Faculty

Ocean Science

November 20, 2023 by University Communications & Marketing

Professor Sean Chamberlin credits Chaminade for lifetime experience

Dr. Sean Chamberlin has treasured his Chaminade acceptance letter to a science program that he received 50 years ago.

Akin to someone cherishing a handwritten love letter for a lifetime, Sean Chamberlin, Ph.D., covets a Chaminade acceptance letter he received more than 50 years ago. He even kept the envelope it came in. Five decades ago, the Florida native had applied to then-Chaminade College’s Science Training Program (STP) for high school students. The experience would forever change his life.

As an aspiring oceanographer, Chamberlin was among 36 students from across the nation who were invited to participate in the six-week program. To this day, he can vividly recall falling in “love with Chaminade University in May 1973,” the month he received his acceptance letter from Dr. Ruth Haines, Chaminade College’s then-STP project director.

“I was 17 years old and I had never been away from home by myself,” exclaimed Chamberlin, during a phone interview. “Now I was going to Hawaii for six weeks—by myself! Chaminade made that happen. The school even paid for most of my room and board, which was about $60 per week in those days. Needless to say, I was super stoked.”

He has never forgotten the experience and the mentorship he received from Dr. Ron Iwamoto, biology professor emeritus with Chaminade. At the time, Chamberlin admitted he was carefree, staying up late at nights, coming to class barefooted, hanging with college students who were living on the top floor of the dorm and having his first pizza with pineapple at St. Louis Drive In.

“Despite my shenanigans, Dr. Iwamoto took me under his wing,” said Chamberlin, citing Iwamoto as one of the most influential people in his life. “Students in the program were required to carry out a research project as part of their studies. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Dr. Iwamoto devised a project for me that would require lots of energy, and would take me as far away as possible from the other students.”

Iwamoto’s strategy paid off.

The research project involved building an artificial reef in a bay where Iwamoto liked to fish. Like a MacGyver, Chamberlin creatively improvised by filling a few old tires with bricks and hauling them out to a channel between the reefs. Every day, he swam out to the spot and made frequent observations of the organisms that came to live there.

“I remember screaming through my snorkel when I saw the first fish inhabitants,” Chamberlin said. “The project didn’t amount to much scientifically, but it meant everything to me personally. I fell in love with field work, a passion that would propel my career as an ocean scientist for the next several decades.”

Dr. Sean Chamberlin received a lei upon his arrival on Oahu.

Chamberlin is careful in choosing his words to describe the courses he teaches in the Department of Earth Sciences at Fullerton College. He substitutes ocean science for the term oceanography, the scientific nomenclature more commonly used among scientists who study the properties (temperature, density, etc.) and movement (waves, currents, and tides) of seawater and the interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere. He also prefers to use the term weather and climate science to describe meteorology.

“Some students get intimidated about science because they may not have been exposed to it at a younger age,” Chamberlin explained. “Personally, I was always fascinated with science and living in Florida, I was exposed to the space program at an early age. I could see rockets go over my head in my own backyard. However, my parents weren’t too keen on me becoming an astronaut, but when I was 10 years old I learned about Scott Carpenter, an astronaut who became an aquanaut, and that was OK with them.”

After attending Chaminade’s STP, Chamberlin followed his passion and attended the University of Washington, a national leader in oceanographic research and education. Four of his peers in the Chaminade summer program also decided to enroll at UW.

At UW, the aspiring scientist landed opportunities as a work-study student to carry out undergraduate research. By his junior year, he was regularly sailing aboard oceanographic vessels in the North Pacific. After graduating with bachelor’s degrees in oceanography and English, Chamberlin decided to attend graduate school at the University of Southern California.

He pursued his research aboard Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso in Tahiti, where he tested a new optical tool for measuring how fast ocean plants grow. He has also been to the Arctic where he sailed with Norwegian oceanographers in the Barents Sea. In 1988, Chamberlin spent five weeks aboard a polar research vessel in the Antarctic. He even got to walk on the sea ice in the Weddell Sea. His postdoctoral research with Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, led him to Iceland, the Azores and Portugal on research expeditions in the North Atlantic.

