Service Learning

The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll recognizes colleges and universities nationwide that support innovative and effective community service and service-learning programs. The Honor Roll’s Presidential Award is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement.

• In 2007, Chaminade University was one of only 3 to be awarded “Presidential Award for Service to Youth from Disadvantaged Circumstances.”
• In 2006, Chaminade University was one of 10 to be awarded “Presidential Award FINALIST for Excellence in General Community Service.“

Award Levels:

• The Presidential Award is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive.
• About 100 were given titles of “Honor Roll, with Distinction”.
• Over 500 were accepted to the Honor Roll.

Selection Criteria:

• Reviewer evaluations of the scope, innovativeness, and evidence of effectiveness of the service projects described in the application.
• Percentage of total student enrollment engaged in community service activities and academic service-learning courses.
• Percentage of total student enrollment engaged in at least 20 hours of community service per semester.
• Extent to which the institution offers academic service-learning courses.
• Whether the institution requires academic service-learning
• Whether the institution rewards the use of academic service-learning through faculty promotion and tenure decisions, or other means.
• The institution’s Federal Work-Study community service participation rate.
• Whether community service or service-learning is cited in the institution’s mission statement or strategic plan.

Much of the work that was highlighted in the award application centers on Palolo Valley. Our community partners, faculty, and students collaborate with the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Kapiolani Community College to provide tutoring, early childhood/family education, computer literacy, and more. Chaminade’s service-learning classes focus on diversity in these broad, entry-level tutoring programs. Then, as students progress in their majors and gain specialized knowledge, they move down a “pathway” of service-learning projects that allow them to apply that specialization to help the community. The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) project, for example, prepares intermediate accounting majors for the senior-level VITA project and the nonprofit consulting projects.

A quote from CUH President Sue Wesselkamper:
“As an institution for higher learning, Chaminade University emphasizes integrated service-learning as a way to enrich its academic curriculum. By using service opportunities as deliberate learning opportunities, this integrated approach helps our students to develop skills, broaden their understanding and knowledge base, as well as build awareness and sensitivity to diversity. In our service-learning Pathway of Projects, we worked together to address issues systemically and with intentionality, building tracts for student leadership and deepening engagement across semesters. 

We thank our students, faculty, staff, and community partners for their commitment to service and humbly accept the CNCS recognition on their behalf.”

A quote from Candice Sakuda, CUH Director of Service-Learning:
“Chaminade is a small university with a big heart and many willing hands. What is especially meaningful about the President’s Award is that the work we do in our own local communities can be of national significance.”

Recommendations from the Awards Panel

• This award should give Chaminade the momentum to KEEP UP the impressive work.
• We should look to the examples for which we’ve won, to inspire service-learning pathways in other disciplines. All areas should encourage students to sustain service through leadership.
• We should keep focusing on quality integration of service-learning – not as an “add-on,” but as an integral part of academic education.
• We should encourage faculty participation through the formal valuation of service-learning and community-based research in the RTP process.

The Foundation for Excellent Schools’ Century Program, TCP, continued to do great work mentoring at Waimanalo Elementary and Intermediate School for its second semester. In this article, CUH student Keith Davis shares his experiences:

On March 4th, 2006, four Chaminade Ethics and Criminal Justice students coordinated the first annual Farrington High School Challenge Day as a service-learning project through Chaminade. The event, supported by four military volunteers, thirteen Chaminade Wahine Volleyball Team members, and one civilian volunteer, took place at Schofield Barracks’ Leadership Reaction Course (LRC). Thirty nine Farrington High School mentorship program students and one Moanalua High School student participated. Observing the day’s activities in a supervisory role were the CJ 332 professor and a Farrington High School vice principal, two teachers and three prospective mentors. The Challenge Day 2006 objectives were to provide the students with physical, mental, and ethical challenges through a fun variety of events. To accomplish this, the students would run several team based races, be faced with three ethical situations, and run through several LRC obstacles. The ethical situations were prepared by [us students]. The LRC obstacles, whose scenarios were modified to be appropriate for high school students, are laid out to be physically and mentally challenging while forcing participants to work together as a team.

