Chaminade University of Honolulu

Humanities, Arts & Design

Chaminade University Celebrates 2017 Spring Commencement

Hundreds of exuberant graduates celebrated their achievements with their families, friends, faculty, staff and colleagues at Chaminade University’s 59th Commencement. Approximately 429 students graduated this spring semester with nearly 335 participating in the May 15 ceremony held at Neal Blaisdell Arena.

The program featured as its keynote speaker Shelley J. Wilson, the president and chief executive officer of Wilson Homecare and vice chair and secretary of Chaminade University’s Board of Regents. In 1996, Wilson founded Wilson Homecare, one of Hawaii’s largest private-duty home health care agencies. Wilson Homecare provides in-home health care services island-wide. Also in 2013, Wilson Senior Living Kailua, a state-licensed Adult Residential Care Home opened in the Aikahi neighborhood.

Wilson inspired the audience with her story.  She found her passion during one of the most difficult times of her life.  Returning to civilian life as a wounded warrior, Wilson had to deal with the challenges of recovery in the home.  Her experiences gave her empathy for in-home-care patients. In response to those hard times, she founded Wilson Homecare.  She encouraged the soon-to-be graduates to find a cause and to dedicate themselves to that cause with a passion as a way to find purpose and meaning.

Commencement student speakers were Taylor Seth Stutsman, the undergraduate representative, and Rezettakahealani Eric Mulitalo, the post-graduate representative.

Stutsman graduated with his B.S. in Forensics Sciences, Cum Laude.  That night his family came from five different states to cheer for him. He moved to Hawaii from Pennsylvania and appreciated the diversity of Chaminade. “Hawaii has taught me more about acceptance and tolerance than I could have imagined,” he said, appreciative of the multi-cultural experiences made available to him at Chaminade.

Mulitalo graduated that night with her M.S. in Criminal Justice Administration. Raised in Western Samoa, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wellington, New Zealand. “You do not have to know what you are going to do with the rest of your life yet,” she reassured the graduating students. She advised them to remember what the Scottish scholar William Barclay had said. “’There are two great days in a person’s life –the day we are born, and the day we discover why,’” she quoted. “Watch your choices, follow your dreams and love what you do.”

The Fujitani Interfaith Program at Chaminade University Focused on Pathways to Peace

Maya Soetoro-Ng, Ph.D., the keynote speaker, asked the crowd to reflect in silence on their personal definitions of peace and peacebuilding.  The nearly 100 people in Mystical Rose Oratory obediently paused and reflected.  They had gathered on April 28 – a Friday night – for a presentation by the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK) Fujitani Interfaith Program of Chaminade University featuring “Pathways to Peace in the Workplace: How Practices of Faith Bring Peace within Diverse Career Fields.”

“All right, please share your thoughts.  We’ll do it popcorn-style,” said Soetoro-Ng.

People popped up with their definitions, ranging from personal peace, spiritual harmony, and working in harmony. She encouraged people to connect with strangers around them and share their definitions of peace.

Affirming everyone, Soetoro-Ng shared that the Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution also defines peace as action and will work through public policies and innovative social projects.  The organization looks for “opportunities to nourish peace in the actions we take” as a way to develop peacebuilding leaders.

Soetoro-Ng serves as the director of Community Outreach and Global Learning at the Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution and earned her doctorate at the University of Hawaii in multicultural education. She has taught multicultural education, social studies methods, and peace education for many years at the University of Hawaii’s College of Education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels

Soetoro-Ng told stories of her mother as a social-cultural anthropologist and as a bridge builder. Soetoro-Ng recalled the poignant story of her mother’s desire to have her ashes scattered in the ocean so that “Mom could share herself and connect with all the people she had ever worked with and loved in her lifetime.”

Soetoro-Ng also shared stories of compassion shown across diverse communities that she saw during her global travels. “The vast majority of the world are comprised of the faithful. What if people of all faiths mandated peace and peacebuilding as their goal? Can you imagine how expansive that embrace would be for the family of humans?” she asked.

Soetoro-Ng then turned the discussion to the respondents.

