Chaminade University of Honolulu

Natural Sciences & Mathematics

Hokulea Navigator and Environmental Lawyer in Training

Lucy Lee '23, environmental studies major on Hokulea smiling at camera

Over the summer, Lucy Lee ’23 was one of five student navigators invited on a training expedition of Hokulea and sister voyaging canoe Hikianalia to the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

One of their big challenges: use traditional Polynesian navigation techniques to find Nihoa island.

How tough is that? Lee said Polynesian Voyaging Society President and Master Navigator Nainoa Thompson has compared the task of navigating to Nihoa—with an area of just over a third of a mile—to departing from Hawaii Island’s south shore and finding something about half the size of Diamond Head.

So … pretty tough.

On the day they were set to arrive at Nihoa, Lee had the midnight to 6 a.m. navigation run.

“I was really nervous because we wanted to be at a certain place at sunrise,” the Chaminade Environmental Studies major said. Once Lee conducted some calculations as day broke, she and the other student navigators concluded they were close to where they wanted to be.

They woke Thompson up to share the news and he didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to.

Lucy Lee '23, environmental studies major navigating on Hokulea

“He smiled. We were about a degree and a half off (course)—about as close as you can get without using modern tools,” said Lee, adding that her first deep sea navigation on Hokulea was an awe-inspiring experience. “Papahanaumokuakea is not a place people typically get access to. It’s super special. I think going anywhere by canoe is awesome, and pulling Nihoa out of the water was definitely the highlight.”

While the Papahanaumokuakea voyage was a major milestone for Lee, it’s also only a start. She is training to navigate during Hokulea’s next major voyage: a 41,000-mile trek to circumnavigate the Pacific Ocean, stopping at 46 countries, 345 ports and 100 indigenous territories.

The launch date is tentatively set for summer 2022.

The Pacific Voyaging Society has called the massive expedition, coming on the heels of Hokulea’s worldwide Malama Honua voyage, an opportunity to focus on the vital importance of oceans while developing young crew members, navigators and leaders. Lee said she’s honored to be training as a student navigator, “learning and watching and being taught what it takes to be on the crew.”

“It’s learning how to change lines, how to change knots. But it’s also learning what it means to be a helpful and active crew member,” added Lee, who had only navigated on inter-island and coastal sails before the 10-day voyage to the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. “I feel very fortunate to be … learning the skill and the art of traditional Polynesian navigation.”

And she’s balancing all that learning on the water with her studies at Chaminade.

Lucy Lee '23, environmental studies paddling on Hikianalia

“School is really important for me,” said Lee, who graduated from Kamehameha Schools and is interested in going into environmental law. She said she chose Chaminade because she wanted to stay in Hawaii and was interested in a university with an individualized approach to instruction.

Lee said she applied and got into several colleges on the mainland but knew they weren’t a right fit. “You know in all those cliché college movies where they walk into the lecture room and there’s like 200 people?” Lee asked, laughing. “I was like, that’s not for me. I like how Chaminade is small.”

Lee was also interested in an option that wouldn’t break the bank.

At Chaminade, she is receiving the Regents Scholarship (a merit scholarship), which covers about half of her tuition.

And, Lee said, she was looking for an environment-focused program that incorporated policy and advocacy. The Environmental Studies program at Chaminade was perfect. Lee said her ultimate goal 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,” she said, pointing to decades-long legal challenges over water rights for small farmers on Maui. Lee added, “I started hearing about that case when I was in elementary school.”

But before heading to law school (and after graduating from Chaminade), she’ll be taking a break.

Because around that time, she plans to be sailing on Hokulea—on its pan-Pacific voyage.

Chaminade University Names Dr. Gail Grabowsky as Dean of School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

Gail Grabowsky

Chaminade University has named Dr. Gail Grabowsky as Dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. With more than 20 years of experience at Chaminade, she most recently served as the interim dean of the School.

“Dr. Grabowsky’s proven leadership in research, teaching and service makes her an excellent choice to permanently lead the school,” said Dr. Lynn Babington, President of Chaminade University. “She also brings extensive institutional knowledge and a record of working collaboratively to achieve strategic initiatives focused on student success.”

