Chaminade University of Honolulu

Innovation

Counselor of the Year

Chaminade alumna recognized for her work and contributions

In a teary emotional speech she gave after returning from Washington, D.C. as the 2023  Hawai‘i School Counselor of the Year, Brittnie Caraulia thanked her Helemano Elementary School colleagues, expressing her gratitude for their support and all the work that they do for the keiki.

“This is the highest honor,” said Caraulia, MSCP ’15, on being honored with the 2023 Hawai‘i School Counselor of the Year by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) during its annual National School Counselor of the Year ceremonies in the nation’s capital. “This brings me the greatest joy in life, and I’m proud of everything that we do together.”

The ASCA School Counselor of the Year award honors professionals who devote their careers to advocating for the nation’s students and addressing their academic and social-emotional development, and college and career readiness needs. Honorees were judged based on their ability to create systemic change within the school counseling profession.

Brittnie Caraulia was recognized as Hawaii’s School Counselor of the Year.

“The role of our school counselors are so integral to the success of our students,” said Hawai‘i Department of Education Superintendent, Keith Hayashi, in a news release. “Now more than ever, we rely on their expertise and guidance in creating positive and innovative ways to enhance the academic and social-emotional needs of our students. The Department is grateful to have counselors like Ms. Caraulia in our schools, every day, working tirelessly to advocate for and support student success. She is a shining example of Helemano’s efforts to grow a ‘leaderful’ organization.”

A school counselor for grades 3-5 at Helemano Elementary since 2019 and a Hawai‘i State Department of Education school counselor since 2015, one of Caraulia’s greatest accomplishments has been establishing a data-driven Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) program within her school. The program takes a systemic approach to monitoring student success, creating school-wide, social-emotional learning (SEL) initiatives that focus on quality teacher-student relationships. As a result of implementing this program, students’ perception of overall school safety improved from 56 percent to over 90 percent. 

Caraulia also helped to establish a Helemano School Counseling Program, where she conducts quarterly training for staff on SEL interventions and classroom management, collaborates with teachers to incorporate SEL into their core curriculum, creates biweekly SEL lessons for all grade levels, and has designed a referral system to make data-informed decisions for all students. The school counseling program now serves as a foundation for student social-emotional, behavioral and academic success. Caraulia regularly trains staff on the program and has even shared the success of this program with other elementary schools across the state.

“Ms. Caraulia is an indispensable resource to our school—providing an excellent counseling program, a fierce devotion to students and teachers, and an innovative method of vastly advancing the social and emotional needs of our students,” Helemano Elementary Principal Ernest Muh said. “She advocates vigorously for all students at our school by collaborating with parents and teachers to determine the most beneficial course of action to assist each individual student.”

Caraulia’s passion in serving her school community is felt individually and collectively throughout the school by both teachers and students. In addition to helping the students, Caraulia has cultivated a nurturing environment for teachers, focusing on their mental health and wellness needs. She has an open-door policy for any staff needing to share personal or professional concerns and has spearheaded activities that promote and prioritize staff well-being. 

 “My proudest accomplishment during my time as a school counselor at Helemano Elementary has been establishing a data-driven MTSS and school counseling program,” Caraulia said. “What I find most rewarding about being a school counselor is the relationships I build with my students, staff and families.”

Scents and Sensibility

Chaminade freshman turns her love of candles and Hawaii into a business

Part science, part apothecary, the art of candle making can be traced as far back as 1000 BCE when ancient Romans would use tallow—a rendered form of beef or mutton fat—to make molded candles. The idea intrigued Chaminade freshman, Tahiya Kahaulelio ‘26, so much so that she established her own candle-making enterprise, Kahaulelio Candle Company.

Tahiya Kahaulelio poses with her finished candle.

“It wasn’t the first idea I had for a business,” says Kahaulelio, who plans to major in Environmental + Interior Design. “At first, it was actually to establish a clothing business but, knowing myself, I knew I would get bored, so I needed to find something that I could stick [no pun intended] with for a long time.”

The young entrepreneur, though, knew she wanted to continue her education and attend college. Chaminade beckoned over Saint Joseph’s and La Salle, two universities located closer to her hometown of Philadelphia. A devout Catholic, Kahaulelio chose to leave The City of Brotherly Love to get in touch with her island roots. Her Nigerian mother had already taught her the values and customs of her West African home country, but she wasn’t familiar with her father’s Hawaiian heritage.

“I had questions about my Hawaiian side,” Kahaulelio says. “I feel like I was missing a piece of my heritage and I needed to get answers.”

