Chaminade University of Honolulu

Alumni

Finding Her Home Away From Home

When Melanie Legdesog Veltri originally came to Chaminade University as an undergraduate from Micronesia, her plan was to get a degree and then go back home to help her community. She wasn’t expecting to find a Micronesian community in Hawai‘i that needed her just as much.

Melani Legdesog Veltri '06, MSCJA '08

Veltri had always wanted to attend university in Hawai‘i, and she was attracted to Chaminade’s small class sizes and intimate community. 

“My parents and I both thought it would be a good transition after coming from a small place,” explains Veltri. And they were right. Veltri found a home at Chaminade. “I had just moved here and I didn’t know anything about what living in the U.S. was like—I really learned from Chaminade. I took a lot in since I was so young and impressionable.”

It wasn’t long before Veltri became a very active member of the Chaminade ‘ohana and Campus Ministry.

She graduated in 2006 with a degree in criminology and criminal justice, and immediately got a job working in the Records office on campus. She also enrolled in the master’s in Criminal Justice Administration program and would go to classes in the evenings. 

She really liked the perspective she gained through the master’s program, and the fact that so many of her peers were already professionals in the criminal justice field.

“I was able to take classes with people who were professionals, a lot of military members who did various things and were able to contribute to whatever we were studying academically,” describes Veltri. “Hearing from their first-hand experience gave me a whole other level of learning.”

But her plan had always been to become an attorney—Micronesia needed lawyers and doctors and her plan at the time was to go back home to help her community. So after graduating in 2008 with her master’s degree, she left her job in the Records office and enrolled in law school. 

“I didn’t really see myself doing business law or working in an office, I wanted to do something that directly impacts people,” says Veltri. “Becoming a public defender is what I was interested in since the beginning.”

Upon becoming a J.D. in 2012, she spent some time working for the Hawai‘i State Legislature as a staff attorney for the House Judiciary Committee while she waited for a position as a public defender to open up. She wanted to get some work experience and utilize her networks in Hawaii before she headed back home. Luckily, she didn’t have to wait long, and by 2013 she had landed her dream job. 

Veltri was drawn to working with underserved and underrepresented communities. She spends her days advising people who normally wouldn’t have access to an attorney or be able to afford legal advice. She helps them navigate a very complex and often overwhelming legal system.

“If I didn’t give them advice, they’d be lost,” describes Veltri. “It’s overwhelming for them. But when I help, I can see their appreciation.”

Veltri sees firsthand that the biggest issues on O‘ahu are the prevalence of drugs and the high levels of homelessness.

“People just can’t pay for rent and can’t get stable,” says Veltri. “We have a drug problem here that keeps people cycling in and out of the jail system. Especially with the rising cost of housing, I don’t see this problem solving itself in the near future.” 

Veltri doesn’t know what the solution is on a policy level, but she knows that the work she’s doing is making a difference for the people who are struggling. 

“If it’s a drug issue, maybe I can help divert them to the right program,” says Veltri. “Or if it’s a mental health problem, I can direct them to case management. I guess I’m trying to do something about the problem in a way that I know how. For me, it’s how I know how to help and it’s how I can contribute to the solution.” 

Veltri says she draws on her Chaminade experiences and education all the time. She shares a lot of the values that Chaminade instills and she has taken those into all aspects of her professional life. She embodies the Marianist focus on community service and does what she can to serve her community wherever she is. 

But Chaminade has also shaped her personal life. She and her husband got married at Chaminade, and her son was baptised at the Mystical Rose Oratory. She also encouraged her siblings to follow in her footsteps and attend Chaminade.

“I keep getting drawn back to Chaminade and I want to maintain that connection,” says Veltri. “It has had such a profound influence on who I am today. A lot of the decisions I make, I just keep coming back to Chaminade.” 

So much of her network in Hawai‘i is because of Chaminade. 

“It is very much a family-oriented school,” says Veltri. “You just feel this connection with your peers and classmates. The classes were so small, I know of my classmates—a lot of them are in the criminal justice field—and I still see them in the community. I guess it’s just, we grew up together.” 

The tight-knit community is part of what has kept Veltri in Hawai‘i. But the fact that Veltri has found so much need in Hawai‘i has also kept her in the islands longer than she had planned. 

“When I initially came out here to go to school, my goal was always to go back home and to help my community,” says Veltri. “But ever since I started doing the work I’m doing I find it hard to leave.” 

