Innovation

Entrepreneur Kicks Off Speaker Series

September 5, 2024

The co-founder of Kō Hana Distillers detailed how he overcame ‘roadblocks’ to go to market

Kō Hana Distillers co-founder Robert Dawson kicked off the fall Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program Guest Speaker Series, detailing his journey from a business idea to a successful company.

Speaking to attendees, Dawson said he “didn’t know anything about sugarcane” and “didn’t even like rum” when he moved to Hawaii with his wife and son in 2008. He said his deep appreciation of history led him to Hawaii’s agriculture past and ultimately, “Native Hawaiian sugarcane,” called kō.

He teamed up with a scholar to learn more about Hawaii sugarcane, which was brought by ancient Polynesian seafarers to Hawaii more than 1,000 years ago.

Having spent a time in Brazil, Dawson told attendees at his talk Wednesday he had always been a fan of cachaça, the Brazilian rum made from sugarcane juice. This would be the direction he would take with his new venture, he said, growing and harvesting Hawaiian varietal sugarcane to distill rhum agricole.

Incorporating Kō Hana Hawaiian Agricole Rum in 2011, Dawson and business partner Jason Brand introduced their first agricole-style rum made entirely from Hawaii-grown sugarcane in 2014.

“It took time and getting over a lot of roadblocks,” Dawson said.

“But now we’re expanding to grow sugarcane across 1,600 acres on the North Shore, and our goal is to become an international boutique rum distiller.”

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The Hogan Guest Speaker Series is aimed at enriching the educational experience, connecting entrepreneurial-minded students with successful professionals from various industries and bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application.

Dr. Roy Panzarella, Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program director, said guest speakers are selected based on the program’s objectives for the year. There are seven speakers on the schedule for the fall, including Better Sour and Shaka Tea co-founder Isabella Hughes, set to speak on Oct. 16.

“For many students, these are delightful opportunities to be exposed to and learn the power and value of networking,” Panzarella said, adding that speakers gives students invaluable real-world insights.

“Our wish is that all Hogan students, including those pursuing an MBA, will walk away from each lecture even more inspired to listen actively, read critically and speak effectively,” Panzarella said.

He also hopes the students leave the lectures, as well as the Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program, more confident and excited about using their own talent and skills to start something new.

“Sometimes the Wednesday presentations have a long-lasting impact on our Hogan students, but I have found it is the lecturers themselves that have the most influence on them,” Panzarella said.

“Oftentimes, the personal narratives of the lecturers are so powerful they serve to inspire many students who doubt themselves and their capacity to achieve success.”

COMING UP:

An entrepreneurship teacher at Seabury Hall on Maui, Melissa Crounse Kaufman will be the next Hogan guest speaker on Sept. 18. Kaufman is the founding executive director of the Garage at Northwestern University and co-author of “Founded: The No B.S. Guide for Student Entrepreneurs.”

For the complete fall schedule, click here.

Student Research on Display

July 29, 2024

The Summer Research Institute Symposium was an opportunity for undergraduate scientists-in-training to get feedback on their work.

In his final presentation during the Summer Research Institute Symposium, Zach McClellan ’25 decided to pursue the correlation between the effects of occupational stressors on the quality of life among firefighters. — Zach McClellan ’25 presented his findings during the Summer Research Institute Symposium.

Zach McClellan ’25 comes from a long line of firefighters—and has seen first-hand the trauma these first responders can experience.

So as a participant in this year’s Summer Research Institute at Chaminade, the Psychology major decided to study how occupational stressors correlate to quality of life indicators for firefighters.

He presented his findings July 23 at the Summer Research Institute Symposium on campus, an annual showcase of cutting-edge undergraduate research at Chaminade conducted under the mentorship of professors.

“I sent out my first survey that comprised of demographics, the Firefighter Assessment of Stress Test (FAST), and the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire Short Form (Q-LES-Q-SF) back in March,” said McClellan, pointing out the number of respondents shown on his poster board.

“This was my capstone project with Dr. (Darren) Iwamoto, and I want to take it as far as I can take it. The end goal is to get the study published.”