In addition to her role as dean, Dr. Grabowsky is the director and professor of Environmental Science and Environmental Studies at the University. She began working at Chaminade in 1997 after studying population genetics at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory and receiving her PhD in Zoology from Duke University.

An accomplished writer and environmentalist, Dr. Grabowsky has published an award-winning book: ’50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save Hawai‘i’ and appeared as a “science character” in National Geographic/Sea Studios’ series: The Shape of Life. She has also published numerous research papers.

Over the course of her career, Dr. Grabowsky has served on a number of environmental councils and committees. From 2001 to 2020, she was an advisory council member and chair of the education working group for Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument. She was also appointed by Governors Cayetano and Lingle to serve on the State’s Environmental Council for eight years.

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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.

Data Science SPICE Summer Institute

For a third year, budding data scientists from across Hawaii and the mainland came together for Chaminade’s Supporting Pacific Indigenous Computing Excellence (SPICE) Data Science Summer Institute.

2021 Data Science SPICE Summer Institute virtual class meeting

The 2021 program, held virtually, included 21 participants and four student mentors. In addition to Chaminade, students hailed from Stanford University, Borough of Manhattan Community College, the University of Hawaii Maui College, College of the Marshall Islands and Northern Marianas College. They also came from a diversity of academic backgrounds, from Nursing to Environmental Studies to English.

The month-long seminar is focused on helping students use data as they seek to make a positive difference in their communities and includes immersive experiences, collaboration and a final project. Institute organizers say students walk away not only with new skills, but with a new appreciation of how data science can be used across disciplines to help spotlight problems and highlight potential solutions.

SPICE is held in partnership with the Texas Advanced Computing Center. Program leader Dr. Kelly Gaither is associate director at the center. Other faculty who helped make the institute possible include Chaminade Assistant Professor Dr. Rylan Chong, director of the University’s Data Science program, and Chaminade Vice President of Innovation Dr. Helen Turner, who is also a professor of Biology.

Students took up all sorts of questions and issues in their final projects for the SPICE institute, from socioeconomic factors linked to heart disease in Hawaii to the potentially positive relationship between video games and social anxiety to the impacts of wildfires in California on chronic diseases.

2021 Data Science SPICE Summer Institute Sarah Carroll's presentation

The overall project and poster winner was Chaminade student Sarah Carroll, who looked into whether the long-term impacts of food security in the United States include higher rates of chronic disease. Using publicly available data sets, she mapped out food insecurity in the US and found a slightly positive correlation between food insecure individuals and rates of arthritis, asthma and cancer.

She noted further study is needed to determine what’s driving chronic diseases in food insecure populations, along with which US ethnic groups have the highest rates of inadequate food access.

There were also three track winners named.

In the healthcare track, Chaminade student Caili Cain took the top prize. She sought to investigate implicit bias in the medical field, including how medical school pedagogy might be endorsing false beliefs about biological differences between Black and white patients. Specifically, she was interested in how official and informal medical school curricula contribute to bias about how patients manage pain.

Chaminade student Rhea Jose was the track winner for Environment, with a presentation that explored whether food availability and consumption in the US can show food loss or waste. She said the next step in her research might include investigating food waste per capita in order to make local level changes. And Chaminade’s Amber Sablan was recognized for her social justice-focused presentation. In her project, she sought to determine whether gentrification on Oahu could be contributing to homelessness by driving up home prices and bringing in new higher-income tenants. She said the lack of available data from 2020 limited her research, but she is interested in furthering her study into the issue. More specifically, Sablan wants to look at the number of unoccupied homes on Oahu along with outmigration rates.

Alumna Creates Scholarship to Pay It Forward

Caylee Orsinger '11 posing for the camera in her work uniform

Caylee Orsinger ’11 may live and work in Oklahoma, but her heart is still in the Islands. To prove that, you need look no further than the name she gave her medical distributorship company—Aloha Medical—or the slogan she puts on her business cards: “Where aloha meets medicine.”

It’s that passion for Hawai‘i and its people that drove her to think about ways to give back.