This service-learning project allowed us to fulfill our civic responsibility to a community of high school students. By coordinating Challenge Day, we were able to actively participate in the public life of a community in an informed, committed, and constructive manner, with a focus on the common good.

Realizing that the students involved were from an area where their expectations for the future were low, our desire to make this event a motivating experience drove us to a standard of excellence that might not have been present otherwise. As we prepared for Challenge Day, we felt that we were preparing an event that would allow us to give students in our community an opportunity to see that they can do more than they ever imagined and that setting goals for themselves, both short term and long term, would lead them to successful futures. This experience has left me with a great appreciation of the principles of service-learning.

Part of the college educational process is participating in service-learning projects that lead to the fulfillment of one’s civic responsibility. This aspect of learning is often the most challenging to begin because we come into such experiences with more questions than answers.

Human beings are eager to help others; however, we typically only want to help others as long as we are able to do so within our own comfort zone. Once we break out of our comfort zone and see how rewarding service-learning can be in an unfamiliar setting or situation, we then open up to serving in any number of situations.

Dr. Gail Grabowsky’s students spent most of their service-learning time in the Waianae Mountains, in The Nature Conservancy’s Honouliuli Preserve. They did a lot of hard, dirty work trying to replant a native forest there and teaching high school students how to do the same. Having picked up the tools of their trade, they proceeded on a short hike to the work site.

The kinds of work required ranged from pulling “weeds” (exotic plants) to watering existing plants, mulching and planting new growth.

One student wrote:

“Volunteering in situations like this makes me feel good, both inside and out. Waking up at a ridiculous hour, driving out into the country and hiking up a mountain all helped me physically. By the end of the day, my hands hurt, not to mention my arms and my back, but the hurt was a good feeling. It felt like I just finished a vigorous workout but did something meaningful and productive in the process. Being up in the mountains, in the clean air and the cool wind, is actually really relaxing. Every once in a while we would take a break and listen to the birds sing. These are the memories that stand out the strongest in my mind. The ones where I really got to know my classmates and sweat and work side by side with them, all for a common cause.”

“A cleared space provides a safe haven for the new plants, with filtered sunshine instead of the direct hot rays characteristic of O’ahu’s leeward side.”

Another student wrote:

“… my [service-learning] experience was wonderful! I learned that we need to respect life because there are a lot of things out there against us. Same with the plants, we need to respect nature because it gives to us in ways we do not even know. I also learned that if we do not intervene, there probably would be hardly any native plants left in the islands. I feel I have a greater appreciation for plants and their life because now I see the color and life they have given to each of us. No matter how much we say we know what nature gives to us, we will never really understand until it is all taken away.

“kuleana” – Right, privilege, concern, responsibility, title, business, property, estate, portion, jurisdiction, authority, liability, interest, claim, ownership, tenure, affair, province; reason, cause, function, justification.

“pono” – a Hawaiian word commonly rendered as “righteousness”. The Hawaii state motto: “Ua mau ke kea o ka `aina i ka pono” or “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness”  Goodness, uprightness, morality, moral qualities, correct or proper procedure, excellence, well-being, prosperity, welfare, benefit, behalf, equity, sake, true condition or nature, duty; moral, fitting, proper, righteous, right, upright, just, virtuous, fair, beneficial, successful, in perfect order, accurate, correct, eased, relieved; should, ought, must, necessary

Hawai’i is known for its welcoming hospitality, it’s aloha – the unconditional extension of trust and friendship.    Here in Hawai’i the common definition of “kuleana”  is “rights and duties or accountability and responsible stewardship.”  In comparison to most communities, the academic community has immense resources that most institutions are loath to share.  Still, the vast majority of institutions of higher education institutions constantly bemoan their “poverty.”  Yet to those who much is given, much is expected.