Organizers say the symposium reflects Chaminade’s strong commitment to advancing academic excellence while fostering close collaborations between faculty and student researchers.

A two-time participant in the Summer Research Institute Symposium, Grace Helmke ’25 built on last year’s “Climate Monstrosities” with this year’s “Climate Tricksters in an Indigenous Future.”

Mentored by Assistant Professor of English Dr. Justin Wyble, Helmke said she chose the subject for a couple of reasons. “The no. 1 reason was that I believe Indigenous peoples to have an incredibly important perspective on society—one that’s largely dismissed and unseen by the masses,” the English major said.

“Their viewpoints surrounding the ways in which to combat colonialism, preserve culture and fight for a greater future, are all concepts that each of the texts I focused on examined. I believe that discussing these concepts, principles and cultural beliefs, from an Indigenous perspective, has the potential to lead society into a future that rejects the colonial systems, and instead seeks equity and healing of the people.”

Amber Noguchi, program director for Chaminade’s Undergraduate Research and Pre-Professional Programs Office, said the symposium allows Summer Research Institute participants to not only showcase their work—but get feedback and questions from attendees to expand their research inquiries.

The institute is funded by a joint federal Title III grant with Kapiolani Community College.

A two-time participant in the Summer Research Institute Symposium, Grace Helmke ’25 built on last year’s “Climate Monstrosities” with this year’s “Climate Tricksters in an Indigenous Future.” — Grace Helmke ’25 explained her theories to a group of attendees.

“We just completed our fourth SRI,” Noguchi said, adding that participants also present at Kapiolani Community College’s Student Undergraduate Research Fair each semester.

Participant Georgeanna Flook is a rising senior and double majoring in Historical and Political Studies, and Criminology and Criminal Justice. Her research looked at the influence that education has on crime. Titled “Support Instead of Control: Education as a Unique Approach to Crime,” Flook’s study explored the possibility of reducing crime outside of traditional policing methods.

She credited her professors, Drs. Abby Halston and Kelly Treece, and lecturer Collin Lau, J.D., for their guidance as she conducted her research. Flook said she found that education, “acting as a means of formal social control and providing social support, can effectively reduce crime—regardless of the academic ability of the individual.”

“Future studies should focus on further articulating what effective social support means in the context of criminology and use working examples of social support to compare against crime trends,” concluded Flook, who aspires to go into criminal justice policy analysis.

Other Summer Research Institute participants at Chaminade this year included Ku‘ulei Koko ’26, who presented “Feeding Hawaii’s Future: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Culturally Tailored Programs for Native Hawaiians,” and LaVelle White ’26, who looked at “Student Food and Nutrition Security.”

For details on undergraduate research opportunities at Chaminade, click here.

Training the Teacher: Financial Literacy

July 24, 2024

For a third year, this summer workshop at Chaminade sought to help teachers incorporate financial literacy principles into their classroom lessons.

For one week this July, 26 educators from across the island headed back to class at Chaminade.

They weren’t on campus to teach but to learn—as participants in Chaminade’s annual Economic Education Center for Excellence’s Summer Workshop, which ran from July 22 to 26.

Now in its third year, the workshop offers elementary to high school teachers innovative pedagogical instruction for incorporating key economic and finance principles into hands-on class lessons.

Attendee Daniel Quiamas heard about the summer workshop from a friend, Thomas Yeung, a teacher with Farrington High School’s Business Academy who attended last year’s series of workshops. Quiamas—a math teacher at Waipahu High—said after just two days that he had already learned new ways to incorporate economics and finance into his classroom instruction for ninth to 12th graders.

Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington, far right, and Greg Young President & CEO of HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union, far left, pose with participants who held up the EECE Summer Workshop 2024 sign after completing the weeklong program.

“I was never really taught about financial literacy so this workshop is very informative,” said Quiamas, after listening to Joanne Ching, a financial wellness partner with HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union, which was one of the sponsors of this annual Summer Workshop and a strong proponent of financial literacy.

The ECCE’s summer workshop is taught with a combination of lectures, in-class games and group activities, hands-on projects and field classes. Organizers say the curriculum places an emphasis on real-life examples and situations, and includes economics and personal finance concepts based on the Hawaii Department of Education Social Studies Common Core standards.