Dr. Sean Chamberlin still enjoys conducting field research.

“All of these paths originated from Chaminade,” Chamberlin said. “My experiences on a reef in a Hawaiian bay—thanks to Dr. Iwamoto—inspired me to pursue field science. “Perhaps because of that experience, my textbooks—“Exploring the World Ocean” (Chamberlin and Dickey 2008) and “Our World Ocean” (Chamberlin, Shaw, and Rich 2023)—draw from Hawaii’s countless examples of ocean features, processes and scientific achievements.”

But this story isn’t really about Chamberlin, it’s about the thousands of young people who have benefitted from his experiences at Chaminade. Although, he is not Hawaiian, he gained a profound respect for the Hawaiian culture and its people, thanks to Chaminade.

A few years ago, Chamberlin read a post on Chaminade’s Facebook page about the Ron Iwamoto Teaching Fellowship in Biology, which brought back fond memories for him—especially of Dr. Iwamoto and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity afforded to him by Chaminade.

“I smile when I think of how Dr. Iwamoto and Chaminade shaped my life as a young man,” Chamberlin said. “My choice of colleges, my pursuit of oceangoing research, my respect for diverse people and their cultures, and my love for Hawaii are rooted in my experiences under his mentorship. As an ocean educator, writer and scientist, I can only hope that my contributions are a fraction as impactful as Dr. Iwamoto’s were on me. After all, it only takes a few bricks, a tire and a passion for life to make a beautiful reef.”

Grant Expectations

October 5, 2023 by University Communications & Marketing

Grant help via the Office of Sponsored Programs

Newly restructured and expanded, Chaminade’s Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) will advance the university’s commitment through excellence in research administration, according to Claire Wright, Ph.D., who recently assumed the role of Senior Director with the Office of Sponsored Programs. It will also ensure that all grants are in compliance with federal, state and local regulations.

The Office’s primary and most visible mission is to serve the University community in the successful pursuit of external funds to support research and campus programs. Wright will collaborate with faculty through every step of the pre-award process to submit highly competitive proposals.

“The office helps faculty members finance the research and projects that they want to do,” said Wright, who completed all of her undergraduate and graduate training in the U.K., and joined the Chaminade faculty in 2011. “This a change for me from teaching, but I want to help faculty members realize their dreams.”

Although she’ll continue with her teaching duties with the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Chrystie Naeole, Ph.D., now has the added responsibility of being the Director of Office of Sponsored Projects.

“As a federal grants specialist, I’ve undergone extensive federal training to be able to assist grantees with the development, interpretation of federal language, and submission of these grant applications,” Naeole said. “I will also help with the execution of grant subcontracts, sub-awards and the management of grant-maintained studentships.”

Lynn Haff, Director of Proposal Development and Andrew Perez, Grants Financial Specialist; and Helen Turner, Ph.D., Senior Advisor on Sponsored Projects make up the remaining OSP team. A private funding specialist, Haff helps to identify and match grant seekers with potential funding sources of all kinds. She also helps to craft ideas for proposals, editing and drafting of proposal narratives, and the gathering of additional materials for submission, including bio sketches and letters of support. If the proposal submission is from a private source, Haff will also help with the submission process and the reporting requirements during the award period.

Perez is a staff member of the Business Office with an abundance of experience in grants financial management for both private and federal grants. He helps grantees generate grant budgets for application submission, and assists with the management of all financial reporting and compliance issues.

“I was hired by Chaminade to fill this specific role more than nine years ago,” Perez says. “There are lot of moving parts to a grant, and our role is to make sure that nothing is overlooked and that all the details are complete.”

Recruited by Chaminade because of her past successes in winning grants with the National Institutes of Health (NICHD) and local foundations, and her progressive translational research, Wright takes on this new role as the university develops its 2024-2029 Strategic Plan.