And after reaching out to a mentor at Chaminade, Biology Assistant Professor Dr. Jolene Cogbill, she made up her mind: she decided to establish a scholarship at Chaminade to help STEM-focused students achieve their dreams. The Caylee Orsinger Scholarship will help support 10 STEM students in Fall 2021 and Spring 2022. The funding is available to rising juniors or to incoming transfer students.

It’s not every day someone celebrating the 10-year reunion of her college graduation sets up a scholarship fund. But Orsinger said her upbringing in Hawai‘i and her time at Chaminade solidified her resolve to pay it forward. “It’s a full circle. We get out what we put in,” she said.

“I always wanted to donate to science technology and invest in other people.”

Just like people invested in her.

Caylee Orsinger '11 scrapbook page of her graduation from Chaminade

Orsinger said the scholarships she was awarded at Chaminade made a significant difference, and sometimes all the difference, in helping her accomplish her goals. “I worked my way through college and tried to make my way through school,” she said. “Scholarships were huge. They helped me a lot.”

Orsinger grew up on Maui and graduated from King Kekaulike High School in Pukalani.

She knew she wanted to pursue the sciences, but didn’t see herself flourishing in lecture halls with hundreds of students. That’s when she learned about Chaminade and jumped at the chance to pursue a degree in Biology at a campus with smaller class sizes and a strong public service mission.

And once enrolled, she learned about the University’s leading Forensic Sciences program.

She ended up double majoring, with an eye toward eventually becoming a doctor.

After graduation, she moved to Oklahoma to begin preparing to apply for medical school. But while there, her life took another path. She was bartending when she ran into someone who owned a medical distributorship company. She ended up getting a job there to gain valuable experience.

“I fell in love with it,” she said.

Orsinger’s work takes her into operating rooms, where she ensures surgeons and other healthcare professionals have the tools and equipment they need for complicated procedures. She is also proud to serve the community of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of two Cherokee tribes.

And she’s excited about continuing to grow her company.

She said she’s hopeful her trajectory since graduation—from her small Maui upbringing to a rising entrepreneur—offers inspiration to Chaminade students just beginning on their path to a profession.

She has some advice for them, too: remember all the support and encouragement you got as you sought to accomplish your goals so you can do the same for someone else one day. Facing a group of young people seeking degrees in STEM, she would tell them to “never get discouraged.” She would also leave them with some food for thought: “how are you going to give back later?”

Immersive Experiences Through Summer Institutes

Dozens of Hawai’i public high school students converged on Chaminade’s campus over the summer for a host of immersive learning opportunities—trying their hand at everything from spoken word poetry to marine conservation to designing a safehouse for a zombie apocalypse.

Chaminade’s Summer Institutes 2021 offerings, part of the University’s ongoing commitment to early college programming, gave rising juniors and seniors at two public high schools the chance to do a deep dive into disciplines of high interest.

The intensive, 10-day courses were free to McKinley and Kaimukī high school students and also included standalone college preparatory sessions on how to pay for higher education, apply for financial aid, select an academic pathway and build leadership skills.

Dr. Janet Davidson, Chaminade Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, said 37 students participated across five Summer Institutes courses. The offerings were made possible in part thanks to a US Department of Education GEAR UP grant.

Davidson said GEAR UP is focused on boosting college attendance among low-income students. To promote that goal, she said, the Summer Institutes program at Chaminade offered participants a high-quality, engaging college-level experience.

“The students had rewarding experiences on our campus—with each other and with their faculty and peer mentors,” Davidson said, adding that enrollees also benefitted from co-curricular sessions with the University’s advising, financial aid and admissions offices.

“Through our Summer Institutes, we aimed to support the academic growth of students, but also provided a series of college readiness sessions. We look forward to growing on our successes this year and provide even more institutes next summer.”

Doing It Yourself: A New World
high school students working together on a business plan project during the business summer institute

Among the available academic sessions was a course—taught by Accounting Professor Aaron Williamson—on entrepreneurship, business modeling and communication skills. “Doing It Yourself: A New World” also included an emphasis on leadership and team building.

Williamson said he wanted the immersion program to give students a “taste of what business really is. At its root, business is the thoughts, dreams and initiatives of a multitude of folks from history to present who simply had an idea and acted on it.”

