Chaminade University of Honolulu

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Student Videos: Tips & Guidance For Pandemic

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When students fist returned from winter break to start their spring term, little did they know that taking BI 312: Epidemiology and Public Health would be more applicable now more than ever.

With the COVID-19 pandemic posing a real-world problem and threat, biology professor Michael Weichhaus took the opportunity to have his students apply their classroom learnings to the current situation. The students were broken into groups and were assigned to develop a short video to provide tips and guidance to their fellow students about COVID-19 risks and personal responsibilities that should be taken to flatten the curve.

Watch the videos the students produced:

Healthcare Heroes

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In the midst of this global pandemic, our healthcare system has taken centerstage. Every day we see healthcare heroes on the frontlines–sacrificing their own health and wellness to serve their communities, stepping up in times of need, making due with minimal resources and finding creative solutions on the daily.

For our nine soon-to-be-alumni heading into graduate healthcare programs this fall, these images are shaping their vision of who they want to become. They know there’s never been a more important time to become a healthcare provider.

We’re proud and honored to help them answer this call, and to support them in their dreams of becoming doctors, dentists, therapists, nurses, pharmacists and more. It’s why we recently launched a new MBA track in Healthcare Administration. It’s why we’re launching a new B.S. in Community and Public Health this fall. And it’s why we’ve set up partnership agreements with medical schools around the country.

We currently have articulation agreements with 11 different healthcare graduate schools across the nation, including A.T. Still University, Boston University, George Washington University, Pacific University, Samuel Merritt University, Tufts, University of Dayton and Western University. Through these agreements, our students are eligible for early admission provided they meet certain criteria and take certain classes.

These agreements range across the spectrum of healthcare, from medical to dental to pharmacy. Through A.T. Still University, for example, students can choose between osteopathic medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy, audiology or dental medicine.

With Boston University and George Washington University, our students participate in their early selection programs designed to be a direct pipeline into their medical schools. Some time in their sophomore or junior year, they enter into an agreement with the university. As long as they meet all academic requirements, they are provisionally accepted into the university’s medical school upon graduation. 

Four of our students are taking advantage of these programs this fall, and 19 of our graduates are currently enrolled in one of the programs.

We’re also a member of The Leadership Alliance, a consortium of 32 academic institutions dedicated to addressing the shortage of diversity in graduate schools and academia. Through the program, we’ve built partnerships with universities who want to admit our students into summer research programs. Our students have participated in programs at Harvard, Yale, Purdue and UCLA–to name just a few. This early exposure to research greatly enhances a student’s graduate school application, particularly for medical schools.

It’s no surprise that Hawai‘i ranks No. 1 in healthcare. It takes a certain kind of person to become a health provider. Someone with compassion, heart and patience–all values that go hand in hand with our island culture.

Healthcare is the perfect complement to Chaminade University’s mission. As a Marianist institution, we educate our students to embrace adaptation and change, family values and community service–core components of our healthcare system. And as a liberal arts school, we ensure our graduates have a wide breadth of knowledge and are able to think critically across a range of disciplines.

Congratulations to our future medical care providers. We thank you for your dedication and service, and we are honored to be a part of your journey.

Chaminade Students Entering Healthcare Programs This Fall

  • Rachel Arakawa* – M.D., George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington D.C.
  • Camille Burgos – M.D., Ponce Health Sciences University, Puerto Rico
  • Theresa Dao* – D.O., A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Arizona
  • Noelle Dasalla – D.V.M., Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado
  • Estelita Estay* – D.O., A.T. Still University Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, Missouri
  • Jerika Gomez – Pharm.D., UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, California
  • Hiʻilei Ishii-Chavez* – D.O., A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Arizona
  • Tomomi Kohno – Pharm.D, UH Hilo Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy, Hawaii
  • Ann-Janin Bacani – Pharm.D., UH Hilo Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy, Hawaii

*denotes students who are entering their program through an articulation agreement

A Leader of Leaders

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Whether it’s treating a Chaminade alumnus to lunch, spending her own time tutoring students for the nursing certification exam or serving as a faculty advisor to a student club, Chaminade professor of nursing Edna Magpantay-Monroe is notorious for going the extra mile.