Vima Lamura had led the audience in meditation earlier that evening.  As the audience meditated aloud, she orchestrated the diverse sounds into a chorus and pulled the participants into a harmonious choir.  Lamura spoke about the value of being at peace and in harmony in work with choirs and orchestras.  She had spent her life immersed in the traditional ancient wisdom of the Vedas, chant, sacred sound and mantra, which have inspired her creative works in music, speaking and writing.  She shared how meditation was useful for her inner peace and in building peace with the people she collaborated with on music tours, concerts, studio recordings, and operas.

Pieper Toyama, the founding head of the Pacific Buddhist Academy, spoke of integrating Buddhist values in an academic setting.  The school discipline, curriculum, and relationships between students, faculty, and staff needed to reflect these values, including the fostering of peace, pursuing inner peace and the practice of peace with others. Toyama has retired from Pacific Buddhist Academy, the first Shin Buddhist high school in the Western Hemisphere, and currently serves as president of Hawaii’s organization of Hongwanji’s 34 Buddhist temples.

James P. Walsh, Jr., the director of Pastoral Planning for the Diocese of Honolulu, worked in Hawaii’s medical field from 1975 to 2009 in various executive positions at Straub Clinic and Hospital and with HMSA.  He has taught at Chaminade University from 1979 to 1999 as an adjunct Business professor. Walsh spoke about negotiating between employees and employers and practicing his faith through conflicts. He encouraged people to become more aware of what they are grateful for and challenged them to look for opportunities to correct inequities.

Soetoro-Ng asked the audience for their thoughts and questions, as well as to connect with others in the room. The discussion was robust.

In closing, Soetoro-Ng shared an Indonesian phrase she learned as a child that translates to “wash your eyes.” “Yes, wash your eyes; refresh your gaze,” she repeated. “Make a commitment to faith and peace in action. Remember small connections can build an organism that can grow to supplant major power. ”

The Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai Reverend Fujitani Interfaith Program, established in 2003, brings together the Buddhist community with all other religious communities in Hawaii to promote interfaith dialogue and provide opportunities for understanding and action for peace and justice in our communities.

Chaminade’s Religious Studies program offers the student an opportunity for in-depth reflection into the nature of religious experience, the communities which arise in response to it, and their actions. Grounded in Roman Catholic theology and Marianist educational philosophy, this reflection is ecumenical and conducted in the context of a multicultural, interfaith dialogue, exploring the meaning of the faith and working for justice among many peoples and cultures. The program fosters an understanding of human responses to the sacred that invite personal and communal commitment to faith in action and spiritual growth.

Vita In Verbo Presentation Asks, “Why Teach Slave Narratives?”

Chaminade University associate professor of English Allison E. Paynter, Ph.D. was one of a select group of faculty members chosen nationwide by the Council of Independent Colleges and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to participate in a special American history seminar on “Slave Narratives.” The multidisciplinary seminar for faculty members in history, English, and related fields used the slave narrative–as well as some other assigned secondary reading–to comprehend the lived experience of slaves in the transition from bondage to freedom. From a pool of 66 highly competitive nominations, 27 faculty members were selected to participate in the seminar held June 19-24, 2016 at Yale University.

The Gilder Lehrman Yale Fellow presented her findings to her Chaminade colleagues at the March 8 Vita in Verbo session. Her PowerPoint presentation titled “Why Teach Slave Narratives?” introduced different narrative forms: confessions, memoirs, and autobiography.  At Yale, she studied the slave narrative approach and its importance as a genre in studies, regardless of the discipline or field.

Paynter demonstrated that slave narrative was integral to pre- and post-Civil War American history and culture.  Rhetorical choices and stylistic techniques informed American literature during the post-Civil War through dialogue, American sensibility, and the psychology of escape and freedom.  American writers influenced by slave narratives included Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Todd, Harriet Wilson, Mark Twain, William Edward Burghardt “W. E. B.” Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and Ralph Ellison. Contemporary films inspired by slave narratives included Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives (2003); Manderlay (2005); 12 Years a Slave (2013); Tula: The Revolt (2013); Birth of a Nation (2016); Free State of Jones (2016); 13th (2016); Roots and Underground miniseries (2016).

Paynter pointed out that slavery continues to inform popular culture in America, but stereotypes and fallacies abound. Students should have a foundation by which to analyze this “American institution” called slavery. She gave stereotype examples such as Uncle Tom, Aunt Jemima, Zip Coon, Sambo, and Pickaninny.