“Grants can help determine what the vision is for the school,” Wright said. “I’m here to help them write their grants, whatever that grant may be. And it’s not just for academic research; it could be for a study abroad program, student scholarships, community outreach or service learning. I’ll help them work through the process and their announcements, as well as with their reporting of outcomes.”

Driven by an idea, a product, a concept or a cause, faculty members conducting research or off-campus activity are often dedicated to their project, but they might lack the experience or access to funding sources needed to effectively carry out that project. In most cases, faculty research projects require outside funding that often comes from federal and state agencies, foundation grants or fellowship programs.

“And that’s where many universities’ Offices of Sponsored Programs play a critical role,” Wright said. “The office is the support system for faculty members who are trying to get a grant for their work in their respective disciplines.”

Faculty Award Winners

August 18, 2023 by University Communications & Marketing

Faculty Institute Awardees Drs. Chong, Halston and Mukina honored for their work

Acknowledging the tragedy that befell Maui residents and visitors alike, Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington asked faculty and staff to take a moment of silence to honor the victims of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history in more than a century. “Let’s keep them in our thoughts and prayers today and in the coming days,” she said, before delivering her welcoming remarks.

As the new academic year begins, Babington first looked back at the University’s many “points of pride” during the past year, including another successful Commencement at the Waikiki Shell, as well as the inaugural graduation ceremony of eight Halawa Correctional Facility inmates. It was indeed, as she said a “chicken-skin moment” for all those in attendance.

Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington delivered a welcoming address to faculty and staff on the Sullivan Family Library Lawn.

Looking ahead, Chaminade University will welcome one of its largest incoming classes of new students with a projected 1,572 undergraduate students and 642 graduate students for a total of 2,214 student enrollment. The incoming class of freshmen and transfer students amounts to 481.

“This will be one of the largest incoming classes in recent history,” Babington said. “It’s gratifying to see so many local high school graduates and others selecting Chaminade as the institute to pursue their higher education. We also have the highest graduation rate of Hawaiʻi colleges, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, and that’s something of which we’re really proud.”

During lunch at the Sullivan Family Library Lawn, Jim Heller Sutton, Assistant Provost for Faculty Development and Director, Center for Teaching & Learning, was proud to announce the three faculty winners of the Chaminade University of Honolulu (CUH) Excellence in Teaching Award, the Fr. John F. Bolin Excellence in Scholarship Award and the Dr. Joseph Allen Collegiality Award.

Education Assistant Professor, Travis Mukina, Ph.D., was honored with the CUH Excellence in Teaching Award, recognizing his approach to teaching mathematics that involves challenging and reshaping students’ pre-conceived beliefs about the subject.

“My goal is to ‘un-teach’ the negative beliefs that students hold towards math,” Mukina said. Rather than traumatize them, I want to ease their fears of numbers and calculations, guiding them to find their own solutions.”

Faculty members gather for a group shot on the steps of Eiben Hall.

“Clearly, Dr. Mukina is making a positive and lifelong impact on his students,” wrote Katrina Roesler in her nomination of Mukina. “And it is our great privilege to present him with this award.”

Designed to recognize a full-time faculty member for achieving excellence in scholarship, the Fr. John F. Bolin Excellence in Scholarship Award went to Dr. Abby Halston, Ed.D, NCC, LMFT. Dr. Halston’s research philosophy centers on the transformative power of scholarly inquiry and mentorship for academic and personal growth. Embracing collaboration and a student-centered approach, she fosters an environment that encourages critical thinking, ethics and creativity in research.

“She is dedicated to mentoring undergraduates, providing meaningful research experiences and empowering the next generation of scholars,” said Dr. Darren Iwamoto, who nominated Halston for the award. “The Fr. John F. Bolin Excellence in Scholarship Award recognizes a faculty member with a clear research philosophy who has advanced knowledge in their field, and it is our pleasure to recognize Dr. Halston with this award.”