Some of the key topics covered include market operations and government interventions, environmental economics, personal finance education and financial wellness.

Guanlin Gao, director of the Economic Education Center for Excellence and an associate professor of economics at Chaminade, said the ECCE’s mission is to advance economic justice in Hawaii and across the Pacific. In addition to offering educational programs for teachers, students and the community, the center tackles research projects that dovetail with its mission—and can help inform policy-making.

Gao said the program has so far trained 62 teachers who work in schools statewide. Its economic literacy curriculum and programs have positively benefited more than 7,400 Hawaii students.

“The importance of financial literacy and basic economic principles can’t be overstated,” Gao said.

“It impacts people’s everyday lives.”

The ECCE’s growing outreach efforts come amid a greater push nationally to underscore financial literacy in schools nationwide. According to the Council for Economic Education’s latest biennial Survey of the States, more than two-thirds of all states now require personal finance classes for high school graduation—a sharp increase from 2022 when fewer than half the states had such mandates.

On the last day of the five-day ECCE workshop, participants were asked to give a presentation on how they plan to incorporate what they’ve learned into their own classrooms. Some said they would use it as a “bell ringer,” devoting the first few minutes of class to financial literacy and personal finances. Others planned to take a more comprehensive approach, developing specific age-appropriate lesson plans.

Social studies teacher John Silang, a 10-year veteran with Kapolei High School’s Business Academy, attended the workshop aspiring to learn how to stop systemic poverty.

“I call it Adulting 101,” Silang said. “I wanted to learn how college educators teach economics and how they apply the theories in the classroom.”

For Gao, the moral imperative of teaching financial literacy is clear.

“We recognize that there is still much to be done to improve financial literacy in Hawaii. However, we take pride in our efforts to make a difference and establish ourselves as a center for economic education,” Gao said. “Financial literacy doesn’t have to be daunting or out of reach. It should be accessible to everyone. In reality, we all have innate economic instincts; you might just not be aware of them—yet.”

Workshop participants received their certificates after the weeklong series of workshops.
HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union Financial Wellness Manager, Bryan Yucoco, was one of the guest speakers during the EECE Summer Workshop.
Economics Professor, Dr. Guanlin Gao, discussed the basic fundamentals of economics and its functions in society.
For five days, 26 educators from across the island went back to the classroom, not to teach but to learn more about financial literacy.

Harnessing the Power of Supercomputers

July 16, 2024

In an innovative summer research institute, Chaminade students used data science to tackle big research questions.

For four intensive weeks this summer, 25 Chaminade students used supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center to analyze complex data sets. They were looking to test hypotheses to complex research questions. And along the way, they got valuable hands-on experience in data science, one of the nation’s fastest-growing fields in a long list of sectors, from climate science to healthcare.

The Alliance Supporting Pacific Impact through Computational Excellence (ALL-SPICE) Data Science Summer Institute allows students to take a deep dive into their research interests, giving them access to tools and supercomputers that can help synthesize complex data sets into understandable, manageable variables.

“This is not theoretical learning,” says Connor Flynn ’21, a data scientist with Chaminade’s School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Flynn participated in ALL-SPICE as a student and now serves as a group leader. “This is literally experiential since some of the students’ research projects require that they go to actual sites to verify what they’ve captured in their data is accurate.”

ALL-SPICE, now in its sixth year, is the product of an innovative Chaminade partnership with the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Advanced Computing Center. ALL-SPICE is one of just four new National Science Foundation INCLUDES Alliances, and organizers say the ALL-SPICE program helps level the playing field for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) students, who are woefully underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

“The program is transformative for students from Hawaii and the US-affiliated Pacific, from Chaminade and many other colleges,” said Dr. Helen Turner, biology professor and principal investigator for Chaminade’s NSF ALL-SPICE program.

“Students come in with curiosity and a passion to solve their islands’ challenges. They leave as card-carrying data scientists with a high-demand skill set that they can use to change the future.”

Wilneris Carrion-Colon ’25 and Johnny Bae ’26 were among the students who participated in this year’s ALL-SPICE summer intensive program. They are both excited about pursuing careers in STEM.