Veltri has found that even though she’s miles away from home, she’s still helping her community. A 1986 agreement between the Federated State of Micronesia and the United States provides Micronesians with the ability to work, study and live freely in the U.S, and today, Micronesians are Hawai‘i’s fastest growing immigrant population. In 2018, it was estimated that there were 18,000 Micronesians living in Hawai‘i, and that number was growing rapidly. 

At work, Veltri is involved in a project to support the Micronesian community. Through the program she works with legal aid, immigration attorneys and legal clinics to help educate the community. 

“The most recent project had to do with all of these emergency order violations and violating quarantine,” says Veltri. “They were just ticketing everyone and a lot of people in the Micronesian community were getting these tickets and didn’t know what to do with them.” 

To help educate the Micronesian community about new laws and regulations, they have started partnering with community leaders and relying on them to help disperse information. Recently, they held a virtual Q&A session to answer questions about the new regulations. 

“It’s a project that I’m proud to be part of,” says Veltri. “We’re becoming more and more active and people are starting to reach out to us to ask for help.”

Veltri still does want to go home at some point, but not until she feels like her work here is done. “There’s still a lot to do, and there are still a lot of ways that I can help where I am,” she says. “I love that I get to help the Micronesian community—those are my people and that’s where I come from.”

Economics, Democracy and Entrepreneurship

Over decades of work as an educator and activist, Li Schoolland ’88 has appeared before young professionals in fledgling democracies around the globe to underscore the importance of cherishing—and fighting to preserve—freedom and to offer a path forward in crafting a free market future.

She counts among her former students the mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, along with countless policymakers, advocates and leaders of non-governmental organizations across Eastern Europe, China, the Middle East and elsewhere. Last year, she was on the road for 200 days—traveling to 24 countries.

Schoolland, speaking from her Waipahu home on a recent day, says she’s driven by two passions in life.

“One is God,” she says. “One is liberty.”

And even amid the pandemic, with traveling out of the question, she’s continued her work. In September, she was preparing to speak to virtual classrooms in Africa, China and Europe via Zoom, a medium that she admits took some getting used to but that she’s proud to have since mastered.

Schoolland accomplishes her work thanks to loose affiliations with a number of international organizations and strong relationships with an army of economists worldwide. She says she doesn’t ask for speaking fees—and kindly requests that they all do the same.

In return, she says, she gets to see the positive impact of her work.

“Coming from a Communist country inspired me to help,” she said.

Schoolland grew up in China, the daughter of a surgeon and a professor, and says she saw the cruel injustices of authoritarian Communist rule firsthand. When she moved to the United States in the 1980s, she vowed to do whatever she could to promote liberal economics and do some good in the world.

After completing a Master’s degree in Japanese literature at the University of Minnesota, Schoolland made her way to the islands to enroll in Chaminade’s Master’s degree in Japanese Business Studies. She describes the program, which was offered through a corporate partnership, as “intense” and immersive.

“The experience was very valuable,” she said. “Six days of classes and a lot of homework.”

As part of the degree, she was able to complete a three-month internship in Japan. She was interested in retail so sought an internship at a department store. During her time there, she helped the merchandising department develop a new brand that launched in the store.

After graduation, Schoolland remained in retail, working with Duty Free and then starting her own business as an art dealer. She also worked with a Japanese development company into the early 1990s.

The crash of the Japanese economy in 1991, though, changed the course of her life.

The business she worked for had to liquidate and Schoolland found herself with a new purpose: as the caregiver to elderly relatives. She went back into the workplace seven years later, as a teacher. By then, she wasn’t interested in the hectic, round-the-clock world of development or retail. She wanted a position that would allow her to spend time, especially the holidays, with her family.

Schoolland found a teaching position at Punahou, where her daughter was attending school.

And during breaks, she and her daughter would try to squeeze in as much travel as they could.

At every destination, Schoolland would wear her teaching hat, sharing what she knew with others.

That wanderlust grew into a mission: Schoolland and her husband, also an economist, started coordinating educational camps and conferences for young professionals. Oftentimes, the events were in partnership with local universities. The topics: Free market economics and democracy.

Schoolland’s work has taken her across Eastern Europe, from Lithuania to Latvia to Estonia to Poland.

About 10 years ago, she was delighted to finally set up an event in China. She partnered with Northeastern University there and developed a summer school program with about 100 students. Last year, more than 200 students attended to hear well-known economists from around the world.

The speakers, she said, “sacrifice and they don’t get paid” to attend the events.

So far this year, Schoolland has had to cancel more than seven trips internationally. That hasn’t discouraged her. If anything, it has redoubled her resolve to promote market economics, democracy and entrepreneurship. She said she can’t wait to get back on the road (and in the air) when she’s able to.

