Chaminade University of Honolulu

Student Life

New Student Orientation

Incoming class of freshmen familiarize themselves with campus resources

Across the nation, thousands of freshmen will mark a rite of passage this month, standing in that liminal space between what lies behind and what awaits ahead—between the familiar past and the unpredictable future. As Davis and Rian Wakefield helped their daughter, Shalei Parong, check in to the Hale Pohaku dormitory during New Student Orientation, they felt a mix of emotions: sadness, worry and excitement.

“At least she’s close to home,” said Davis Wakefield, a firefighter with the Hawaii Fire Department based in Kona. “This is her choice to come here, and we support her decision; it’s a new chapter of her life.”

Writing their own stories was a key theme in Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington’s welcoming message to incoming students during the Academic Convocation at the Mamiya Theater. Another one of her keynotes involved the principles of a holistic, Marianist education, focused on service, justice, peace, adaptation and change.

“You’ve chosen to attend a warm and welcoming liberal arts University,” Babington told students. “You will form bonds here, and you’ll delve new ways of thinking and discerning who you are and who you want to be.”

Students write their names on tags.
Incoming freshmen received a lanyard for their student ID cards.
Checking in for New Student Orientation.
Signing in for New Student Orientation.
Waiting for the app Canva to open.
Faculty members stood outside of Mamiya Theater.
Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington to address students.
It was a full house at Mamiya Theater.
Trying to navigate the Kalaepohaku campus.
Faculty members gather for the Academic Convocation.
Faculty members gather for the Academic Convocation.
Fr. Chris Wittmann led the group in prayer.
Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington and faculty members welcomed new students during the Academic Convocation.
Chaminade Provost Lance Askildson explained that higher education is an intellectual exercise in application and reflection. 
Students applaud the words of Dr. Lance Askildson.
Chaminade Student Government Association President, Pamela Oda, advised new students not to fear change.
Students walk out of Mamiya Theater after Convocation.
A group of freshmen explored the Kalaepohaku campus.
Learning about campus resources.
Orientation leaders flash their shaka of approval.

Mandatory for all freshmen and transfers, the New Student Orientation (NSO) is designed to acquaint new students with the campus and the many available campus resources that enhance both academic success and personal development. Orientation activities focus on several important areas, including the curriculum, academic advising, college success, scholarships and financial aid, campus activities, student services, student organizations, Silversword Spirit and campus facilities.

“As I look into the audience, I see the many incoming college students who are unsure about what the future holds, already starting to feel homesick, thinking whether you made the right decision or not,” said Chaminade Student Government Association President Pamela Oda in her address to fellow students at the Academic Convocation. “College is a chapter in your life that involves the word that many people dread—change. Be open to the change and new experiences, don’t fight it!”

Freshman Jordan Ponsar ’27 said he was “stoked” when he was offered a soccer scholarship to attend Chaminade. The Long Island, N.Y., native was quick to make friends on move-in day, helping resident assistants, Kelsey Sablan ’23 and Micah Sanders ’24 at the check-in desk in the lobby of Hale Pohaku co-ed dorm.

“I’m going to make the most of my four years here,” said Ponsar, flashing the shaka sign. “This is all new so I look forward to all the future opportunities and experiences.”

In his opening comments, Senate Faculty President Dr. David Carter rhetorically asked, “Do you know what you’ve gotten yourselves into?” His question elicited some nervous laughter from the audience, but his answer was simple. “You’ve enrolled in a university where we want to get to know you,” said the Director and Professor of Forensic Sciences. “Being in the classroom with students is my happiest time of the week. I hope you learn from me as much as I learn from you.”

Navigating a successful collegial life is not always easy, especially during freshman year when everything seems foreign and unfamiliar. Yet Chaminade’s ‘ohana spirit provides a comfortable and safe environment that makes it easier for students to explore. Students are encouraged to step out of their comfort zones, to be curious, to embrace adaptation and to try something new. 

“You are here because we see in you the potential for transformation through higher education and the opportunity to live an examined life in service to yourself and your community,” said Dr. Lance Askildson, Chaminade Provost and Chief Academic Officer. “This is, in truth, an exhilarating yet also quite challenging inflection-point in your life.  You will struggle and even fail at times to achieve your goals—and that is OK. We are all here, as a community of faculty, staff and administrators, to support you and your journey.”