In the summer program, the two Data and Computer Science majors used imaging technology to detect marine debris found off Windward Oahu. Carrion-Colon said satellite technology has become a valuable tool for detecting and classifying environmental phenomena on both land and aquatic environments.

“By analyzing reflectance and absorption of light, spectral bands enable machines to differentiate material classes,” said Carrion-Colon, during her final presentation.

“Notably, the Windward side was chosen because it is particularly susceptible to marine debris accumulation due to prevailing ocean currents.”

Carrion-Colon noted there are limitations to her analysis, but added that’s reason to do more research.

In his research, Bae mapped out ocean plastics using machine learning in waters northeast of Oahu.

Also using multispectral satellite imagery and statistical learning algorithms to detect floating marine debris, Bae sought to underscore the critical role of technology in environmental management.

“Ultimately, this work contributes to protecting marine ecosystems, supporting economic stability and safeguarding public health,” said Bae, in presenting his findings.

“Future research and initiatives—stemming from detecting and mitigating plastic marine debris in Hawaii’s ocean using machine learning and AI—can significantly contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 12, which focuses on responsible consumption and production; and SDG 13, which involves evaluating the carbon footprint of plastic debris.”

Open to all majors, from nursing and business to biology and interior design, the ALL-SPICE Data Science Summer Institute also teaches students how to code and use other cutting-edge tech.

Organizers say ALL-SPICE participants represent the region’s diversity, and include significant numbers of women and veterans. Students work in thematic areas that are of central importance to the Hawaii-Pacific region, including climate analytics, health inequity and the impacts of misinformation.

The summer institute also has a strong cultural component and culminates in a ho‘ike—a showcase of student projects). SPICE mentors include faculty, analysts and peers. To learn more, click here.

The SPICE program was funded by NSF INCLUDES ALL-SPICE Alliance #HRD-1744526. Student places were sponsored by ALL-SPICE and the following additional grants (Primary Investigator Dr. Helen Turner): NSF EPSCoR Hawaii (#OIA-2149133), the Pacific Intelligence Innovation Initiative, the Sullivan Family Foundation and NIH grant 3U54GM138062-03S1 (Primary Investigator Dr. Youping Deng, University of Hawaii).

Taking Climate Action

July 10, 2024

Chaminade empowers students to seek innovative solutions to environmental challenges

Amid growing concern about the impacts of climate change on Hawaii communities, Chaminade University is developing and expanding programs aimed at empowering students—so they can turn concerns about environmental challenges into projects of positive change.

Dr. Lupita Ruiz-Jones shows her ENV 100 students a chart, which helps identify fish in Palolo Stream. — Dr. Lupita Ruiz-Jones shows her Environmental Studies 100 students a chart to identify fish in Palolo Stream.

Vice Provost Janet Davidson has called on each department at Chaminade to identify priorities that closely align with the United Nations’s Sustainable Development Goals, as well as two goals from Laudato Si—Pope Francis’s encyclical letter released in 2015—that resonate with the mission and outcomes of their programs.

“As a Marianist Catholic institution, we are well poised to demonstrate how our programs contribute meaningfully to the goals set forth by Laudato Si and the United Nations,” Davidson told faculty, in a recent memo. “Further alignment with the 2024 Chaminade University of Honolulu Strategic Plan ensures that we remain forward-looking as a university, continually evolving and growing in accordance with our shared strategic vision.”

The United Nations has underscored the scope of the challenge, writing that a comprehensive global effort is needed to avoid “catastrophic, irreversible climate change.”

Provost Lance Askildson said Chaminade is living up to that call to action.

“We are leveraging our degree programs to help address issues as wide-ranging as climate action, social equality and clean water, which are resonant issues here in Hawaii and the Pacific,” he said.

“This is an incredibly well-aligned initiative for Chaminade. And so we see this as an extension of our University mission in many respects, but it is also an opportunity for us to be more intentional about our approach to sustainability and our contributions here within our local community in Hawaii and Pacific Island neighbors.”