Paynter is currently writing an article on the powerful and disturbing book Kindred, which she teaches in her class. She also recommended the novel Underground Airlines: What Price Freedom? for additional reading. She noted that though the 13th amendment was created in 1865 to ensure slavery would never return to America, there was still in existence modern slavery in the form of sex trafficking.

Chaminade Professor Connects Education to the Greek Polis

The Faculty Center featured Chaminade professor of Historical and Political Studies Lilia Castle, Ph.D. as its guest presenter for its Vita in Verbo – Life in the Word series. In her presentation on Monday, Feb. 27, Dr. Castle explored the importance of paideia or education in ancient Greek philosophy.  She discussed the importance of education in relationship to the identity of the Greek polis by building on the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Polis, which literally means ‘city’ in Greek, can also mean a body of citizens.

“Paideia in ancient Greece referred to education (nurturing, training, cultivating, refinement). An idea of paideia covered the same semantic field today as the culture discerned as natural and cultural. Education was seen as the cultivation and development of the natural abilities of a man who will then participate in governing of his own state,” noted Dr. Castle. “Greeks saw education to be essential for those who prefer freedom and democracy. But if other states do not see the value of education for their citizens and do not invest in education, it simply means that such a state does not want to give it citizens either freedom or democracy.”

Dr. Castle argued that in the end “the divisions created by the city-states have become global, and it is our education in the divine that ultimately unifies humanity,” said Brian Richardson, Ph.D., Chaminade’s director of the Center for Teaching and Learning (a.k.a. the Faculty Center). “Education should focus on the spirit, establishing a local identification with the polis’ ancestors and a vertical identification the gods, and in this way it can promote political involvement and the cultivation of a rational soul.”

The presentation was thought-provoking. Free and open to faculty and staff, the Faculty Center regularly holds the Vita in Verbo — Life in the Word series as opportunities for collegiate sharing of scholarship between the disciplines.

Chaminade Professor Demonstrates Concepts of Heaven and Earth through Ikebana

When Fine Arts professor Yukio Ozaki creates art, it is as if he is in a sacred space.  A space of silence electrified by thought. Patient anticipation precipitates into a decisive idea that acts, causing material elements to move, form and change.

“Every art form started as a gift to God,” he said as he shook a banyan branch taller than himself during a recent demonstration of Ikebana for the Marianist Educational Associates (MEAs).

Ozaki paused. Despite the crowded room, he connected with a hidden quietness in himself. Decisively he stepped towards the large ceramic vase, held the branch to the ceiling and with a loud, cleansing breath, suddenly slammed the branch into the prepared vase. Stepping back, he determined that it was good.  “A gift to God,” he proclaimed and named it.

Keeping in mind the requested “heaven and earth” theme, Ozaki created three unique floral arrangements.

Early that morning before the demonstration, he completed his first arrangement. Using flowers from the field tied to the tip of a bamboo branch, he fastened the bamboo to a palm tree near Henry Hall. The arrangement presented itself to the heavens like a banner. It heralded creation without fanfare or need for human approval.

The second arrangement was the banyan branch placed into the vase with a robust spirit.

During the third arrangement, Ozaki interacted with the audience, answering questions and sharing his method.  Discussion ensued on the differences between Western and Japanese perspectives made evident through decisions in the creation process. As he taught, he sorted through his collection of yard cuttings and scrutinized with a hidden agenda.  Chosen pieces were pruned for structure and line. Ozaki navigated his way through light and space, creating balance with placement. He deliberately ordered along dark branch lines intermittent moments of orange seed pods, green teardrop leaves and gray lichen grasping at banyan bark.

When he was young and still living in Japan, Ozaki considered teaching Ikebana as a possible career choice but found that was not the right fit for him. “When I quit lessons from my teacher in Ohara School of Flower Arrangement system in 1966, I thought I wasted more than five years of my life trying to become a flower-arrangement teacher to make a living. But the intensive training gave me an incredibly comprehensive foundation in aesthetics, material, design, history and culture,” recalled Ozaki. “The most profound philosophy I learned from my teacher was: ‘don’t arrange with your hands; arrange with your feet.’ By that, she meant: ‘Know where you can get the right material at any time when you need it’.”