Edna Magpantay-Monroe

“Once Dr. Monroe knows who you are,” says fourth-year nursing student Spencer Lee, “she won’t forget you…[she] often sacrifices her own time and money to provide services for students that better their education.”

That’s why he nominated her for the 2020 Weingarten Leader of Leaders Award. Each year, the National Student Nurses Association presents the award to a dean, faculty member or state consultant who goes above and beyond to support nursing students. Having worked with Professor Monroe as the president for Hawaii State Student Nurses Association and a former the Chaminade Student Nurses’ Association, Lee knew she was the perfect example of a Leader of Leaders.

“She was a key figure in revamping the Hawai‘i Student Nurses’ Association years ago, and since then has served as a faculty consultant and has mentored many future leaders in healthcare,” says Lee. “She has fostered the professional and academic development of all of the students she has interacted with.”

Professor Monroe was beyond touched when she learned she had won the award. “I was ecstatic when I opened my email congratulating me on this award,” says Monroe. “The nomination means a lot because it came from students.”

The award was to be presented at the annual National Student Nurses’ Association convention this month, but the gathering was canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions. The Hawai‘i Student Nurses’ Association, for which Dr. Monroe serves as the faculty consultant, also won both the national Newsletter Contest and the State Excellence Award.

 won in our category of schools for both the Newsletter and State Excellence

“Seven years ago, when a group of students asked me to help rejuvenate the state’s Student Nurses Association, I said yes but I did not have a clue what laid ahead,” said Monroe. “I have ended up loving this role as a faculty consultant and advisor. I feel proud as I see the students grow in front of me.”

Dr. Monroe serves as the president of the Sigma Theta Tau International Gamma Psi-at-Large Chapter, co-adviser of the Chaminade Health Occupations Schools of America (HOSA) club, and co-adviser of The Filipino Club at Chaminade University. Additionally, she was recently a co-author of an abstract publication, “Student Perceptions of Just Culture in Nursing Education Programs: A Multi-Site Study,” that received the 2020 Generating Evidence for Nursing Education Practice Award presented by Sigma and the National League for Nursing.

COVID-19 Data Provides Learning Opportunity for Students

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When COVID-19 (coronavirus) first grabbed big headlines in the US and began to shut down American cities, Chaminade Biology Professor Michael Dohm wanted to give his genomics students an opportunity to put their theoretical knowledge to the test on a very real-world problem. He drew up a series of lessons that would have them studying COVID-19 genome sequences as they became available worldwide.

Dohm’s students had spent the beginning of the term honing their bioinformatics skills, the process of searching and retrieving sequences from databases, looking for similarities, and then building algorithms to represent evolutionary relationships. The point of all that work? To test hypotheses about diseases.

Because his students were studying virus genomes, Dohm decided to have them apply what they’d learned to the novel coronavirus. Peer into the origins of COVID-19, he told them, and try to sleuth out how the virus that triggered a global pandemic is related to other coronaviruses common to humans.

Dohm said the hands-on work wasn’t just relevant to the moment. It was exactly what genomic scientists around the world were doing. “The objective is to provide our students a glimpse into a small part of what Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other experts are doing right now as the spread of the virus continues,” he said.

He kicked off the project after spring break.

At that point, students were learning fully online and communicating with Dohm regularly remotely to talk through their findings. To unpack COVID-19, his students used bioinformatics software, grabbing sequences from publicly available databases. They also used evolutionary models to estimate rates of mutation in the sequences and then follow the rapid spread of coronavirus worldwide.

COVID-19 genome sequences are being collected around the world, as labs collect patient data, and thousands of samples are now publicly available in databases maintained around the world. “The basic idea of the project,” Dohm said, “is that we are utilizing the rapidly growing number of genetic sequences…to explore how experts can use the sequences to trace the virus’ origins.”