In Spring 2022, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) partnered with Chaminade to establish the CIFAL Center of Honolulu, focused on developing and supporting projects in the Pacific centered on Urban Governance and Planning, Economic Development, Social Inclusion and Environmental Sustainability.

That work is dovetailed with efforts across all of Chaminade’s 25 undergraduate majors and 13 graduate programs, which now incorporate several of the UN’s, Laudato Si’s and the University’s Strategic Sustainable Development Goals.

Some of the common themes—or core competencies—across many of the programs include good health and well-being; peace, justice and strong institutions; climate action; quality education; and responsible consumption and production.

There is also a strong tie-in to workforce development and meeting community needs, university leaders say. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), sustainability studies was the fastest-growing green program during the last five years. In fact, the number of graduates more than doubled between 2016 and 2021—from 832 to 1,837.

Chaminade has contributed to that growth.

Since introducing Environmental Studies in 2000, the program has evolved from a certificate to then a minor and today a bachelor’s degree with two different concentrations.

Students help harvest kalo in a Heeia field.

“It was founded at the request of Chaminade’s then-president Sue Wesselkamper, who came to me in 1998 when I was a biology professor and said, ‘Gail we need a major that looks after creation,’ and the rest is history,” recalled Dr. Gail Grabowsky, Dean of the School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics and UN CIFAL Honolulu Executive Director.

“Today, between Environmental Science and Environmental Studies, we have 38 students declaring it as their majors.”

Lucy Lee ’23 decided to pursue a degree in Environmental Studies at Chaminade because she wanted to combine her passion for the environment with her love of the ocean.

Lee is a member of the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s Moananuiākea Voyage, a circumnavigation of the Pacific, which to her, “holds the capacity and stories to change the world.”

“Voyaging is a way to further empowerment of indigenous peoples,” said Lee, adding “it unifies people around common goals like healing the ocean and the earth, and allows for a different pathway for young women to pursue and involve themselves in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).”

For Lee, the Environmental Studies program at Chaminade was perfect since her ultimate goal, she said, is to offer legal expertise and representation to sustenance fishing and farming communities in Hawaii.

“They are ingenious, but they struggle in literacy when it comes to law and defending themselves in justice systems,” Lee said, pointing to decades-long legal challenges over water rights for small farmers on Maui. “I started hearing about that case when I was in elementary school.”

Elementary school was also around the same time that Casidhe Mahuka first visited the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa, which forever sparked her passion for ocean science.

It was the first time that she discovered that she could not only breathe underwater, but she could also breathe underwater for a living.

“That was it; I was totally hooked,” said Mahuka, ’22, an Environmental Studies major and now invasive species coordinator (ISC) at the Coral Reef Advisory Group (CRAG) in American Samoa.

“I was determined to be an ocean scientist because I have always loved being in the water. And to get paid for it, I was all in.”

Summer in the Lab

June 17, 2024

Chaminade University students are participating in high-impact STEM research at universities nationwide.

Through Chaminade University’s Undergraduate Research and Pre-Professional Programs, students like freshman Brielle Lo ’27 and Calista Ancog ’27, junior Scott Bowman ’26 and senior Alexandrea Cole Patino ’25 are participating this summer in cutting-edge STEM research at universities nationwide.

As part of a research project with the Social and Behavioral Interventions (SBI) program within the International Health Department of Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, Cole Patino has been involved in an extensive literature review of menstrual health and self-care, from menarche (the first menstrual period in a female adolescent) to menopause.

She said the literature review will be used to inform health care educational materials, self-care and more.

This summer, Cole Patino is participating in Johns Hopkins’s Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP).

“I will assist in writing, per Johns Hopkins University’s partnership with the World Health Organization, this PICO guideline, which I will present during the Leadership Alliance’s National Symposium in Connecticut in July,” she said.

Freshman Brielle Lo ’27 was accepted into the Leadership Alliance’s First Year Research Experience (FYRE) Program at the University of Miami.
Scott Bowman ’26 is participating in a summer research program with University of Coloradoʻs Anschutz School of Medicine’s Cancer Research Experience for Undergraduates.
Chaminade’s Program Director with the Undergraduate Research & Pre-Professional Programs, Amber Noguchi, met with Calista Ancog ’27, who is currently an intern at Xavier University in Cincinnati.