Having never been to Hawai‘i, Kahaulelio was understandably nervous. She knew it would be challenging to be 5,000 miles away from her mother, step-father and siblings, but she was also comforted knowing that her biological dad’s family lived on O‘ahu. Questions of not being good enough, meeting new friends, college life and all the doubts associated with the responsibility of a young adult, all swirled in her mind. She was anxious.

And then she arrived on campus.

“I immediately felt comfortable and the people were so nice,” says Kahaulelio, with an infectious smile. “I didn’t feel like an outsider because everyone was so welcoming. I no longer see Chaminade as a school but as a family that I can reach out to for guidance and help.”

Now in her second semester, Kahaulelio juggles between being a student and running a business. When she’s not designing interior spaces with colors and texture for class, she’s experimenting with different combinations of scents, infusing her bees-wax-based candles with such local-inspired essential oils as hibiscus, coconut, cucumbers, papaya, mango and rosewood.

Using a digital scale to precisely weigh 12 ounces of wax, Kahaulelio places the wedges in a pitcher and slowly melts the wax over a Nesco stainless burner for four minutes. She then incorporates four teaspoons—two teaspoons at a time—of essential oils, stirring the elixir to release the fragrances. Now to the tricky part: cutting the length of the circular wick so that it’s not too long nor too short.

“My stepdad is so much better at this than I am,” admits Kahaulelio, while eyeballing the length of the wick. “He’s a chef so he has a really keen eye and an excellent sense of aroma.”

Freshman Tahiya Kahaulelio has developed a variety of island-fragrant-infused candles.

Chaminade University and United Nations Host Pacific Regional Sustainability Conference

Chaminade University and the United Nations will host a ground-breaking regional sustainability conference this week at the university campus to discuss climate change and the potential impacts to the Pacific region.

The “XIX Steering Committee Meeting Of The CIFAL Global Network” runs from Wednesday, November 30 to Friday, December 2, with the three-day conference bringing together world and local community leaders on goals, education and solutions to the global warming crisis. It will include seminars and workshops by experts from the United Nations and others around the world on climate change, global warming and sustainability.

This regional conference hosted by Chaminade University follows the UN COP 27 Climate Change Summit held earlier this month in Egypt, in which 200 participating countries came together to help resolve the climate change issue.

Seminars and workshops will allow timely and important discussions on a variety of topics related to leadership, health and wellbeing, education, and sustainability in Hawai‘i as well as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. These goals include climate action, advocating for the oceans, reducing inequalities, and developing programs that pursue peace, justice and strong institutions.

Conference attendees will participate at this week’s Hawaii conference either in-person or virtually. The conference will kick off with an evening reception on Tuesday, November 29 at the university with opening remarks by event co-organizers United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and UNITAR executive director Nikhil Seth and Chaminade University provost Dr. Lance Askildson. Hawaii Governor-Elect Dr. Josh Green is also scheduled to speak during the opening reception.

Earlier this year, Chaminade and the United Nations launched a new Pacific region training and research center to provide leadership development opportunities to tackle these urgent global issues. The university’s Centre International de Formation des Autorités et Leaders (CIFAL) Honolulu is the first and only one of 24 international United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) centers to represent the Pacific area.

The Pacific region training center will provide innovative leadership development opportunities and tackle issues such as climate change, poverty, clean water and energy and other urgent global issues. The university’s CIFAL Honolulu Center is the only international United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) center located in the Pacific region.

“Our school is honored to partner with the United Nations in hosting this exciting, groundbreaking conference to deal with the critical and timely issue of climate change,” said Chaminade University president Dr. Lynn Babington. “Our state has been an amazing leader in studying climate change and in innovating solutions that include using indigenous knowledge and practices along with new technologies. Sharing these ideas with the rest of the world will only benefit all of us in dealing with this global crisis.”

Tuesday’s reception from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday’s sessions from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. are open to the public. To learn more about the new Chaminade United Nations learning center, go to: chaminade.edu/cifal-honolulu.

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About Chaminade University
Chaminade University of Honolulu believes in the power of education to drive positive change, broaden perspectives and deepen our understanding of one another. With an emphasis on transformative service-learning experiences, we prepare students to serve as tomorrow’s leaders, inspiring and challenging them to use their minds and their hearts to help build stronger and more just communities. We are proud to serve as Hawai‘i’s only Marianist university, and rely on these values to guide us in delivering a high-quality education with an individualized approach and a focus on excellence, innovation and change. Established in 1955, we offer more than 30 undergraduate and graduate programs, including doctoral degrees in education, psychology and nursing practice. Learn more at chaminade.edu.

