Chaminade University of Honolulu

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Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation Supports Chaminade Psy.D. Students

Chaminade University of Honolulu recently received nearly $480,000 from the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation to provide scholarships to students of the Chaminade Psy.D. program, formerly housed at Argosy University.

Group picture receiving check from Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation to provide scholarships to students

When Argosy closed its doors mid-semester in March 2019, Chaminade was quick to act. Within weeks, the university acquired the Hawaii School of Professional Psychology (HSPP) doctor of psychology program and hired all of the full-time Psy.D. staff and faculty members.

Chaminade was determined to provide the students with a seamless transition and allow them to continue their spring classes. The Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation gift provided student scholarships for Psy.D. students to help with spring semester tuition at Chaminade, as they had already paid their spring semester tuition to Argosy.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation,” says Dr. Sean Scanlan, director of the Psy.D. program at Chaminade University of Honolulu. “This generous gift helped ease the financial burden on students who had already experienced a tumultuous first part of the year when Argosy University suddenly closed.”

The five-year doctor of clinical psychology program is the only program of its kind in Hawaii. Last year, students volunteered over 12,000 hours of direct services through clinical practicums to people in the community. The program’s closure would have meant that there would be no accredited Psy.D. program within 2,400 miles of Hawaii, severely impacting Hawaii’s mental health services. The move to acquire the program by Chaminade—and the support of the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation—eliminated this potential crisis and allowed students to continue providing care to their patients.

“This program fulfills such an important need in our community,” says Tertia Freas, executive director for the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation. “It is our honor to support these incredible students in their journey to bring much-needed mental health services to Hawaii.”

Chaminade received permission from both accrediting bodies—the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) and the American Psychological Association (APA)—to provide a teach-out, ensuring enrolled students can complete their degrees. The university recently received approval for the program from WSCUC, allowing Chaminade to continue the program into the future.

“We are excited to bring the Psy.D. program to Chaminade. It is a perfect fit for the academic programs we already provide and consistent with our mission to provide service to the community,” says Dr. Lynn Babington, president of Chaminade University of Honolulu. “Over the past 30 years, HSPP, as the only clinical psychology program in the state, has educated and trained hundreds of psychologists who have provided countless mental health services to Hawaii.”

A Doctor in the Making

Growing up in a big family, Hi‘ilei Ishii-Chaves developed a knack for taking care of people. 

A Doctor in the Making | Hi'ilei Ishii-Chaves

“I’ve had to take care of a lot of my siblings,” says Ishii-Chaves. “And I’m good at taking care of children.”

The fourth-year biology major from Hilo has known for a long time that she wants to become a doctor. And because of her background, she’s most interested in family medicine and pediatrics. 

“Doctors come from the mainland and they serve people in Hawaii, but it’s rare that you find Native Hawaiian doctors in the medical field,” says Ishii-Chaves. “If I can become a doctor, then I can help children and better inform them. I feel like it’s my job to give back by educating my community.”

When her advisor and professor at Chaminade, Dr. Cogbill, sent her a list of summer research projects on the mainland, she jumped at the opportunity. She was quickly partnered with a Jamaican doctor at the Burnham National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, who specializes in pediatric internal medicine. 

Hi‘ilei Ishii-Chaves Summer Research

“I liked that my mentor was working on diabetes in children,” explains Ishii-Chaves. “I’ve always been interested in health disparities. I also really liked that my mentor is of a minority as well.”

Ishii-Chaves is spending the summer researching type 2 diabetes in children. She’s particularly looking at dyslipidemia, or abnormally elevated levels of cholesterol and fats found in the blood, in children with type 2 diabetes to see how it compares to adults with the same disease. Her team hopes the research will lead to early detection, and even prevention of the increasingly common childhood disease. 

But perhaps the most attractive part of the program was the hands-on experience. Several times a week, she shadows her mentor and accompanies her on patient visits. “I take patients to do blood tests, MRI scans and echocardiograms, and I sit in on their evaluations or wait in the waiting room with them,” she says. And every two weeks, they go into the children’s hospital in Washington D.C. to spend a full day visiting patients. 

Ishii-Chaves has found the experience to be particularly timely for her right now. “I’m actually applying to medical school right now for the 2020 cycle through Chaminade’s articulation agreement,” says Ishii-Chavez.

She hopes the invaluable experience and connections she gains this summer will stay with her throughout her journey of becoming a doctor.

Crime Scene Investigation Camp

Over the summer, Chaminade Forensic Sciences Professor David Carter and colleague Carlos Gutierrez led a group of high schoolers in a not-so-typical hands-on activity. After some intensive instruction, the teens spent hours poring over a mock crime scene to find “human remains.”

CSI camp in Maui - in the field

While the crime scene and remains weren’t real, the learning absolutely was.

And Carter believes the experience is also an innovative recruitment tool, helping students envision themselves in a forensic science career. “It’s neat for these students,” Carter said, “the hands-on activity, the experience with teamwork and documenting observations.”

The innovative exercise was part of the Maui Police Department’s 2019 CSI Camp, a unique week-long program of events aimed at giving high schoolers a taste for the work that criminal investigators do every day, from crime scene photography to blood stain pattern analysis.  

Chaminade’s Forensic Sciences department has been participating in the camp for four years alongside representatives from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Maui Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division, and Maui’s Medical Examiner.

Tony Earles, an MPD crime scene investigator and evidence specialist, runs the program annually. He said students have come from across Hawaii and even the mainland to attend.