As one of only 41 member institutions that make up the consortium of the Leadership Alliance at Brown University, Chaminade has helped guide students on how to advance their academic opportunities and enhance their educational experience through the Alliance’s First Year Research Experience (FYRE) Program and Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP) at select institutions across the nation.

The goal and purpose of the Leadership Alliance is to increase the participation of underrepresented and underserved students in M.D. to Ph.D. training programs.

To date, the Leadership Alliance has mentored more than 6,000 undergraduates and over 1,000 Leadership Alliance summer program alumni, known as Doctoral Scholars, have earned a Ph.D. or M.D. to Ph.D.

“The Leadership Alliance is guided by the principle that promoting and advancing underrepresented talent in research produces a significantly equitable and diverse research workforce and society,” wrote The Leadership Alliance Executive Director Taiese Bingham-Hickman, M.S., MBA, Ph.D., in a recent article titled, “Leading Towards Impact: Diversity and Leadership in Higher Education.”

“Catalyzing a culture of academic achievement, belief in expanding diversity in faculty ranks and promoting mentorship, the Leadership Alliance creates change that promotes and contributes nationally to discourse about diversity, equity and inclusion in our colleges and universities, and the research workforce.”

A participant in the Alliance’s FYRE Program, Lo is studying a type of cell signaling pathway known as the Wingless/Integrated, an ancient and evolutionarily conserved pathway that regulates crucial aspects of cell fate determination, cell migration, cell polarity, neural patterning and organogenesis during embryonic development.

“From what I’ve learned so far from my mentors at University of Miami, it is a fundamental mechanism for establishing polarity in vertebrate limbs during embryo development,” said the Kauai native. “It also ties heavily into cancer and cell fate determination/migration.”

Meanwhile, Bowman is conducting his own medical research with University of Coloradoʻs Anschutz School of Medicine’s Cancer Research Experience for Undergraduates. After losing his good friend, Victor Martinez, to colon cancer last year, the Silversword soccer player wanted to honor him by making an impact in the medical world.

“I started working in Dr. Weichhaus’s cancer research lab at Chaminade last spring, then when I got the opportunity to research colon cancer over the summer, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” said Bowman, who is participating in Colorado University’s Cancer Research Experience for Undergraduates.

“I’m expecting to gain practical lab skills and a wider knowledge of both lab procedures and cancer biology in general, as well as where I see my role in health care may be in my future career.”

Since being recast as the Undergraduate Research and Pre-Professional Programs—replacing the former Office of Health Professions Advising and Undergraduate Research (OHPAUR)—students’ appetite for participating in research projects has steadily grown since 2009, according to Amber Noguchi, Ph.D., Chaminade’s Program Director with the Undergraduate Research & Pre-Professional Programs.

“We promote all of the opportunities that we receive—usually via email—through our monthly URPPP (Undergraduate Research and Pre-Professional Program) newsletter and our internal Google site for students,” said Noguchi, who also serves as the Leadership Alliance’s primary coordinator with Chaminade University.

“We also held an Undergraduate Research Workshop Series during which students learned about research opportunities, as well as how to write an effective personal statement and prepare their applications. This past year, Dr. Justin Wyble served as our Faculty Undergraduate Research Coordinator and he ran our workshops.”

After shadowing graduate students and observing the different lab skills they utilize while working on their projects, Lo has grown an affinity of research, citing her own studies in the Wnt signaling pathway, and how it influences the anterior-posterior body plane development of starfish embryos.

“I am investigating this through conducting microsurgery on them, and using various chemical inhibitors to suppress parts of the pathway,” said Lo, who credits Noguchi for convincing her to sign up for the Leadership Alliance’s FYRE Program. “Initially I wasn’t too interested in the idea of research this summer as I wanted to pursue more health-based summer experiences.

“But I think since health depends on biology for the majority of its workings, it would be useful to take time to learn about it a little outside of the classroom,” Lo added. “It is an environment where I can build a variety of skills—from teamwork and presenting information to micropipetting and making an agarose gel.”