University Communications & Marketing

Alumna and CEO, Martha B. Smith ’91 to Speak at Commencement

December 6, 2016

Chaminade University will celebrate its 2016 Fall Commencement on Monday, Dec. 12, starting at 7 p.m. at the Neal Blaisdell Arena, located at 777 Ward Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaii 96814. Approximately 260 students will graduate this semester. Family and friends will cheer them on with lei and aloha. Estimated to last for two hours, the free event does not require tickets. Parking at the Arena is $7.

The keynote speaker will be Chaminade alumna and Chief Executive Officer of Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women and Children, Martha B. Smith ’91. Smith serves as a member of Chaminade’s Board of Regents and is an alumna of the University. Her leadership role in healthcare and community service is expansive. A past president of the Hawai‘i Chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives, she is a member of the Children’s Hospital Association Chief Executive Group. Smith also serves on the boards of Alohacare, Child and Family Services, Girl Scouts of Hawai‘i and Surgicare (ASC Pacific Ventures). In addition, she serves as chair of the board of Kapi‘olani Medical Specialists, a Physician Specialty Group of Hawai‘i Pacific Health.

Prior to joining Hawai‘i Pacific Health in 2004, Smith had worked in hospital operations and health care in Hawaii and Florida for 24 years. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Respiratory Therapy from the University of Central Florida, a Master of Public Health from the University of Alabama-Birmingham and a Master of Business Administration from Chaminade University. She is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Pacific Business News has recognized her as its American Savings Business Leader for 2016. She has been recognized by Girl Scouts of Hawai‘i as one of its 2015 Girl Scouts Women of Distinction and by the Healthcare Association of Hawai‘i as The Healthcare Leader for 2014.

The salutatorian speakers will be Sharmaine Borja Doles (undergraduate representative) receiving her bachelor’s degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice and Derek Kiyoji Santos (postgraduate representative) receiving his Master of Education in Educational Leadership.

School of Nursing Alumni Return to Network

December 1, 2016

One evening in late November, nearly 50 Chaminade graduates and seniors gathered at Henry Hall Courtyard for School of Nursing’s second annual alumni mixer.

Alumni from the classes of 2014, 2015 and 2016 along with seniors from the class of 2017 met with representatives from seven clinical sites including Ka Punawai Ola Rehab Facility, Hawaii Pacific Health, Navy Nurse, Leahi and Maluhia Hospital, the Hawaii Department of Health, Express Healthcare Professional and Hale Nani. Attracted by the job networking opportunities, the participants listened intently to the descriptions and needs of each of the sites. All sites offered job possibilities for the graduates and soon-to-be graduates.

Later participants heard from Honza Hroch, representing CreativeNurse. Hroch presented on managing finances including student loans. His presentation was tailored to help guide nurses and recent graduates with their financial concerns.

The event culminated with a rich mentoring session between alumni and seniors. The attendees were broken into smaller groups for roundtable discussions where alumni could share their experiences with seniors, as well as answer any questions. For the dean of the School of Nursing, Gwenevere Anderson, and her faculty, Denise Cooper, Julie Elting, Denise Hackman, Eurina Kee, Edna Magpantay-Monroe and Julieta Rosado, it was fulfilling to reconnect with former students and to see these former students pass their wisdom forward to the seniors.

Chaminade University accepted its first cohort into its School of Nursing in fall 2010. That first cohort graduated in spring 2014, with two more graduating cohorts following each spring. The mission of the Chaminade University of Honolulu School of Nursing embraces the key elements of education and service. Specifically, it is to educate students “…to be competent and caring nursing professionals who will promote health and high standards of practice, decrease health-related disparities in society, and enhance the quality of life for their patients in a dynamic health care environment.”

2016 Maui Jim Maui Invitational Expanded Wrap-up

November 30, 2016

2016 Maui Invitational Champions, University of North Carolina

Fourth-ranked University of North Carolina Tar Heels captured its fourth Maui Jim Maui Invitational title after defeating 16th ranked Wisconsin 71-56 on Wednesday, Nov. 23, the final day of the tournament. After three days of substantial wins, North Carolina looked like a national title contender.

Its first game on Monday was against the Silverswords with a final score of 104-61. Though that was a tough game for the Silversword men’s basketball team, Chaminade was able to hold its own in the two games that followed. On Tuesday, the UConn Huskies barely squeaked by Chaminade 93 to 82. The game was kept close because of Chaminade’s sharp shooting. In Chaminade’s final game, Tennessee skimmed past Chaminade 95 to 81.