UNITAR CIFAL Honolulu Center at Chaminade University
CIFAL Honolulu Center is part of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). It is the 21st international training and research center of the CIFAL Global Network and the only center located in the Pacific Region. CIFAL Honolulu aspires to empower Pacific peoples to create a sustainable future that reflects their values and the priorities of their communities.

Chaminade University Awarded $600,000 Federal Grant

Chaminade University of Honolulu was among seven minority educational institutions that received $1.75 million in grants from the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA). The monies are part of an expanded pilot program to support entrepreneurship for undergraduate students.

“This marks another proud achievement and win for our faculty members,” says Chaminade University of Honolulu president Lynn Babington. “Principal Investigator, Dr. Helen Turner, and a supportive leadership team shepherded this grant through a rigorous vetting process, and deserve all the recognition for bringing this nationally competitive award to the university.”

Submitted to the MBDA’s Minority Colleges and Universities Grant Competition, the award will allow Chaminade to develop the “‘Inana Sustainability Entrepreneurship Program,” which aims to spark minority entrepreneurial innovation among Hawaii-Pacific undergraduates.

“As a Native Hawaiian Serving Institution, Chaminade University of Honolulu’s proposal demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of the mission and goals of MBDA, and the requirements of the Federal Funding Opportunity Announcement,” says Donald R. Cravins, Jr., Under Secretary of Commerce for Minority Business Development, in a prepared statement. “In addition, their application presented evidence of the expertise and community resources necessary to meet these goals.”

The Minority Colleges and Universities pilot program will help fund the development of curricula, pilot courses, seminars, and replicable products and tools that address inclusive innovation, entrepreneurship and general economic development.  The award is worth $600,000, funded annually over a two-year span.

“The ‘Inana program is highly collaborative and builds on foundations laid by Chaminade’s more-than-20-year history of promoting business and entrepreneurship,” Dr. Turner says. “`Inana will bring together our new UN Sustainability Center, our outstanding School of Business and Communication, and the highly regarded Hogan Entrepreneurs Program, as well as our Marianist Leadership Center and Experiential Honors program. Together we will laser-focus on supporting the next generation of sustainability focused entrepreneurs for Hawaii and our Pacific region.”

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Chaminade University of Honolulu believes in the power of education to drive positive change, broaden perspectives and deepen our understanding of one another. With an emphasis on transformative service-learning experiences, we prepare students to serve as tomorrow’s leaders, inspiring and challenging them to use their minds and their hearts to help build stronger and more just communities. We are proud to serve as Hawai‘i’s only Marianist university, and rely on these values to guide us in delivering a high-quality education with an individualized approach and a focus on excellence, innovation and change. Established in 1955, we offer more than 30 undergraduate and graduate programs, including doctoral degrees in education, psychology and nursing practice. Learn more at chaminade.edu.

2022 Innovation Awards Winners Announced

Modeled after the National Catholic Education Association’s Innovation in Catholic Education annual awards and sponsored by Hawaii Catholic Schools, the Ka Ho’oulu Awards focuses on “Innovation for Mission.”

“It recognizes and celebrates talent in Catholic education,” says Dr. Helen Turner, professor of biology and CIFAL research director and former vice president of Strategy and Innovation, which established the Ka Ho’oulu Awards in 2020. “Nominees exemplify innovation in education inside and outside the classroom.”

Award applicants submit projects that illustrate the Catholic worldview, support quality academics, integrate technology, demonstrate data-driven decision making or promote operational vitality. Submissions with the highest marks receive recognition at an annual award ceremony and a grant to continue their work. Eligible nominees can be individuals or teams, and faculty and administrators/staff currently employed at a Hawaii Catholic School (all grade levels K-12).

In an interview with the Hawaii Catholic Herald, retired Hawaii Catholic School’s superintendent, Michael Rockers, said his office’s close collaboration with Chaminade University “helped establish catechetical institutes, the “Teacher of the Year” award, the “Innovation Award,” and to provide a quality review of the Hawaii Catholic Schools office’s goals, objectives and communications.”

“He really wanted an award that was similar to the national innovation award,” Turner says of Rockers. “That’s how we came up with the Ka Ho’oulu, which honors teachers and administrators who are continuously innovating in support of their students.”

The 2022 Ka Ho’oulu Awards winners include Mary Star of the Sea School Honolulu in the team category and Dan Mawyer of Damien Memorial School for the individual award.