He added that he was most excited to watch students tap into their passions and personal interests—and then figure out how to direct that energy into a business plan.

“I fully expect to be walking into a few of their establishments one day,” he added.

Word Wizards: The Magic of Poetry and Hip Hop
high school students at the museum of art during a field trip for the english summer institute

English Professor Dr. Allison Paynter drew from English 256 (Poetry and Drama) to design her summer institute course entitled, “Word Wizards: The Magic of Poetry and Hip Hop.” In addition to analyzing hip hop lyrics, traditional poetry and verse-driven dramas, students wrote poetry and then put on spoken word performances.

Paynter, herself a performance poet, said she most enjoyed seeing her student participants collaborate with one another on writing.

“I also loved watching my students perform their original poetry during our Spoken Word event,” she said. “I would like to believe each student felt empowered through the process of writing creative pieces.”

Marine Science Immersion
high school students at the beach looking at marine life during the marine science summer institute

Dr. Gail Grabowsky, dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Chaminade, co-taught a “Marine Science Immersion” summer course with Dr. Lupita Ruiz-Jones, an assistant professor of Environmental Sciences. Students in the session spent the first week exploring the ocean environment from the perspective of a marine scientist and the second considering the impacts of humans on marine ecosystems.

Participants spent time in the classroom, lab and, of course, the ocean.

Ruiz-Jones said students took field trips to Waimea Bay, Sharks Cove, Makapuu, Makaha and Ala Moana Beach. They even took a walk from campus to nearby Pālolo Stream, inspiring three students to return the following weekend for a stream cleanup project.

Grabowsky said a central takeaway of the course for students was just how incredible marine systems are—and how important they are to preserve.

“I wanted them to walk away with a knowledge of the ocean, of course, but also a feeling that college is wonderful and an understanding of how it works,” she said. “I hope they all came away loving Chaminade!”

Psychology Studies

Psychology Associate Professor Dr. Darren Iwamoto led a course in Psychology Studies, challenging students to take a journey of self-discovery and self-awareness to understand the importance of mental health in everyday life.

Iwamoto, who is clinical director of the School Counseling and Undergraduate Psychology programs at Chaminade, said he kicked off the course with two questions: Why do we do what we do? And why do we think what we think?”

It was through those lines of inquiry that Iwamoto encouraged students to consider how they tackle stress, handle change and plan for the future—and how they might apply new and healthier coping strategies in their own lives to promote personal wellbeing.

“It was so memorable to watch so much personal and academic growth in just two weeks,” he said, adding that he also learned so much about his own teaching from the experience.

“I had to learn different strategies of student engagement because I didn’t have grades being the underlying motivator,” he said. “I really like how this Summer Institute flowed and how students experienced psychology versus being told about it.”

Visualizing the Future
high school student working on their zombie apocalypse safehouse during the art and design summer institute

The fifth offering over the summer was called “Visualizing the Future.”

Dr. Junghwa Suh, an associate professor of Arts and Design at Chaminade, led the course—modeled after Art 103 or Visual Design. Students were introduced to the power of visualizations and used problem-solving skills and design tools to create models.

After learning the basics of hands-on modeling tools, Suh set the students to work in groups to create a zombie safehouse—yes, you read that right. Suh said the engaging project required students to think about space planning while trying to figure out how to protect the safehouse’s occupants from a decidedly horrific fate.

“I wanted my students to get a clear and dynamic overview of arts and design, see the connection of arts and design to various disciplines … and use their creativity and logical processing to execute design solutions to given problems,” she said.

Suh added that the students’ final safehouse designs were impressive.

“I hope these creative minds gained some new perspectives in arts and design and understand various possibilities they can pursue with this study,” she said.

And she’s already looking forward to next summer’s courses. “It is so beneficial for students to see how different disciplines come together to solve world problems,” she said. “These types of institutes help high school students in making decisions on what they want to study.”