But he also wanted students to consider how the virus was evolving.

Such work has been compared to tracking the travel of COVID-19 as if looking at passport stamps.

While the work is challenging, Dohm was there with his students every step of the way, creating worksheets to help his students get unstuck as they pored over the data. He also had them keep their work for a portfolio to represent not only what they found—but the steps they took to get there.

Green Roofs & Living Walls

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Environmental+Interior Design students participate in service-learning project: green roof and living walls

Lots of times, designers create spaces for working and for living that cut us off from nature.

But an exciting initiative underway at Chaminade is aimed at challenging Environmental + Interior Design students to do the opposite by working to model and construct green roofs and living walls.

It’s all part of Chaminade’s Sustainability in Design course, which is aimed at helping students unpack principles of sustainable design by focusing on key environmental issues and then considering how they relate to other areas of society, including economic inequities and social disparities. The idea: Think through how relatively simple environmentally friendly design changes can have a positive impact.

Environmental+Interior Design students participate in service-learning project: green roof and living walls

That’s where green roofs and living walls come in.

For several years, students in the class have participated in a field project in partnership with the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture to install the design elements — along the way exploring the potential benefits of adding more greenery to urban landscapes.

In participating in the hands-on project, students learn first-hand how sustainable design can make a significant difference to city life. Green roofs and living walls can cool buildings, be sources of food, offer aesthetic appeal and can improve air and water quality. They can also provide a much-needed space for recreation or reflection — or even for gathering people together to try their hand at gardening.

Environmental+Interior Design students participate in service-learning project: green roof and living walls

Chaminade Environmental Science major Hiilani Fujihara-Nagamine ‘21 participated in the service learning project and said the class learned all about green roofs and living walls before actually working on them in person. “I can see a future in having these two concepts come to life here in Hawaii,” she said. “The islands seem to be the ideal place for green roofs and living walls due to the wonderful weather all year round. Native plants could be planted to increase the native plant population.”

She said her favorite part of the effort was learning about an actual solution — something tangible designers and environmentalists and even regular people could do to make a positive difference. “I want to make sure that the Earth is still around for the next generations to come,” she said.

“This experience will help me find more solutions that can help solve the problems in this world.”

Undergraduate Summer Research Institute Goes Digital

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In-classroom learning may be temporarily suspended, but that doesn’t mean hands-on research opportunities have to be suspended as well. 

In true Marianist fashion, the Undergraduate Research and Pre-Professional Program (URPPP) has adapted to the current times and moved its Undergraduate Summer Research Institute online.

As part of the institute, Chaminade undergraduate students will be able to gain invaluable research experience from the comfort and safety of their own homes. The institute will run for 8 weeks and students who are accepted into the institute will receive a $2,000 stipend for their participation.

Each summer, the institute matches students with Chaminade professors to explore a research question of interest to them. The students spend 8-weeks participating in weekly group meetings to learn more about the research process while undertaking their project. At the end of the 8 weeks, students submit a final project thesis and present their outcomes and findings to the group. This year, the institute will take a similar form—the only difference is that it will be virtual instead of in-person.

“Opportunities like this are so important because they help our students strengthen their resume while also allowing them to gain research experience, which can be very insightful for students who are looking to continue their studies in graduate school,” says Dr. Amber Noguchi, director of Chaminade’s Undergraduate Research and Pre-Professional program. “We wanted to make sure these hands-on learning experiences could continue while we’re apart.” 

To be eligible, students must be a rising sophomore, junior or senior at Chaminade University; have at least a 2.5 GPA; have completed at least two semesters at Chaminade before the program begins; and have at least one semester of education remaining before the program begins. 

Native Hawaiian students are highly encouraged to apply, and priority will be given to students in non-natural science disciplines, including biochemistry, chemistry and data science. To apply, students must complete the institute’s application by the April 27 deadline and include two short written statements, a personal statement and a statement of research interest.

For more information, students are encouraged to contact Dr. Noguchi at [email protected].