“I thought our guys played their butts off,” said Eric Bovaird, Chaminade’s head coach for the men’s basketball team. “Really proud of the effort and the execution.”

Chaminade’s Rohndell Goodwin made the Maui Invitational All-Tournament Team.

The Invitational Expanded

The Invitational has always been more than just the three games played by the teams. Just ask the youths who participated in a free basketball clinic offered by the Swords, or the Chaminade student fans, who came on Monday to experience Maui and the game. Saturday, Nov. 19 to Wednesday, Nov. 23 were five very fast and furious days for the Silversword men’s basketball team and their Chaminade fans.

Saturday

ADIDAS HOOPS CLINIC PRESENTED BY HMSA AND FEATURING CHAMINADE MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM

Held on Saturday afternoon at the Lahaina Civic Center Outdoor Courts, the adidas Hoops Clinic presented by HMSA offered a free basketball clinic to youths. More than 60 third through eighth graders showed up hungry to play and to learn the game. The children performed the drills tirelessly, passing and shooting their basketballs as the college players shared their approval with smiles, encouraging words and high fives. The kids were especially ecstatic to receive two free tickets (one adult, one youth) to Chaminade’s Monday night game against University of North Carolina.

Chaminade University, The Maui Jim Maui Invitational Tournament, adidas and HMSA have hosted similar basketball clinics this year throughout the state. The overall goals of the clinics have been to promote the fundamentals of the game and to offer opportunities to learn from qualified, collegiate coaches and administrators.

EVENING AT THE COACHES LUAU

That Saturday evening, the teams and their entourages attended the Coaches Luau at the Sheraton Maui Resort and Spa. It was a traditional Hawaiian Luau, complete with ono food and entertainment. There were also a hula competition and a bean bag tournament. Tar Heel Joel Berry II won the overall hula dance-off and eventually earned the Maui Invitational tournament MVP award. The Tar Heels also won the bean bag tournament.

Wounded Warrior, veteran Tommy Counihan IV was honored at the luau. Chaminade regent, Carolyn Berry Wilson, and her husband David Wilson have annually sponsored this Wounded Warrior project, which covers all the Maui Jim Maui Invitational costs for the selected veteran.

Sunday

COACHES PRESS CONFERENCE

The Maui Jim Maui Invitational held its annual Sunday morning Coaches Press Conference at the Sheraton Maui Resort Spa. It was an opportunity for all of the eight head coaches to speak about their teams before heading into the start of Monday’s championship round.

Chaminade head coach, Eric Bovaird, remarked, “This is the most experienced team that I’ve had in six years. I’m really excited about where we’re at.”

The press conference was moderated by NBA Hall of Famer and broadcast commentator, Bill Walton.

FREE THROW CONTEST

After the press conference, the eight head coaches took up a friendly free throw competition. Each coach teamed up with a local middle schooler. Every person had three free throw attempts on a portable basketball, which was set up along Kaanapali Beach. Chaminade’s head coach, Eric Bovaird, and his student tied with Oklahoma State’s Brad Underwood through the initial round, with Bovaird hitting all three free throws. Bovaird and his young protégé Reizel of Lokelani Intermediate School went on to win the free throw contest in overtime.

Monday (a.k.a. Maui Monday)

Thirty-eight Chaminade students with some staff and faculty braved an early morning trek to Maui. Though the game was not until evening, the Silversword students took the opportunity to explore Maui, thanks to a day trip arranged by the Office of Student Activities and Leadership (OSAL). After landing, the students headed to Krispy Kreme where they indulged in the breakfast of champions: donuts (yes, plural) and coffee. With a sugar-caffeine high, the students tackled a Maui Nei 2-hour walking adventure tour in Lahaina. Guided by a Native Hawaiian kumu, they explored Lahaina’s rich history and learned about old Hawaii during the missionary and whaling times, and about the monarchy and plantation eras.

After the tour, the students ate lunch at a nearby beach park. Later, they visited the Maui Ocean Center, the nation’s largest tropical reef aquarium. The students explored a mix of more than 60 indoor and outdoor exhibits.

After all the educational activities, they arrived at the Lahaina Civic Center pumped up for the game. The students got a chance to hang out at Fan Fest, where they enjoyed a “basketball” meal and bought souvenirs and gifts. They even made their ESPN debut, showing their Silversword spirit for the cameras.

Finally, it was game time. Wearing their Chaminade t-shirts that they received earlier that morning, they formed a sea of blue in the stands behind the Chaminade bench. They were loud and proud. Though the Swords lost to the University of North Carolina, the students cheered for their home team until the last buzzer. Exhausted and hoarse from cheering but glad that they had made it to Maui, the students returned to Honolulu later that night. After all, there were still classes to attend on Tuesday.