Universities worldwide have a “kuleana” to make things in their communities, local, national and global, more “pono”.  Both the academy as well as individual academics have a duty to enhance the general welfare and prosperity of the less fortunate in their communities.  Actions that perpetuate righteousness can start as close as their own neighborhoods.  Academics have for too long been guilty of telling the third biggest lie when they say that “I am from the university and I am here to help you.”  For those of us who are involved with educating and empowering business leaders at all levels, we should be aware of how our engagement prepares those we work with, both in and out of the university, to do well and to do good.

Wayne M. Tanna, Professor of Accounting at Chaminade University in Honolulu, Hawaii has developed and implemented service-learning initiatives in his classes to further his students’ educational experiences.  Building on the Hawaiian values of “kuleana” and “pono“, he regularly involves students in activities where service in the field fits into a course curriculum to include tax clinics at homeless shelters and pro-bono legal service assistance in low income communities.  Mr. Tanna has made presentations on service-learning at numerous state, regional and national conferences.  As an exemplary role model for the Chaminade University Marianist community, his volunteer efforts, community non-profit work and activities has garnered him numerous local and national awards and recognitions from the State of Hawaii to the American Bar Association.

This year alone, Mr. Tanna, his students and community collaborators provided tax assistance to over 8,200+ in Hawaii, resulting in over $7.2  million in tax refunds.  Their assistance on tax returns for the homeless and indigent have made the difference in providing the needed deposits for housing to help people out of their homeless situation and  the extra funds for  provisions for transportation, meals and basic daily needs.

As a professor, he teaches classes in taxation, accounting, business law, ethics, management, international law, environmental studies, history, political science, education and pastoral leadership.  Mr. Tanna holds a Bachelors Degree from the University of Hawaii, a Juris Doctor from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College and an LL.M. in taxation from McGeorge School of Law.  Mr. Tanna is currently licensed to practice law before all Hawaii State Courts, Federal Courts, U.S. Tax Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

By Tiffany Hervey, as published in the Honolulu Weekly

During the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Top Hat Bar in Wahiawa was hit. It closed for three days and reopened on Dec. 10, 1941 with the charging mantra that its doors would never be closed again. And the bar stayed open seven days a week, year-round, until early 2009, when it shut down for good.

Surfing The Nations (STN), a nonprofit organization, purchased the building and moved in. They opened Surfers Coffee Bar in the summer of 2011 after cleaning decades of nicotine off the walls. A bigger challenge was the neighborhood.

Rough Start

This block of Kamehameha Highway was considered by many to be the center of sex, drugs and violence on the North Shore. Neighboring businesses included porn shop Divine Pleasures, liquor store Market 88 and exotic dancing venue Club Texas. For most, it was an area to avoid. “We learned real quick that we lived in the bad part of town,” recalls STN co-founder Cindy Bauer as she looks out the window from the plush seats of the coffee bar. “This was where no one wanted to wander.”

STN, founded in 1997, had been looking for a place to call home after a series of rental situations fell through. The 15-unit, three-story apartment building behind the old, rundown bar in Wahiawa looked like a perfect place to house their staff, and they could use the bar for a meeting room.

“We knew this was going to be a rough neighborhood, [but it] seemed to work for us because we are for those who are voiceless and the at-risk youth here on the street,” Bauer says. STN feeds more than 3,000 people a week, most of them working poor. “Maybe three percent are homeless but a vast majority are households working hard to make it,” she adds. STN also tutors at-risk youth three times a week.

The block was such an eyesore that for years, parents told their kids to “look forward, don’t look over there,” Bauer says. When Leilehua High School students came down to hand out food for a school project, they told the STN staff that not one of them had ever walked on that side of the street before.

The Giving Surfer

STN thought they’d try to improve the neighborhood, and in less than a year, the owners of the neighboring buildings had agreed to sell. The nonprofit put its first building up as collateral, held a huge fundraiser for a down payment and purchased the rest of the block. “We were just the new kids on the block that weren’t smart enough to know we couldn’t do it,” Bauer says. “Sometimes, when you don’t realize you can’t, you do it.”