Working with Ikebana taught him something else.  It revealed how he did not want to teach.  Consider it part of the pruning process.  His early career experience and what he thought of as failure shaped his style of teaching.

“Now, in education, I don’t teach. This is very different from the way I learned flower arrangement. It was always very painful to see my teacher take apart my arrangement in lessons and change my work so completely to her arrangement,” he shared.

Later in a sculpture class at the University of Hawaii, he felt validated when his professor said, “There is nothing more awful than seeing an instructor in the students’ work.”

The beloved teacher shared on his calling as a teacher. “I am convinced that God gave me a second chance in life through becoming an educator at Chaminade. I’m so blessed that there was a purpose for someone like myself,” said Ozaki modestly.   “It has been my educational motto that I facilitate my students’ learning, not teaching.”

His teaching manner connected with faculty in the room. “As I watched you carefully and thoughtfully prune the branches and leaves and flowers during the Ikebana demonstration, I realized this is how you teach,” wrote Joan Riggs, director of the Environmental + Interior Design program, in a thank-you email. “You meticulously examine your students’ work and guide them to discover and to discern what is relevant and meaningful and what can be discarded or re-used in a different way. I see all of this as an effort to seek the beauty and wonder of God in all things and circumstances. Your resulting arrangement was unique, interesting and thought-provoking. I see this in you and in the work your students produce.”

Ozaki joined Chaminade’s faculty in the fall of 1986 and continues to teach ceramics and 3D-design. Since 1973 he established himself as an artist mainly in the medium of ceramics and wood. His artwork has been exhibited in museums and in prestigious art exhibitions nationally and internationally, as well as in Hawaii.

Named as a Living Treasure of Hawaiʻi by Honpa Hongwanji of Hawaiʻi, Ozaki is not only a renowned artist, he is a renowned teacher. He was the first recipient of the Fr. Bolin Faculty Scholarship Award and recognized nationally by the Carnegie Foundation as Professor of the Year. He received the Chaminade Award for Commitment to Marianist Values as well as the Outstanding Tenured Faculty Award.  In 2005, he inspired the addition of the Jean E. Rolles and Kiki Tidwell Ceramics Studio and Sculpture Garden between Eiben Hall and the Sullivan Family Library.

For Ozaki, creating art and teaching are sacred spaces. Each is done as an offering to God.

Marshallese Poet and Activist Inspires Chaminade Students

Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, poet and activist

More than 125 students, faculty and staff packed the Clarence T. C. Ching Center in Eiben Hall to hear the Marshallese poet and activist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner read poetry from her book Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter. Published this month by The University of Arizona Press, Iep Jāltok made history as the first published book of poetry written by a Marshallese author.

Considered an important new voice for justice, Jetñil-Kijiner connected the Chaminade community to Marshallese daily life and tradition through the weaving of her impassioned words and rhythmic descriptions. She shared her background and the role of women in the matriarchal Marshallese culture and highlighted in her poems the traumas of colonialism, racism, forced migration, American nuclear testing and the threats of climate change.  However, she ended with a vision of hope in her deeply moving rendition of  “Dear Matafele Peinam,” performed originally at the 2014 Opening Ceremony of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Summit. It received international acclaim.

Students from environmental studies and student members from the Micronesian Club and other Pacific Island clubs were especially moved by the activist poet. One Chaminade student was invited to read with Jetñil-Kijiner.  He read in Marshallese, and she read in English. Students were visibly moved.

Iep Jaltok, Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner's book

Jetñil-Kijiner’s writing and performances have been featured on CNN, Democracy Now, Mother Jones, the Huffington Post, NBC News, National Geographic, Vogue, Nobel Women’s Initiative and more. She co-founded the nonprofit Jo-Jikum, dedicated to empowering Marshallese youth to seek solutions to climate change and other environmental impacts threatening their home island. Jetñil-Kijiner has been selected as one of 13 Climate Warriors by Vogue in 2015 and the Impact Hero of the Year by Earth Company in 2016. She received her Master’s in Pacific Island Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

The division of Humanities and Fine Arts hosted the February 17 event, which was coordinated by the English department and spearheaded by English professor Koreen Nakahodo.