In her concluding remarks, Oda offered some sage advice. “As you start this new chapter in life, be open to experiencing new things and opportunities because you never know what could happen,” she advised. “As you meet new people, keep in mind that everyone comes from different walks of life and may not have experienced the same things you have. Each of you has your own unique story, embrace it. Once again, welcome to the Silversword ‘Ohana and SWORDS UP!”   

Above and Beyond

Co-Curricular Awards recognize students for their leadership

As it has often been said, “Most students learn the most outside of the classroom.” And last month, students, student organizations and clubs proved this adage to be true during the 18th annual Co-Curricular Awards. The annual event recognizes awardees for their unwavering commitment to better the campus and the community as a whole.

In all, 22 awards were presented, including for service, scholarship and to outstanding student-athletes. Students are either nominated by fellow classmates or faculty and staff. Students may also nominate themselves.

Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington gives students a round of applause for going above and beyond their academic curricula.

“Chaminade’s co-curriculum programs intentionally align with, augments and enhances standard curricular goals,” says Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington. “Our co-curriculum is developmental, transformative and future-focused. It is also experiential, offering authentic, hands-on opportunities to hone skills, put ideas into practice, and showcase achievements of potential interest to employers.”

One member of each undergraduate class was selected to receive the Bro. Joseph Becker Award of Excellence, which recognizes those who display exceptional leadership skills through involvement in co-curricular activities. The awardees, with a diversity of scholarly ambitions, were: freshman Selena Buttery ’26, sophomore Sophia “Noe” Tugaoen ’25, junior Sean-Zacharry Lorenzo Jr. ’24, and senior Kobe Young ’23.

The Bro. Elmer Dunsky Outstanding Student Organization Award went to the Student Organization of Latinix, which promotes awareness, within and beyond the Latinx community, and incorporates all facets of the culture. The award recognizes the organization’s significant contributions to helping create an inclusive campus environment that embraces all cultures and fosters a true sense of ‘ohana.

Nominees for the Fr. Stephen Tutas Program Award of Excellence could be a student who—or student organization that—demonstrates exceptional creativity, planning and execution of a university program that contributes to the quality of life and academia at Chaminade. This year’s recognition went to The Chemistry Club.

Dr. Abby Halston, Associate Professor and Psychology Clinical Director at the School of Education and Behavioral Sciences, was named the Rev. David Schuyler Advisor of the Year. The award recognizes members of the faculty, staff or administration who seek to encourage and support students in leadership development and campus involvement.

Women’s Volleyball Coach, Kahala Kabalis Hoke, presented the Male Athlete of the Year to Men’s Basketball guard Isaac Amaral-Artharee.

With an infectious can-do personality, Eri Leong ’23 personifies the characteristics required by a Frederick K.K. Kauhane, Sr. Aloha Spirit Awardee. She exhibits a humble, cheerful and generous spirit; a dedication to fostering a sense of ‘ohana around campus, and the ability to buoy other’s spirits by consistently improving the environment around them. Leong was also awarded the Outstanding Peer Mentor.

Lucy Lee ’23 was named this year’s Henry Halenani Gomes Alaka‘i Award winner, recognized for her excellence in leadership and service to the Native Hawaiian community.

“After the nomination due date, a small group of staff members will go through the nominees and select the winners,” explains Allison Jerome, Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students. “In addition, many of the departmental awards are chosen by staff within those departments (ie. Athletics, Student Success, Campus Ministry and so forth).”

The Resident Assistant Award of Excellence went to Jannabel Bielza ’23, while Christopher Diego ’23 and Jacqueline Martinez ’23 were bestowed the Outstanding Orientation Leader Awards. Kamipono Abella was awarded Tutor of the Year and Kobe Ngirailemesang ’23 picked up the Dean of Students’ Special Recognition Award.

For the third straight year, men’s basketball’s Isaac Amaral-Artharee ’23 was named Chaminade’s Male Athlete of the Year, while women’s volleyball players Lataisia Saulala ’23 and Kaybrie Pe‘a ’23 captured the Female Athlete of the Year and The Silversword Award, respectively.

To round off the ceremony, Campus Ministry handed out three awards: Kaycia Mailo-Kaheaku ’23 for Retreat Leader of the Year; Tyanna Hemmings ’23 for The Liturgy Award; and Alaina Mercado ’23 for Campus Ministry Award.

Culture Week

Events celebrate campus diversity

Bring your appetite, warns Andrew Ancheta, referring to the 5th Annual Taste of Culture. This food-like festival celebrates the cultural diversity of our campus by coming together as a community and bonding over food.