Pushing Boundaries: Sushi with Attitude

Remi Kohno '15

At Chaminade University, we talk a lot about adaptation and change—educating for adaptation and change is one of the five core tenets of a Marianist education. The concept is woven throughout our curricula, and our students learn about the importance of embracing change and adapting to meet it as they move through our programs.

Adapting to change is something that is very familiar to Remi Kohno ‘15. She came to Chaminade University from Pasadena, California to play basketball and major in elementary education. But after her first year, she realized neither of those were the right fit. She didn’t like the competition she found on the basketball court, and teaching wasn’t her passion. So she quit the basketball team and switched her major to communications with a focus in marketing.

Her junior year brought even more change when she joined the Hogan Entrepreneurial Program. It quickly started pushing her out of her comfort bubble, and it altered the way she reacted to pressure. 

“I saw all these great people join the Hogan program and I wanted to be just like them,” recalls Kohno. “Hogan definitely pushed my boundaries, which was nice. It really helped me grow as a person, both professionally and personally.”

Students who are accepted into the Hogan Entrepreneurial Program spend one or two years learning what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. They mingle and network with some of Hawaii’s biggest business leaders, they travel, they participate in internships and they work with industry leaders to design their own business plans and fine tune their public speaking abilities.

The program helped Kohno break out of her shell and become more confident in her abilities to lead and engage.

One moment in particular stands out in her memory. Every Wednesday evening, Hogan participants gather to welcome and learn from a guest speaker from the Hawaii business industry. Guests range from Mattson Davis, the former president and CEO of Kona Brewing Co., to Chuck Cardinal, a former Colonel in the United States Army and the former Chief of Staff to a WWII Commander.

On this particular night, the speaker was Eddie Flores, Jr., the founder of L&L Hawaiian BBQ. Flores has an inspiring story—he’s the son of immigrant parents and the eldest of seven children. His family moved to Hawaii from China when he was a young child. His father worked as a janitor and his mother worked as a restaurant cashier and dishwasher. He himself struggled with a learning disability growing up that kept him behind in school. But as a young man, he worked hard, ultimately earning enough money to buy his mother a restaurant, in what would become the first L&L location. His restaurant chain now has over 200 locations and in 2019 it was ranked as the No. 1 Asian food franchise by Entrepreneur. 

Kohno had been designated as the evening’s notetaker, which meant it was her job to document Flores’ speech and at the end of the evening, stand up to present a recap to her classmates while Flores watched on.

She was just a little intimidated. “You’re listening and engaging, but you’re also taking notes so that you can structure it into a recap and presentation,” remembers Kohno. “After [Flores] was done, I had to go up in front of the whole class and do a quick overview of what was most important. It was nerve-wracking. But then I got to give him a lei, which was nice and helped alleviate any tension.”

Remi Kohno '15 at the American Advertising Federation’s Most Promising Multicultural Student program

Kohno’s senior year, right after returning from a semester studying abroad in France, one of her professors recommended her for the American Advertising Federation’s Most Promising Multicultural Student program. She was one of only a handful of students selected from across the nation to participate in the intensive immersion program, designed to connect diverse up-and-coming advertising talent with some of the largest advertisers in the nation. She once again found herself at the airport, ready to embrace the unknown, this time in New York City.

Luckily, she had learned how to network and interact with business leaders through the Hogan program. “We got to meet a ton of people and tour their facilities and headquarters,” says Kohno. “It was an opportunity to connect with businesses and send them your resume, and hopefully get a follow up interview to help jumpstart your career after college.”

Through all of the change and opportunity that came her way at Chaminade, Hogan taught Kohno to remain calm and collected, and cool under pressure. Through Hogan and her professors, she learned to see challenge as opportunity. It’s something that has served her well after college, particularly today.

Remi Kohno '15 with her family—Sushi With Attitude

Before COVID, her family ran a small restaurant stall called Sushi with Attitude at a night market in Los Angeles. While she has a full-time job at NBC during the day, she helps them on the side. When the pandemic shut down the market, they had to completely rethink their strategy and their focus. With Kohno’s help, they converted the business into a cloud kitchen model, meaning they are operating completely on delivery apps without a storefront, and launched a new product: the sushibi. It’s a combination of sushi and musubi.

“We wanted to offer musubi, but a lot of people in Los Angeles don’t know what they are,” says Kohno. “We also wanted to be able to show up in the sushi category on delivery apps—it is one of the most used keywords. So we rebranded our musubi to be sushibi to bridge the gap.”

