Chaminade University of Honolulu

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Chaminade Adjunct Receives Compassion Award

On August 18, 2020 Chaminade Adjunct Rev. Dr. Gary C. Augustin was awarded a Ho’omenemene (Compassion) Award by the Samaritan Counseling Center Hawaii. The Ho’omenemene Awards are presented every other year to individuals and organizations that exemplify the benefits of interfaith advocacy and promote hope and healing within Hawaii communities. Augustin was one of two individuals recognized for his compassion and service.

“The service, passion, and compassion of our Ho’omenemene honorees is truly inspiring,” said Rev. Dr. George Clifford, President of the Board of Directors of the Samaritan Counseling Center Hawaii. “They have worked tirelessly to enhance the quality of life of others by nurturing peace, community resilience, and social justice.”

Augustin is an adjunct professor in the School of Education and Behavioral Sciences at Chaminade University and also serves on the advisory board for the Masters of Science in Counseling Psychology Marriage and Family Therapy program. He is a therapist with Samaritan Counseling Center Hawaii and specializes in pastoral counseling and critical incident stress management. He is also an ordained minister and works as a military family and life counselor.  In 2017, after Hurricane Maria, he deployed as a volunteer to Puerto Rico with the Hawaii Disaster Medical Assistance Team, and he deployed again to Saipan in 2018 after Typhoon Yutu.

“We are thrilled that Augustin was one of this year’s recipients,” says Dr. Dale Fryxell, dean of the School of Education and Behavioral Sciences at Chaminade University. “He is a tremendous and selfless individual who regularly dedicates himself to serving others. This award is very much deserved.”

New Data Science Scholarships

Chaminade University recently received a $1M grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide 20 scholarships for new first-year and transfer students who are majoring in data science.

Data science is one of the most in-demand and fastest growing careers in the Pacific region. As industries collect more data, they need more people who can analyze and interpret those data. This new program is part of a larger initiative to build a cohort of data science professionals in the Pacific to help support decision-making across Hawaii’s economic sectors.

“This program is all about access to high-paying in-demand jobs,” says Dr. Alexander Stokes, assistant professor at Chaminade University. “Every business sector in Hawaii, from healthcare to finance to energy and nonprofits, needs professionals in data analytics to provide decision support.”

Data science students at Chaminade participate in hands-on, project-based courses and internships that use real data provided by local businesses, agencies and community organizations. In addition to learning the necessary technical skills like coding and data visualization, students also learn about decision-making, data ethics and how to communicate complex datasets in a clear and concise way, ensuring they are well-versed in all aspects of the career.

“This project will empower students from across the region to find data-driven solutions to challenges in Hawaii and the Pacific region,” says Dr. Helen Turner, vice president for Strategy and Innovation at Chaminade University. “The Pacific faces unique challenges, and we need local students who can use local data to help us understand and address those challenges.”

The grant is part of NSF’s Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. The scholarships will be available for new students who are majoring in data science, and preference will be given to students from Hawaii and the Pacific region who meet academic and financial requirements.

The new project aims to accomplish three things: 1) Mitigate the financial and academic barriers for low-income students from the Pacific; 2) acknowledge and address the cultural and non-academic barriers these students face when pursuing an education in STEM; and 3) develop new ways of teaching and supporting student needs, strengths and cultural expectations.

“There is a national need for well-educated STEM professionals from diverse backgrounds and experiences,” says Dr. Lynn Babington, president of Chaminade University. “The support from NSF will help strengthen the career pathway for low-income students and will ensure these future STEM workers receive a high-quality, values-driven education.”

Applications will be reviewed by a panel of Chaminade faculty members and students who are selected to participate in the program will receive a $10,000 per year scholarship. Program participants will also have access to academic navigators, cultural programming, life coaching, professional tutoring, paid internships, retreats and careers preparation.

/Honolulu Star-Advertiser article (9/28/20) >>

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.”

Chaminade University Receives Grant from Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation

Chaminade University has received a $50,000 grant from the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation to fund its Early Childhood Education (ECE) teacher scholarship program. The grant will be used to award over 20 scholarships this school year to students from Chaminade’s School of Education who are majoring in Early Childhood Education (ECE).

