the program has a community of mentors who collaborate with Akamai staff in support of students from a wide range of STEM majors (science, technology, engineering, and math). Participants presented their work publicly in a series of forums in Hilo, Waimea, on Maui, and in California.

The Nalukai Academy Summer Startup Camp was held at UH Hilo in July. Nalukai’s programs offer Hawaiʻi high school students training in social, cultural, and commercial entrepreneurship. The summer startup camp is a 10-day program where students receive mentorship from industry experts, educators, and cultural practitioners to conceptualize and pitch ventures of their own creation. During the process, participants learn about leadership, networking, and the entrepreneurial drive it takes to address the challenges of Hawaiʻi communities. I was honored to hear the final products of teams which were universally creative, socially conscious, and well considered.

Also in July, more than two dozen university students from Hawaiʻi and the Pacific region took part in an international STEM symposium organized by UH Hilo. The students and participants — who hailed from American Samoa, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, Hawaiʻi, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau — spent three days near Kīlauea volcano presenting their independent research projects, taking huakaʻi (journeys), and doing independent self-guided pilina (connection)-building activities.

This annual symposium is an event of the Islands of Opportunity Alliance, which is administered by UH Hilo and supported by the National Science Foundation through the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation program that has a mission to increase underrepresented populations in the STEM fields.

The grant supporting the alliance has just been renewed at $2.5 million for the next five years. I’m grateful that the NSF recognizes the value of the program with another grant cycle. The network we have built around STEM across the Pacific and the opportunities the program gives to students is an important component of improving all of our island communities.

With aloha,

Bonnie D. Irwin
Chancellor, UH Hilo

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