The business has received a bit of media attention as a result, and Kohno’s Hogan training has come in useful.

Remi Kohno '15 and her family being interviewed for their family business, Sushi With Attitude

“Hogan helped me learn to speak and structure what I’m going to say, which has helped a lot with media interviews,” says Kohno. “I recently interviewed with KTLA news. I was really nervous because it was live, but it was nice to be able to do something that I wasn’t really comfortable with, and Hogan taught me how to do that.”

Kohno attributes much of her recent success to Hogan and the opportunities she had at Chaminade. “Definitely Hogan, all of the professors I had at Chaminade and being part of the American Advertising Federation, they have all helped me grow into this role that I have right now.”

She works full-time as a manager in paid social media at NBC. And only five years after graduating from college, she feels like she’s almost landed her dream job.

“I love what I do at NBC. They’re a really great company,” says Kohno. “I want to continue to grow and become a director, and continue to be knowledgeable about all the various platforms and their nuances and updates. That is my dream goal. I think I’m almost there.”

Faith In Action

Dr. Brandy Sato ’97 ’02 knows a thing or two about Catholic school. A Kailua native, her family has a legacy of attending either Sacred Hearts Academy or St. Louis School. She followed suit and attended the all-girls school through high school, before making the trek across Waialae Avenue to attend Chaminade University. After graduating, she spent some time teaching in Catholic schools and then returned to Chaminade to get her Master’s in Education.

Brandy Sato '97 '02

So naturally, when Sato assumed the role of secondary school principal at Island Pacific Academy this past June, she was attracted to the school’s focus on values. She saw a strong connection between the values that guide Island Pacific—humility, love, respect, generosity and gratitude—with those that she was taught at Sacred Hearts Academy and Chaminade University. 

“At Island Pacific, we have certain values that we live by and that we teach our children,” says Sato. “Those values are very easy for me to promote because they align with my Catholic faith.”

While she learns to navigate her new institution and lead the school through the novel coronavirus pandemic, she finds herself regularly drawing upon her faith.

“Faith is a benchmark and the foundation upon which we need to stand during this current health pandemic,” says Sato. “The gospels that were instilled in me throughout my education are really a good compass for how to thrive during these challenging times.”

Her time at Chaminade has also helped set a precedent for what she hopes to achieve at Island Pacific. Because Chaminade is a small school, it allowed her to learn in a way that best met her needs. It helped her understand the importance of personalized learning—something she’s really taking to heart as Island Pacific works to refine its distance learning program.

“During this pandemic, as we look to different ways of instruction, I think a lot about my personalized experience at Chaminade,” says Sato. “It has helped me make sure that we are really connecting with our students, that we know them well enough to continue to educate them in a way that helps them explore their passions.”

Chaminade also offered Sato an example of what it means to provide a well-rounded education. “Academics were very important at Chaminade, but so were social opportunities, particularly those that helped me explore my faith,” says Sato. “The experience I had at Chaminade is one I want to duplicate for my students here at Island Pacific, to make sure we continue to educate the whole child.”

Ultimately, for Sato, that’s her life’s mission—to build a new generation of well-rounded individuals who strive to serve their communities. Being an educator is the most powerful way for Sato to give back and put her own faith into action. By inspiring and motivating children, and helping them to reach their dreams and explore their passions, Sato believes she can change the world.

“I really want to leave the world in a better place when I’m gone,” says Sato. She pauses for a while, while reflecting on her legacy and the meaning behind decades of hard work. “I see that my vocation in life is to inspire and motivate. To provide multiple opportunities for children to reach their dreams and explore their passions, and to help them to have lifelong careers and interests that will make the world a better place.”

Education in the Time of COVID

When Shana Tong, MEd ‘08 was offered the position of interim president at Maryknoll School, a private Catholic school in Honolulu, the situation couldn’t have been more urgent. It was July of 2020, and the education system around the world had just been rocked by one of the biggest challenges of the century: the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shana Tong, MEd '08

Schools across the globe had spent the last part of the 2019-20 school year scrambling to finish out the year remotely. No one really knew what fall of 2020 would bring—would schools be able to reopen? Teachers and administrators were working double-time to prepare for all possible scenarios.

In Hawaii, things were looking stable in early July. But now, a little over one month later, everything has changed. Numbers are rising, and quickly. The situation is becoming much more dire, and public schools have now been mandated to begin their school year online.

If there is anyone that can lead Maryknoll through these difficult times, it’s Tong. Tong knows Maryknoll like the back of her hand. She has had every possible relationship with the school—she has been a Maryknoll student, parent, teacher and administrator. And her endless optimism and easy manner will serve the school well during these unpredictable times.