Nursing Students Gain Cultural Competency through Ho‘okuikahi I Pu‘ukohola Cultural Event

October 26, 2016

Thanks to a grant from HMSA Foundation, 12 students and four faculty members from the Chaminade University School of Nursing were able to again participate in providing health screenings and wellness education at the annual Ho‘okuikahi I Pu‘ukohola Cultural Festival held on the island of Hawaii at Pu‘ukohola Heiau. The Chaminade team partnered with representatives from the ‘Ahahui o na Kauka and from the Department of Native Hawaiian Health (DNHH) at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). The overall mission and purpose of Chaminade’s participation was to deliver health screening services and to learn how to carry out these services in a culturally sensitive way.

Participating in the event continues to be enriching for students and faculty in the School of Nursing. In light of the experience, the School of Nursing hopes to develop a Native Hawaiian Cultural Competency elective course at Chaminade University that would lead to a stronger foundation in cultural holistic understanding for its students.

Cafe Renewal: Surfers Coffee Bar enlivens a once-forsaken block

May 29, 2015

By Tiffany Hervey, as published in the Honolulu Weekly

During the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Top Hat Bar in Wahiawa was hit. It closed for three days and reopened on Dec. 10, 1941 with the charging mantra that its doors would never be closed again. And the bar stayed open seven days a week, year-round, until early 2009, when it shut down for good.

Surfing The Nations (STN), a nonprofit organization, purchased the building and moved in. They opened Surfers Coffee Bar in the summer of 2011 after cleaning decades of nicotine off the walls. A bigger challenge was the neighborhood.

Rough Start

This block of Kamehameha Highway was considered by many to be the center of sex, drugs and violence on the North Shore. Neighboring businesses included porn shop Divine Pleasures, liquor store Market 88 and exotic dancing venue Club Texas. For most, it was an area to avoid. “We learned real quick that we lived in the bad part of town,” recalls STN co-founder Cindy Bauer as she looks out the window from the plush seats of the coffee bar. “This was where no one wanted to wander.”

STN, founded in 1997, had been looking for a place to call home after a series of rental situations fell through. The 15-unit, three-story apartment building behind the old, rundown bar in Wahiawa looked like a perfect place to house their staff, and they could use the bar for a meeting room.

“We knew this was going to be a rough neighborhood, [but it] seemed to work for us because we are for those who are voiceless and the at-risk youth here on the street,” Bauer says. STN feeds more than 3,000 people a week, most of them working poor. “Maybe three percent are homeless but a vast majority are households working hard to make it,” she adds. STN also tutors at-risk youth three times a week.

The block was such an eyesore that for years, parents told their kids to “look forward, don’t look over there,” Bauer says. When Leilehua High School students came down to hand out food for a school project, they told the STN staff that not one of them had ever walked on that side of the street before.

The Giving Surfer

STN thought they’d try to improve the neighborhood, and in less than a year, the owners of the neighboring buildings had agreed to sell. The nonprofit put its first building up as collateral, held a huge fundraiser for a down payment and purchased the rest of the block. “We were just the new kids on the block that weren’t smart enough to know we couldn’t do it,” Bauer says. “Sometimes, when you don’t realize you can’t, you do it.”

At present, Surfers Coffee Bar is the only open business on the block. The original bar from the 1930s remains in a spacious room filled with plush armchairs and tables, with a desk area where one could do some writing or read without feeling distracted. The walls are decorated like a surf museum with eponymous memorabilia and art, thanks to STN co-founder Tom Bauer’s enthusiasm for the sport. “Our motto is ‘surfers giving back,’” he says.

“Surfers in my day were takers, but today we’re trying to market them as givers,” Bauer says, adding that he hopes the coffee shop also helps to remarket Wahiawa. “Since it is the gateway to the North Shore, we feel that Wahiawa has an amazing responsibility,” he says, “[and] surfers have the responsibility to make this a better place.”

STN’s goal is to bring community-centered businesses into the six available storefronts on the block; Chaminade University’s design school is planning parking and gardens for the buildings.

Supporting Local

Surfers Coffee Bar’s menu practices what STN preaches by supporting local business. It carries organic Kona Estate coffee ($2-$3 a cup). All espresso shots and drinks are made from Waialua Estate coffee beans, grown and harvested on Oahu’s North Shore and roasted in Honolulu. This totally local coffee fuels the menu’s latte ($3-$4), Americano ($2.40-$3.10), cappuccino ($3) and mocha ($3.50-$4.60) drinks. Try the “Wahiawa Mocha,” flavored with coffee, white chocolate and pineapple. Get it hot, on the rocks or blended-this caffeine addict highly recommends the last.