CSI camp in Maui - in the classroom

This year’s camp had 12 students selected after a competitive application process. Students submitted essays explaining their interest in the program and were required to submit letters of recommendation. And before the week even begins, the students go through training online.

“With the effect of CSI television shows, there’s a lot of interest in crime scene investigation careers,” Earles said, in an interview. “Of course, you can’t have kids in an actual crime scene.”

The CSI Camp is the next best thing.

“We try to cover everything – from what happens when the call is dispatched to 911, the investigation by the detective, beginning to end,” Earles said. “By the end of the week, the thing they always say is they would like to make it longer. They always say, ‘I learned so much.’”

Hands-on activities, like the one that Carter and Gutierrez lead, are particularly popular.

Maui Police Chief Tivoli Faaumu called this year’s CSI Camp, which ran from June 17 to 21, a “tremendous success” and said Chaminade’s presentation and hands-on activity triggered lots of questions and interest from students. “It is through collaborative efforts such as this Camp that we continue to inspire our youth to dedicate themselves to careers which support our community,” he said, in a letter to Chaminade Provost Dr. Lance Askildson.

Carter said he uses the camp to clue students in on what they need to do to pursue a career in forensic sciences. He also helps them understand the related offerings at Chaminade. But he’s quick to note that the University’s participation in the camp isn’t merely a recruitment tool.

It’s an opportunity to give back. “The camp is a really important community service,” he said. “It’s not at a high school or college campus, but a forensic science facility. And students participate in actual investigative work and experience being a scientist in the field.”

A Sustainable Campus

When Sister Malia Wong isn’t teaching, you’re likely to find her around campus gathering, protecting and identifying native plants.

The humanities professor has made it her mission to help heal those around her using traditional Hawaiian plants and medicine. From a friend battling cancer to a colleague suffering from a skin rash, Wong has a cure.

“My teacher, Kumu Levon Ohai from Kaua‘i, kahuna la‘au lapa‘au, taught me an important lesson,” says Wong. “The creator provides us with everything we need.”

“Chaminade is a district of Kalaepohaku in the Kapalama ahupua‘a,” she continues. “On campus, everything that we need can be found right here. That’s what makes our campus so sustainable.”

Sister Malia Wong making natural ointments

But it’s not just about picking and using plants, it’s about having a relationship with them.

“If you don’t include prayer, attention and respect, then you’re just playing with plants,” says Wong as she rummages through a bag of tinctures and ointments. “It’s about having the interrelationship with the plants that makes it so special. Our plants speak to us, and share their stories with us.”

She pulls out a mason jar full of naupaka leaves that she collected from upper campus soaking in coconut oil. “This is a great natural sunscreen. You can take the plant and rub it on yourself to protect your skin from the sun.”

Wong is constantly sharing her knowledge and gift with the rest of campus and those around her—from stocking the Center for Teaching and Learning with homemade loose-leaf teas for her colleagues, to hosting a mini weekend-long summer institute workshop for the public, to teaching classes and collaborating with other professors on curricula. Her office is full of plant tags and stakes that she plans to use to label plants around campus. She’s even created an online database and a campus map identifying all of the native plants, including those of other traditions, that have medicinal uses.

Last year, in her environmental ethics class, her students got really involved in protecting the native foliage in the oval at the entrance to campus. Professors from other departments have also expressed interest in partnering, including an English professor who wanted to share Hawaiian lore about plants with students. Even participants in this year’s Montessori summer institute became involved, with groups of visiting teachers searching for and learning to identify native plants around campus.

“We all have this interconnectedness with everything,” says Wong. “And we have the wisdom of our elders within us. Why not just remember we are all a part of this earth? If we balance ourselves with nature, then we’ll be okay.”

Guam Alumni Gathering

The Guam Alumni event was held on Friday, May 24 at  Roy’s Lounge at the Guam Hilton Resort and Spa in Tumon Bay.

Dr. Babington greeted 50 of our alumni, current students, prospective students and their parents and gave an update of the University’s past year, Athletics Highlights, and her vision for Chaminade. It was a great evening connecting with the Chaminade ‘ohana while enjoying delicious food and drinks.

2019 Guam Alumni Gathering

Chaminade to Offer a New Emergency Student Endowment Fund

Chaminade University Board of Governors member Julie T. Watumull and her husband JD Watumull have gifted over $100,000 to start an endowed emergency student fund at Chaminade University. The “Julie T. and JD Watumull Fund for Emergency Student Grants” will be the first of its kind at Chaminade, specifically created to help students who have experienced an unexpected temporary hardship while attending the university.

Students who receive the emergency grant will not need to repay the funds. There is an application process, and grants range from $100-$1,000, depending on the situation. The Watumull Fund will be administered by the Dean of Students, Allison Jerome, in close consultation with the Office of Financial Aid and other support service areas on campus.

“We have students who need assistance with unexpected and unforeseen emergency expenses, and this new fund gives us the ability to provide support in a different way,” said Jerome. “Our goal is to help students during a time of need so that they can address the emergency and continue to make progress towards their degrees. Being able to provide a small grant to a student is just one way to show how the Chaminade community cares for each student.”

Members of the Watumull family are longtime supporters of Chaminade with a 14-year philanthropic history at the university including the Fund for Chaminade and the Hogan Entrepreneurial Program’s business study missions to India, through the J. Watumull Foundation and Gulab and Indru Watumull.

Julie and JD’s vision to establish a new student emergency fund is bound to help generations of students at Chaminade for many years to come.