Data Science Program Director and Assistant Professor, Rylan Chong, Ph.D., was honored with the Dr. Joseph Allen Collegiality Award, recognizing his extensive engagement with fellow faculty members, and his mentorship, collaboration and teamwork across a wide array of university activities, including research endeavors and curriculum development.

“His collegial work spans student programs, admissions, advising, faculty policies, career development, and community outreach, exemplifying his clear role in promoting Chaminade’s mission and values,” said Laura Tipton, a former Chaminade Data Science, Analytics, and Visualization Assistant Professor. “Dr. Chong’s wide-reaching involvement in the institution and his investment in developing relationships within the university ‘ohana has made a significant impact at Chaminade. I can think of no one more deserving of a collegiality award than Dr. Chong.”

First-Place Winners

May 4, 2023 by University Communications & Marketing

Chaminade Edges out Nine Other Teams to Capture IACBE Award

As guest speaker during the Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Graduation/Induction, Michael Rose ’23 spoke highly of his fellow graduates, commending them for recently winning the Best Practices Award at the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE) Competition in Orlando, Florida.

“There were a lot of late nights, and a lot of data to absorb and synthesize,” said Rose during the Graduation/Induction ceremony. “We worked hard as a team to bring home this award.”

Rose, along with classmates Epifania Petelo, Ashley Yoshikawa, Michael Rose and Tino Colleo presented to a billion-dollar boat manufacturer, Correct Craft, which chose their findings and recommendations on optimizing the company’s supply chain to mitigate risk and maximize efficiency.

The Chaminade Team included professors Richard Kido, Eddie Merc, Dean of the School of Business and Communications Bill Rhey, Wera Panow-Loui and Guanlin Gao, and students Michael Rose, Ashley Yoshikawa, Epifania Petelo and Tino Colleo.

“It was a great way to apply my learning in the classroom to a real-life issue,” Petelo told Talanei News. “It also gave me networking opportunities and an avenue to expand beyond the island community.”

Mentored by professors Guanlin Gao, Richard Kido, Eddie Merc and Wera Panow-Loui, the students’ presentation, according to School of Business and Communication Dean, Bill Rhey, was “the most professional, both in depth of content and professional delivery, that he has ever seen.”

“It wasn’t just good,” praised Rhey of the Chaminade Team’s presentation, “it blew me away. It’s always wonderful to share our students’ accomplishments, and they’ve made us so proud of their accomplishments.”

According to IACBE.org, it is the leading outcomes-based professional accrediting organization for business programs in student-centered colleges and universities throughout the world. The IACBE exists to promote, develop, and recognize excellence in business education.

IACBE judges noted “the winning presentation demonstrated excellence, as it pertains to an institution’s or program’s assurance of learning activities or quality enhancement initiatives.”

To win the award, the Chaminade Team submitted a well-written, carefully edited, and organized description of the poster presentation, including a brief abstract, a detailed description of the methods used for measuring outcomes and conclusion(s) drawn from the assessment results. The submission also provided recommendations based on the conclusion(s) and next steps for further supporting the assurance of learning activities or quality enhancement initiatives.

“It was an incredible experience for our students,” said Dr. Guanlin Gao. “They worked really hard to put together their presentation, and we couldn’t be any prouder.”

Show Time

April 6, 2023 by University Communications & Marketing

Powerful Play Examines Race in the U.S.

Written and directed by Chaminade English Professor Dr. Allison Francis, “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man” is a three-act play adaptation that evokes the music, imagery and energy at the turn of the 20th century in America.

Jason Lee Hoy plays the play’s lead character.

“James Weldon Johnson wrote the novella in 1912, and it was only about 120 pages,” says Francis, who is the first writer ever to adapt the novel into a screenplay. “The play will feature ragtime music, racial identity and depictions of lynching with the main character traveling across U.S. and Europe.”

The first fictional memoir ever written by a black person who was also the first black executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), “The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man” influenced a generation of writers during the Harlem Renaissance, and served as eloquent inspiration for Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright. In the 1920s and since, it has continually compelled the reader to challenge assumptions about race. It has also given white readers a new perspective on their own culture, revealing the double standard of racial identity imposed on African Americans.