Chaminade University’s “Community First” Approach Sparks an Innovative Data Science Collaboration

A Collaborative Vision: Waianae Coast Community Scorecard and Dashboard Project

As part of an innovative partnership, Data Science students at Chaminade University are teaming up with community groups in the Waianae Coast to develop a Waianae Coast Community Scorecard and Dashboard. This project is designed to be regularly conducted to measure community sentiment and report results that are easy-to-use, meaningful and actionable. The results will shine a spotlight on areas of opportunity and community wellbeing, and will help prioritize initiatives. Dr. Helen Turner, vice president of Chaminade’s Center for Strategy and Innovation and faculty of the Data Science program says, “this project is part of a broader vision that embraces Chaminade University’s ‘community first’ approach and the work done at the Center to foster an Innovation Moku in the Waianae Coast to build a refreshed economic reality that is resilient and fits with community priorities and wishes.”

This project is advised by Dr. Rylan Chong, director of the Data Science program and assistant professor at Chaminade University and by Joseph Lapilio, the executive director of the Waianae Economic Development Council and Waianae Moku Navigators.

Joseph Lapilio says “the Waianae Moku Navigators, made up of more than two dozen community organizations, is excited about the Chaminade Innovation Moku partnership and the prospect of having a reliable—and replicable—tool for gauging public opinion, welfare, wellbeing and key quality of life metrics in the Waianae Coast. A lot of what we do now is based on anecdotes or emotional reaction to issues going on. But actual data,” Lapilio said, “has power that could incite real action.”

The Partnership: Working, Learning, and Growing Together

The Waianae Coast Community Scorecard and Dashboard project was first piloted in fall 2020 and continued through spring 2021. Students enrolled in the Data Science 301: Community-Engaged Computing class worked with the Waianae Moku Navigators and the Waianae Economic Development Council to create an initial scorecard and dashboard.

Lapilio said he’s been “very impressed with how hard Rylan and his students have worked on the project. Rylan has been extremely open to community input,” he said. “Our long-term goal is not only in terms of a scorecard. It is also in terms of—how do we connect community members to data collection so it is more than just us? How do we work together? How do we connect?” The scorecard hasn’t merely been an academic exercise, but a growing experience for Chaminade students and for members of the community. “They need to be able to engage with the community, to see the community as a partner in this work,” Lapilio said.

The next step for this project is launching the initial scorecard to a test group before taking the scorecard community-wide to collect responses. The scorecard incorporates a host of data points, including information on food security, household income, housing, health, feelings about safety, technology infrastructure and acceptance, and a sense of belonging.

The Experience: Hands-On, Collaborative, Meaningful

Dr. Gail Grabowsky, dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Chaminade  says, “real-world projects and partnerships like the Innovation Moku get our students involved and allows them to apply their data science skills in a collaborative environment to address the wellbeing of their communities.” Chong adds, “the Waianae Coast Community Scorecard and Dashboard project is about providing the students with a taste of what data science can actually do and the positive impacts they could have in the Data Science discipline.”

Students participating in this project say the effort has been fulfilling.

“My biggest takeaway from the project was how far-reaching an effect data science can have,” Chaminade Data Science senior Aaron Walden said. He assisted with the effort in Fall 2020 and said it helped him understand how “data science can be used to identify community initiatives.” The scorecard, he said, “is a tool to visually see trends to support prioritization of the community initiatives.”

Senior Hunter Yamanaka, who is majoring in Biochemistry with a minor in Data Science, also participated in the scorecard and dashboard project in Fall 2020. He said “working with the community while digging into the numbers helped him understand how similar efforts could benefit organizations and the public. Data Science has endless ways of improving society,” he said.

“For instance,” says Data Science major Taylor Ishisaka, “data science can turn lists of data points and numbers into something visual and meaningful that everyone can understand. It can shape how we see the world.” Ishisaka, who participated in the scorecard and dashboard project Spring 2021, said “it has been eye-opening to see how much work and collaboration goes into a project like this.” Data science in Hawaii and the Waianae Coast Community Scorecard and Dashboard project is more than collecting data, programming, and analyzing data. When data science is applied to this project, it’s clearly a powerful discipline that can be applied to any field, provide a platform for a community to voice their opinions, inspire discovery and innovation, connect communities, and has the potential to confirm or make ethical societal or policy changes. As Ishisaka and Lapilio said, “when it comes to data science, the possibilities are endless, with real potential for inciting action and implementing positive change in our communities.”