“The ECE Castle Scholarship funding will play an instrumental role in supporting quality early childhood educators qualified to teach in the public sector throughout the state of Hawai’i,” said Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington. “With the generous support from the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation, Chaminade University will continue to provide quality education to those who have a passion for educating our young children.”   

Early childhood education teachers continue to be in high demand across the state and the nation. Chaminade provides Early Childhood Education programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. These programs provide not only degrees but also state teaching licensure and internationally accepted Montessori credentials. The university’s ECE major is offered through online courses with opportunities for hands-on learning experiences. For more information regarding undergraduate programs, click here and for graduate programs, click here.

The Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation is a proud supporter of improving the lives of Hawai’i’s children and families through the improvement of early childhood education and development.

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Chaminade University of Honolulu provides a collaborative and innovative learning environment that prepares graduate and undergraduate students for life, service and successful careers. Established in 1955, the university is guided by its Catholic, Marianist and liberal arts educational traditions, which include a commitment to serving the Native Hawaiian population. Chaminade offers an inclusive setting where students, faculty and staff collectively pursue a more just and peaceful society. For more information, visit chaminade.edu.

Keeping Communities Afloat

Close to 200 community leaders gathered online for Chaminade’s 17th annual Nonprofit Organizations Seminar on August 14. While the event has become an annual staple of Chaminade’s School of Business and Communication, this year’s seminar felt even more timely and served as a testament to the incredible work that nonprofits across the state do to protect the most vulnerable communities during times of need.

“It is a challenging time right now for nonprofits,” says Dr. Bill Rhey, the new dean of the School of Business and Communication at Chaminade University. Under the leadership of the Seminar’s Board, the school waived this year’s registration fee and offered the seminar free of charge. “With all of the uncertainty around COVID-19, many nonprofits are stretched thin—they’re working longer, harder hours with fewer resources and more risks to keep their communities afloat. This event was our way of telling the community that we see you, we hear you, and we’re here to support you.”

Screenshot from the Nonprofit Organizations Seminar 2020

The all-day event called on well-known speakers from across the state to help nonprofit leaders stay abreast of new changes and develop new skills and techniques for running their organizations. The morning focused on relevant financial updates for organizations. Trever K. Asam, partner at Cades Schutte, followed tradition of seminars past in presenting his annual IRS Federal Tax Update and helped listeners understand recent developments for tax-exempt and nonprofit organizations. He was followed by Tom Yamachika, president of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii, who explained how to apply and respond to new tax laws.

The technical sessions of the morning were followed by more high-level conversations around governance and program evaluation in the afternoon. Chaminade Professor Richard Kido discussed board governance and responsibility and Linda Axtell-Thompson, principal of Axtell Consulting LLC and adjunct faculty member at Chaminade, followed later in the afternoon with a presentation on governance ethics.

The lunchtime session featured Thomas Kelly, Jr., an expert in nonprofit program evaluation who joined the Hawaii Community Foundation as vice president for knowledge, evaluation and learning in 2012, after spending 13 years managing evaluations at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. Kelly walked participants through how to evaluate program impacts, and then how to use those impacts to communicate successes to constituents and donors.

“Donors are interested to know how well a nonprofit is performing, how much progress it’s making and whether it’s contributing positively to the community,” explained Kelly. “If a nonprofit actually spends the time to report out its impact and measures of progress and success, then it can actually influence donors to invest in them.”

This message was particularly relevant today, as the fundraising landscape for nonprofits looks vastly different than it did a year ago. In 2019, the U.S. was the most charitable country in the world, with 175 million Americans donating to charities. Nonprofits accounted for $2.5 trillion in revenue and employed nearly 12 million people.

But according to a recent poll by LendingTree, 15 percent of donors have paused donations due to income loss, and 5 percent have decreased the amount they contribute. And a March survey by Quickbooks found that 47 percent of donors were giving less than they were a month ago. Stories about nonprofit layoffs and furloughs due to revenue loss are plenty. Yet, at the same time, many nonprofits are seeing an increase in demand for resources and programs as communities struggle to navigate the economic downturn.

“As a Marianist institution, it is our responsibility to serve our community,” says Dr. Lynn Babington, president of Chaminade University. “Right now our community is facing a tremendous economic crisis with no foreseeable end. We are forever grateful to the nonprofit leaders and workers who are serving on the frontlines during this crisis, and it is our duty to support them during this time of need.”

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.