It isn’t easy assuming a new leadership role in the middle of a pandemic with so many unknowns ahead. Tong knows her biggest challenge will be making sure the parents, students and teachers all feel comfortable and confident in the new learning plan.

“Everyday it could change,” acknowledges Tong. “Being flexible, adaptable, resilient—those are the skills we are going to need in order to really thrive and make sure our children are feeling confident and cared for, and to give them a sense of normalcy, even when the world is crazy out there.”

Tong credits the knowledge she gained in Chaminade’s Master of Education program with helping her navigate the complexity of the situation today. She had already had an extensive teaching career when she enrolled in the program in 2006, but Chaminade taught her about the business of running a school—the finance, law and human resources side of things. It gave her the solid foundation she needed to become a confident leader.

But even more so, her professors at Chaminade modeled what it meant to be a Catholic educator, something Tong is holding very near and dear today. Regardless of a child’s faith, Tong believes the Catholic education that Maryknoll helps shape children to become more responsible and caring citizens.

“When children see themselves and their role in the world as bigger than themselves, it’s always enlightening,” says Tong. “It sets the path for how they take care of other people, making difficult decisions when times are tough.”

That’s especially true in today’s world, as people struggle to navigate so much uncertainty. “Right now we’re in a pandemic,” says Tong. “I think more than ever, people need something to look forward to. As times change, faith gives you something to rely on, it gives you a sense of responsibility.”

Tong doesn’t know what this upcoming school year holds, but with her faith and a dedicated team of fellow leaders and mentors to help guide her, she feels confident in the journey ahead.

Pivoting During a Pandemic

In early March, Alyssa Nagai was living a good life. The 2015 Chaminade alumna would work her nursing shifts at Maui Memorial Medical Center, and always enjoyed coming home to her little dog who would jump on her as soon as she walked through the door. She loved living on Maui, and it was an easy and short flight to see her family back home in Oahu.

She felt comfortable at her job. Her time at Chaminade had prepared her well, and had given her the skills and knowledge she needed to be successful.

But nothing could have prepared her for what came next.

Alyssa Nagai in her face mask

“The nursing and the schooling part of Chaminade definitely prepared me to be a nurse,” says Nagai. “But I don’t know if anyone was really ready for a pandemic to hit.”

When COVID-19 made its way to the Islands, overnight her days became longer and her job became a lot scarier.

Her hospital floor was quickly turned into a COVID unit, and chaos ensued. Policies and procedures kept changing—no one really knew what to expect or what to do. The disease was still so new and unpredictable. 

“It was really scary,” says Nagai. “I think every day, or sometimes every hour, things were changing when it came to PPE, or just everything. Policies kept changing and it was really frustrating.”

Her unit converted into a closed unit, meaning team members weren’t allowed to come and go from the floor. It also meant nurses were doing total care for their patients, without help from nurse aides and patient care specialists.

It made for really long, emotionally draining days.

“You see what people are going through, and it’s scary on their end too,” says Nagai. “It was hard emotionally, for everyone.”

Alyssa Nagai and her co-workers

It was particularly hard when she saw her coworkers fall ill. “We all kind of saw this coming, we knew that we had the risk of getting sick,” says Nagai. “But it’s scary because you see these people every day and you can’t really help it.”

It was also lonely. For Nagai, the hardest part was staying away from the people she loved and cared about.

“I’d be afraid to hang out with people, and I knew they were afraid to see me too, because no one knew if they had it.”

When she would return home from her shift, she’d immediately shower off and try to stay away from people as much as possible. “I’d try to shower before my little dog would jump on me,” recalls Nagai. “You just feel dirty coming out of there.”

Nagai felt good about what she was doing. She knew she was helping. But she wasn’t sure other people saw it that way. Fears and anxieties were high all around the Island. It didn’t help hearing stories of how people were treating other healthcare professionals, like the story she heard about a nurse who went to the grocery store and had things thrown at her.

Now that COVID numbers have begun to slow down in Hawaii, Nagai’s unit is mostly back to normal. “There are still some changes in place, like the break rooms are different. We can’t be around a bunch of people anymore.”

Nagai has a positive outlook on what the future brings. She’s hopeful there won’t be too much of a second wave, and she’s enjoying the new teamwork and collaboration that has come out of the hospital. Everyone seems to have a new perspective and appreciation for everyone else now.

“When we were doing total care for our patients, I gained a whole new perspective on what nurse aides do,” admits Nagai. “It feels really good to be back to normal (or the “new normal).”