At present, Surfers Coffee Bar is the only open business on the block. The original bar from the 1930s remains in a spacious room filled with plush armchairs and tables, with a desk area where one could do some writing or read without feeling distracted. The walls are decorated like a surf museum with eponymous memorabilia and art, thanks to STN co-founder Tom Bauer’s enthusiasm for the sport. “Our motto is ‘surfers giving back,’” he says.

“Surfers in my day were takers, but today we’re trying to market them as givers,” Bauer says, adding that he hopes the coffee shop also helps to remarket Wahiawa. “Since it is the gateway to the North Shore, we feel that Wahiawa has an amazing responsibility,” he says, “[and] surfers have the responsibility to make this a better place.”

STN’s goal is to bring community-centered businesses into the six available storefronts on the block; Chaminade University’s design school is planning parking and gardens for the buildings.

Supporting Local

Surfers Coffee Bar’s menu practices what STN preaches by supporting local business. It carries organic Kona Estate coffee ($2-$3 a cup). All espresso shots and drinks are made from Waialua Estate coffee beans, grown and harvested on Oahu’s North Shore and roasted in Honolulu. This totally local coffee fuels the menu’s latte ($3-$4), Americano ($2.40-$3.10), cappuccino ($3) and mocha ($3.50-$4.60) drinks. Try the “Wahiawa Mocha,” flavored with coffee, white chocolate and pineapple. Get it hot, on the rocks or blended-this caffeine addict highly recommends the last.

Bagels ($1.99), muffins ($1.95) and cookies (89 cents) are available as partners in caffeine crime, but they are not house-made and taste generic. A refreshing alternative is the acai bowl ($7.95), made from packets of frozen Tambor acai berry puree, frozen bananas and apple juice or soy milk and topped with granola, honey and freshly sliced bananas. Macadamia nuts, chocolate, strawberries, pineapple and papaya are an additional 50 cents each. Fruit smoothies are $3-$4, and a wide variety of Hawaiian teas, including organic, are served iced or hot ($2-$3).

The bar hosts open mic nights Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and live music on Fridays at 7 p.m., featuring bands from Hawaii and around the world. Cindy Bauer envisions a community center and commercial kitchen on the property one day so that kids can learn career skills.

STN started with one building and a meeting room that turned into a coffee shop. Now that shop has the whole block a-changin’. Police have told the Bauers that crime in the area has dropped. The fast food restaurants in the area have remodeled. Cindy Bauer says she hopes the old Club Texas space will be filled by a higher-end restaurant. Nearby California Avenue was recently repaved, something for which the neighborhood board had fought for more than 13 years. Gentrification, surfer style, is in the air-and it smells like coffee.

Source: Honolulu Weekly

Spring 2015–Chaminade students were awarded first place in the annual IACBE ethics competition. The critical thinking, academic background, and practical skills necessary in this competition are closely tied to the students’ service-learning projects in the Business Capstone course.

According to IACBE.org, The International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE) is the leading outcomes-based professional accrediting organization for business programs in student-centered colleges and universities throughout the world. The IACBE exists to promote, develop, and recognize excellence in business education.

The IACBE annual student case-study competition focuses on business ethics and is open to students from all IACBE-member institutions worldwide. The competition is scheduled in conjunction with the IACBE Annual Conference and Assembly Meeting each year.

The IACBE is committed to “partnering with colleges and universities in preparing today’s business students for tomorrow’s workplace.” In this spirit, the case-study competition is intended to provide students with an opportunity to showcase their abilities to analyze a case, to identify and discuss recommendations for ethical action, and to “think on their feet.” The case-study competition requires their ability to (1) work as members of a team, (2) collect and analyze data, and (3) effectively present case information and answer questions in a clear, concise, and professional manner.

In their case presentations, teams are expected to explain the relevant background information of the case, which may include legal, financial, economic, marketing, and management issues relevant to the case, and to present the ethical issue identified in the case.  After presenting the case, each team must make and justify recommendations for action that are solidly grounded in ethics theory.