One of six siblings educated at UH Hilo, Lucille Walsh builds a career enriching student life at her alma mater
Lucille Walsh found her classroom experiences valuable. But what guided her to her current career was her time as a student employee for campus recreation. “I got my degree in biology, but I got my resume in aquatics and recreation.”
By Sophia Kim-O’Sullivan/UH Hilo Stories.
Lucille Kapikoʻokalani Walsh, associate director of Campus Recreation and Wellness at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, comes from a distinctive alumni family: all six siblings attended UH Hilo. As a middle child, Lucille says there was never any pressure from her family to attend the university. “Seeing my brothers go through UH Hilo, I saw all of the benefits,” she says.
Walsh was already familiar with UH Hilo and its campus through attending summer programs geared toward Native Hawaiian middle school and high school students; she knew about the small class sizes, the variety of resources, and that it was located in close proximity to family. By the time she arrived as an undergraduate in 2015, she was already familiar with the campus and knew the best spots to grab a bite on a student budget. “I felt at home here already. I could see myself being successful here,” she says.
Walsh’s prior experiences with summer programs — Nā Pua Noʻeau Center for Gifted and Talented Native Hawaiian Children, which was then based at UH Hilo; the university’s Pacific Internship Programs for Exploring Science (PIPES); and local nonprofit Three Mountain Alliance’s ʻImi Pono no ka ʻĀina program that takes students to natural areas across Hawaiʻi Island to learn about Hawaiʻi’s unique plants, animals, and ecosystems — not only familiarized her with the UH Hilo campus, but also inspired her to study conservation biology.
Her practical experiences with native ecosystems and local waterways made the transition to UH Hilo an easy one; she says her background gave her a head start in connecting with the material. “I was familiar with a lot of the concepts being discussed,” she says. “I had been to a lot of the places that were being presented. I had planted and worked with a lot of the species that we were covering.”
Walsh’s siblings also entered STEM-related majors. The eldest, Myles, graduated with his degree in computer science in 2012; he now runs his own company. Nathan got his start in mechanical engineering at UH Hilo before transferring and graduating from UH Mānoa in 2013. Another brother, Laurence, graduated with a degree in environmental science in 2015. Similar to their older sister, Lucille’s younger siblings have also pursued studies in biology at UH Hilo: Jennie graduated with a degree in biology in 2021, while Marianne is currently a student in the same field. “All of my siblings so far have gone into [careers] related to their degrees,” Lucille Walsh notes.
While reflecting on attending the same university as her brothers and sisters, she says, “I had big footprints to fill, but did so in my own way. I saw how my siblings thrived at UH Hilo. My younger siblings have continued to thrive here.”
A thirst for knowledge
Walsh and her siblings had been raised by their parents to “thirst for knowledge” and were encouraged to find their own learning styles. She found this awareness of her own learning preferences handy when it came to selecting courses and instructors.
“I had professors that I just wanted to take all of their classes because I loved their teaching style,” she says. “That, or their teaching style and my learning style were really compatible.”
She notes biology professors Stan Nakanishi and Rebecca Ostertag as mentors she was eager to learn from. She also worked in a genomics lab under former UH Hilo conservation geneticist Jolene Sutton, supporting research on developing techniques to control mosquitoes and the diseases they spread to the native bird population.
“Because the student-to-professor ratio is so low, I was able to work closely with my professors,” says Walsh. “That really helped during scholarship season, they knew who I was, which made it easier to ask for letters of recommendation.”
“UH Hilo provides a unique opportunity to build relationships with professors that’s hard to find at larger schools,” she adds.
Walsh graduated with a bachelor of science in biology on the ecology, evolution, and conservation track in 2019.
Getting career ready at UH Hilo
While Walsh found her classroom experiences valuable, what guided her to her current career was her time as a student employee for campus recreation. “I got my degree in biology, but I got my resume in aquatics and recreation,” says Walsh.
She thrived under the guidance of Tommy Hamilton and Mackenzie Slayton who at the time were associate directors of campus recreation. She earned instructor level certifications, taught classes, and led peers. “I feel like my resume really took off,” she says. “Weekdays were for academics and weekends were for working my way up through student employee ranks.”
Due to her experiences at UH Hilo’s recreation center, Walsh was able to jump straight into a managerial position with the County of Hawaiʻi managing the Pāhoa Community Aquatic Center. Building on her undergraduate certifications, she became a certified Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) divemaster and open water scuba instructor, emergency first responder instructor, and American Red Cross water safety instructor, among others.
Walsh’s impressive resume soon led to an opportunity to come back to UH Hilo as the campus recreational center’s associate director of programming. Initially an interim hire to fill in for Slayton when she moved, Walsh later applied and landed the role permanently. “It was pretty seamless. It felt like coming home, coming back to this department,” she says.
Award-winning energy
Walsh enjoys working closely with students, giving them opportunities to shape their resumes and help them “explore what really lights their fire.”
“Everything is about the student experience and hoping to make it better,” she says with her award-winning positive attitude.
In 2024, in her position as associate director of recreation programs at the campus Student Life Center, Walsh received the Division of Student Affairs’ Positivity Award. The staff award is described as exemplifying a person “whose positive attitude and outlook directly affects students and the greater campus community. Characteristics of a ‘Positivity’ person include: positive energy, inspiring, aloha spirit, optimistic, cheerleader, encouraging, happy, calm in a crisis, collaborative, fun, takes lemons and makes lemonade.”
Walsh hopes to facilitate more programs like the ones she participated in as a teenager.
“Now I’m in a place where I can provide a lot of those training and professional development opportunities that I really benefited from as a student. I want to get high school students here, so they can get a feel for our campus and an idea of where they would fit here.”
Reflecting on her time at UH Hilo both as student and staff, Walsh recognizes the great opportunities she and her siblings have enjoyed. She remembers something her former supervisor and mentor Tommy Hamilton would say: “We provide equal opportunity, not equal outcome. If a student is dedicated and ready to put in the time to get these certifications, we can help.”
“I think it’s really wonderful to see how all our staff care so deeply about the students and their experience,” says Walsh. “I hope future students will also take hold of the opportunities UH Hilo presents.”
Story by Sophia Kim-O’Sullivan, a graduate student in library science and information at UH Mānoa.