“We are pleased to continue our sponsorship of these annual awards,” Turner says. “Mary, Star of the Sea and Mr. Mawyer exemplify education in Hawaii. They are committed to implementing innovative strategies and teaching methods that leverage state-of-the-art technology to create the highest quality students.”

Ka Hooulu 2022 awardee Mary Star of the Sea

Team award: Mary Star of the Sea School, Honolulu
This award recognized the Mary Star of the Sea’s 2021-22 Schoolwide Literacy Project. The team, nominated by Laci Hitchcock, described a yearlong project that exemplifies the Ka Ho’oulu themes of supporting quality academics, technology integration and data-driven decision making. The review committee was struck by the strategic and comprehensive “whole school” approach to the important goal of improving literacy and mitigating COVID impacts on student reading.

According to the three-member panel, the literacy program holistically integrated student-centered activities with teacher professional development and such enriching programs as guest speakers for parents and the whole school community to engage with. The program collected data on its own impacts, and is now refining the program for its continuation in the new school year. The nomination mentioned that the goal was “to make reading a part of everyday culture.” Drs. Turner and Dustyn Ragasa and Fr. Martin Solma, S.M., were impressed by the commitment of staff, teachers and school leadership to make this goal part of the school’s DNA.

Ka Hooulu 2022 awardee Dan Mawyer

Individual award: Mr. Dan Mawyer, Damien Memorial School
This award acknowledged Mawyer as a school champion in the areas of technology, computing and robotics. A math teacher, Mawyer is passionate about preparing students for the future. He has built coding challenges, robotics teams and STEM activities that engage students in technology, critical thinking and teamwork.

“During the COVID crisis, (Mawyer) stepped up to the plate and offered his expertise to use technology, particularly digital communications, to keep the school community informed and unified,” Turner says. “The entire school benefitted from his innovative approach to creating visually appealing and informative content for information sharing and online learning.”

The review committee further noted that this work has quickly evolved into the leadership of a new project for a broadcast communications center at Damien. Catholic educators are passionate, expert, and student-focused and Dan exemplifies these qualities.

Using AI and Machine Learning in Healthcare

AIM-HEAD symposium slide

Algorithms are increasingly being used to make big decisions in healthcare, and there’s a common misconception that they’re unbiased. The truth is: they’re as biased as the humans that create them and a group of researchers—including several at Chaminade University—are trying to spotlight what that means.

In partnership with a federal consortium looking at the issue—dubbed AIM-AHEAD—Chaminade hosted a special virtual symposium in August aimed at better understanding the uses of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in health and what changes are needed to improve health equity in the Pacific.

Dr. Claire Wright, an associate professor at Biology at Chaminade, said the symposium was about beginning a conversation—and ensuring Pacific voices are part of it. “We wanted to engage the community and understand some of the things that are really important to them,” she said.

“We think it’s kind of science fiction but there are many elements of health sciences that machine learning is already used, like diagnostics, surgery, prognosis, and driving health plans. But the data used to run those algorithms is not representative of our population in Hawaii.”

So is that a problem? And if so, how much of a problem?

That was the question tackled during the event—and the topics covered could help guide the development of best practices and ethical guidelines nationally. AIM-AHEAD, which organized the symposium with Chaminade, is funded by the National Institutes of Health and focused on increasing diversity among AI and machine learning researchers to ultimately improve the technologies in health applications, starting with electronic health records. The initiative’s acronym stands for the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity.

Chaminade Data Science Director Dr. Rylan Chong delivered the opening keynote at the symposium, urging attendees to consider how bias makes its way into algorithms and machine learning programs at various points in the process—from the bias that researchers bring to biases baked into “norm studies.”

Dr. Melissa McCradden, who is a bioethicist at the Hospital for Sick Children (affiliated with the University of Toronto), built on those themes in her keynote. She said the conversation happening around algorithmic bias, including in healthcare, is ultimately about “doing better science.”

“One of the major misperceptions is because AI uses so much data … that it’s ultimately leading us toward a place where we’re modeling objective truths about the world,” she said. “But we need to be really, really cautious about assuming that more data can get us closer to objectivity.”

Instead, she said, communities need to work together to make “values-based choices.”

And then, McCradden added, those choices need to be evaluated for their impacts.

Importantly, the symposium also included listening sessions so participants could weigh in on where inequities are now—and how technology might help to address them—rather than make them worse.

“These tools are already being used, but we don’t know the power of them for our communities,” Wright said. “Before we go too far down the line, we want to make sure that some of the folks who are underrepresented have the opportunity to be involved in the conversation.”

She added, “Let’s direct the quality of our own healthcare. Let’s tailor it to fit our needs.”