Bagels ($1.99), muffins ($1.95) and cookies (89 cents) are available as partners in caffeine crime, but they are not house-made and taste generic. A refreshing alternative is the acai bowl ($7.95), made from packets of frozen Tambor acai berry puree, frozen bananas and apple juice or soy milk and topped with granola, honey and freshly sliced bananas. Macadamia nuts, chocolate, strawberries, pineapple and papaya are an additional 50 cents each. Fruit smoothies are $3-$4, and a wide variety of Hawaiian teas, including organic, are served iced or hot ($2-$3).

The bar hosts open mic nights Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and live music on Fridays at 7 p.m., featuring bands from Hawaii and around the world. Cindy Bauer envisions a community center and commercial kitchen on the property one day so that kids can learn career skills.

STN started with one building and a meeting room that turned into a coffee shop. Now that shop has the whole block a-changin’. Police have told the Bauers that crime in the area has dropped. The fast food restaurants in the area have remodeled. Cindy Bauer says she hopes the old Club Texas space will be filled by a higher-end restaurant. Nearby California Avenue was recently repaved, something for which the neighborhood board had fought for more than 13 years. Gentrification, surfer style, is in the air-and it smells like coffee.

Source: Honolulu Weekly

If only commitment was contagious, there would be “no children left behind”

May 15, 2015

By Nani Lee, J.D., Ph.D., M.S.W.

You’ll find the Chaminade van in the parking lot of Waimanalo Elementary & Intermediate School everyday of the week because 37 students in Ethics 332 committed to mentoring students, who have committed to be part of The Century Program. The Century Program is one of the programs supported by the Foundation for Excellent Schools (FES). FES partners with more than 320 colleges (of which Chaminade University is one) throughout the country. FES schools have helped more than 140,000 students in 25 states strengthen academic performance and pursue post-secondary education over the last 14 years. FES works with a team of educators, parents, and community members at each school to create a plan built on proven practices that help students chart a course toward higher education. In this program, students and educators meet the challenges they face by building college partnerships and networking with other FES schools.

On any given day, you will find CUH student mentors on the Waimanalo campus engaged in helping their scholars chart their course toward completing high school, entering the job market, vocational/technical school or higher education. For some, it means helping them decipher fractions in very creative ways, for others it’s a game of racket ball, cooling down and then trying to figure out what homework to tackle next. WEIS students eagerly wait for their mentors and argue back and forth on “who has the coolest mentor?”. One scholar packs his ukulele to school so that he can share his talent with his mentor. Another gives his mentor a wake up call, calling her at 6:30 in the morning to make sure that she is committed to driving out to Waimanalo for a volleyball clinic.

These 37 committed CUH students were joined by 14 committed women of the Silversword Women’s Volleyball team. Yes, the Women’s Volleyball team unanimously voted to join their fellow students in Waimanalo and committed to a 6 week volleyball clinic with the TCP Scholars and the intramural volleyball team. They travel to Waimanalo (started on 10/5/05) once a week for six weeks to offer a structured skills and personal development clinic. Some of the topics that will be covered are: what it means to be a student athlete, nutrition and team work.

On October 7, 2005, a busload of WEIS students, parents and teachers traveled to CUH to attend the Silversword Vulcan game. The Team generously shared their hard earned fund raising monies and provided the bus transportation, pizza and drinks so that the WEIS students could attend their game.

Parents and teacher chaperones, who accompanied the WEIS students commented on the generosity and dedication of the CUH students. Observers noted the young “cheering section”, rooting for their CUH team. Following the games, the WEIS students gathered under the tent in the Henry Hall courtyard. They agreed to cheer for “their team” as they entered the tent. The youthful energy and exuberance emanating from the tent was contagious. Scholars, mentors, athletes, parents, coaches and teachers… we could feel the commitment. The WEIS students didn’t care that the Silverswords had loss, they were committed to their team. That’s called “applied loyalty”. Why?…for a group of students that feel that they are often “out of the mainstream”, they are witnessing and feeling the commitment of a small dedicated group of faculty, staff and students…51 CUH students strong. While faculty and staff provide the infrastructure for the opportunity to commit, these “Generation Xers” are defying the label and showing that they too can give to others.

Perhaps we should be taking our lessons from the WEIS students. After all, mentoring and commitment is a two way gain.

Commitment Honored in Spite of Defeat by Dr. Jim Miller

Mentors Serve Up Inspiration by Lee Cataluna, Honolulu Advertiser