UH Hilo will hold two in-person 2022 Fall Commencement ceremonies this month
One ceremony is for students who missed the opportunity for an in-person event during the two years of covid restrictions, and the other for the fall class of 2022.
The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo will hold two commencement ceremonies this fall: one for students who missed the opportunity for an in-person event during the two years of covid restrictions, and another for the fall class of 2022.
Both ceremonies are limited to invited guests only. Ceremonies will be livestreamed and the links will be posted at UH Hilo’s commencement website prior to the events.
Special Alumni Commencement Ceremony
The Special Alumni Commencement Ceremony will be held on Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, 4:00 p.m. at Vulcan Gym for the campus’s spring, summer and fall Class of 2020 and Class of 2021 graduates.
Approximately 89 students are expected to participate.
Jessica Valdez is student speaker. She graduated in fall 2020 with a bachelor of arts in philosophy, a bachelor of arts in psychology, and a certificate in pre-law with highest honors. As an undergraduate, she balanced two part-time jobs with UH Hilo’s Department of Housing and Residence Life and Hilo High School’s Department of Student Activities while also serving as a member of Circle K International, a community service organization. In fall 2019, she represented UH Hilo as a Global Vulcan while studying at the University of Birmingham in England with the support of the Audrey S. Furukawa Study Abroad Scholarship. After graduating, she was selected to serve as an intern for U.S. Representative Kai Kahele before being appointed to her current position as the Council Aide to Hawaiʻi County Councilmember Sue L. K. Lee Loy. In the future, Valdez intends to pursue a juris doctor degree.
Livestream of the ceremony will be available.
2022 Fall Commencement
Commencement for fall 2022 graduates will be on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022, 9:00 a.m. at Vulcan Gym.
Approximately 189 students have petitioned for degree and/or certificates and for various post-graduate credentials.
Harris Ubedei is student speaker. He is a proud Palauan national majoring in administration of justice with an interdisciplinary certificate in pre-law. He transferred to UH Hilo from Palau Community College. At UH Hilo, he served as general editor for UH Hilo’s Hohonu: A Journal of Academid Writing, was a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, and the Political Science Honor Society’s Pi Sigma Alpha. He is a recent recipient of the Palau Fellowship Award, an internship program funded by the Palau National Scholarship Board. He is returning to Palau where he will work in the office of the Senate of Palau’s National Congress. Following this, he plans to attend UH Mānoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law to pursue a juris doctor degree.