Narrated by a mulatto man whose light skin allows him to “pass” for white, the novella describes a pilgrimage through America’s color lines at the turn of the century—from a black college in Jacksonville, Florida to an elite New York City nightclub, from the rural South to the white suburbs of the Northeast.

This is a potent, painfully honest examination of race in America, a canticle to the anguish of forging an identity in a nation obsessed with color. And, as the late poet Arna Bontemps pointed out decades ago, “the problems of the artist [as presented here] seem as contemporary as if the book had been written this year.”

The three-day performances will run from April 21-23, with shows starting at 7:30 p.m. on April 21 and 22, and a matinee program at 2 p.m. on April 23. Seating is limited at the Vi and Paul Loo Theatre. Click here for tickets.

“It’s an ambitious undertaking to stage this play,” says Performing Arts assistant professor Christopher Patrinos in praise of Francis. “Allison deserves a lot of credit for writing and directing such a challenging theme.”

Economic Education

March 9, 2023 by University Communications & Marketing

Including indigenous cultures and values into education is not about making the Indigenous populations stronger. They are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”
Guanlin Gao, Ph.D., adapted from G.D. Anderson’s famous quote about feminism

Economics professor promotes financial literacy

Guanlin Gao, Ph.D., likes to play games. And during the recent National Association of Economic Education (NAEE) Conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Chaminade Economics associate professor and Director of Economic Education Center for Excellence devoted part of her presentation playing the Public Goods Game (PGG), in which players are given tokens—in this case Kona coffee beans—and given the opportunity to anonymously allocate them in either private or public funds.

“The purpose of the game is to let participants experience the indigenous culture through a hands-on game,” Gao explains. “The game is also related to the shared natural resources and land management of ahupua‘a, where people have shared responsibility and contribute to the common good with their expertise.”

This fundamental economic game has become a classic laboratory environment for studying collective group decisions in which participants decide how much to contribute to a common pool. The countervailing effect, however, is that there is an incentive for group members to “free-ride” on individuals who contribute positive amounts to the common pool.

Guanlin Gao presents at the National Association of Economic Education Spring Conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Those who invested in the private fund could keep the funds, and divide the shares among its members. However, for those who invested in the public fund, they could either share the return among all the groups or simply keep the yield within their own group.

“On the East Coast, players would largely invest in private funds,” Gao says. “But in Hawaii, most players contribute to public funds, which evenly distributes the return among all members. We have a more inclusive culture in Hawaii, as opposed to individualism.”

The NAEE’s three-day Spring Professional Development Conference was attended by economic educators at the state and federal level, as well as educational institutions that house the equivalent to Chaminade’s Economic Education for Excellence. One of NAEE’s primary missions is to provide professional development programs and training for educators to promote economics, personal finance and entrepreneurial education in the classroom.

“Right now, the country is having a movement about economic literacy, and it starts at an early age,” Gao says. “We want the younger generation to have a foundational understanding of personal finance and economics. We want to provide them the tools they need to make informed financial decisions, and create a better life for themselves and for those around them.”

The overall goal of the three-day conference was to promote economic and personal financial education from K-12 through college. Various departments of education around the country already stipulate that students take an economics or personal financial class in order to graduate. Gao is working on this with Hawaii Department of Education but, in the meantime, she’s sharing her knowledge with other teachers.

“I wanted the participants to walk away knowing more about the unique, yet diverse cultures, in this country, and promote economics and personal finance education in a way that relates and speaks to the populations we serve,” Gao notes. “I also talked about the traditions of sharing, not owning in Hawaii (for example, abundance means we have a lot to share, not how much we own), and why the conventional economic assumptions of ‘everyone is self-interested’ and ‘the only goal for a firm is to maximize profit’ do not resonate with our students’ identities and beliefs.”

Consider the Facts^*

Many young people lack the basic financial knowledge and skills to prosper in life. Like many educators, the Council for Economic Education cares about equipping students with the knowledge they need to improve their futures.