“This year will be the first time since the pandemic that our students can have a choice to cook—rather than order from a restaurant—their specialty dish,” says Ancheta, activities coordinator for the Office of Student Activities and Leadership. “Each club will be responsible for at least a dish and maybe a dessert and drink.”

Inspired by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Cultural Week, Chaminade’s inaugural event of the same name provides an opportunity for the campus community to deepen their understanding of cultural diversity. Hawai‘i has long been considered a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities, as confirmed by an analysis released by WalletHub that ranks Hawai‘i first in the nation for racial and ethnic diversity.

“On the subject of diversity, Chaminade’s Office of Student Activities and Leadership offers more than 30 active student clubs,” says Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington. “Whether you are looking for a group to celebrate your cultural heritage, share your passion for different hobbies, or just looking to meet new people, it’s easy to find your ‘ohana while at Chaminade.”

Students in the Hawaiian Club performed hula at last year’s Extravaganza.

The Taste of Culture will run April 12, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Zuberano Courtyard. Participating clubs include the Chaminade Student Programming Board (Egyptian Lemonade); Student Organization of Latinx (Enchilada Verde); Office of the President (Corned Beef and Cabbage); The Filipino Club (Lumpia, Cascaron, Puto); Ka Ipu Kukui Me Ka‘ie‘ie (Kalua Pig, Lomi Salmon, Po)i; Lumana’i O Samoa; Restauranteers Club (Japanese Takoyaki); Micronesian Club; and Hallyu (Korean) Club (Meat Jun).

A spring tradition at Chaminade, the April 14 International Extravaganza is also part of Culture Week. Student-led performances of dance and song highlight the evening’s program at the Sullivan Library Lawn from 6 to 10 p.m. (or until performances conclude). Dinner will be served at 6 p.m., with performances starting at 7 p.m.

Five cultural clubs with 150-200 participants will share their talents with the campus community. Organizations will include the Filipino Club, Ka Ipu Kukui Me Ka‘ie‘ie (Hawaiian Club), the Student Organization of Latin X, Lumana‘i O Samoa (the Samoan Club) and the Micronesian Club.

“Because of the pandemic sidelined these student activities, we’re having to rebuild these events and remind current students about them,” Ancheta says. “There’s a high interest among students, and they really work hard, practicing at least three times a week for two to three hours.”

Other scheduled events during Culture Week include an “Identity Panel” presented by the Marianist Leadership Center on April 10, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., and an Open Mic on April 12, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Both will take place on the Zuberano Lawn.

“Student clubs and organizations drive these events,” says Ancheta, who will oversee all the programming logistics. “This is the first year that we’ve combined all these events into a single week.”

Show Time

Powerful Play Examines Race in the U.S.

Written and directed by Chaminade English Professor Dr. Allison Francis, “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man” is a three-act play adaptation that evokes the music, imagery and energy at the turn of the 20th century in America. 

Jason Lee Hoy plays the play’s lead character.

“James Weldon Johnson wrote the novella in 1912, and it was only about 120 pages,” says Francis, who is the first writer ever to adapt the novel into a screenplay. “The play will feature ragtime music, racial identity and depictions of lynching with the main character traveling across U.S. and Europe.”

The first fictional memoir ever written by a black person who was also the first black executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), “The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man” influenced a generation of writers during the Harlem Renaissance, and served as eloquent inspiration for Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright. In the 1920s and since, it has continually compelled the reader to challenge assumptions about race. It has also given white readers a new perspective on their own culture, revealing the double standard of racial identity imposed on African Americans.

Narrated by a mulatto man whose light skin allows him to “pass” for white, the novella describes a pilgrimage through America’s color lines at the turn of the century—from a black college in Jacksonville, Florida to an elite New York City nightclub, from the rural South to the white suburbs of the Northeast.

This is a potent, painfully honest examination of race in America, a canticle to the anguish of forging an identity in a nation obsessed with color. And, as the late poet Arna Bontemps pointed out decades ago, “the problems of the artist [as presented here] seem as contemporary as if the book had been written this year.”

The three-day performances will run from April 21-23, with shows starting at 7:30 p.m. on April 21 and 22, and a matinee program at 2 p.m. on April 23. Seating is limited at the Vi and Paul Loo Theatre. Click here for tickets.

“It’s an ambitious undertaking to stage this play,” says Performing Arts assistant professor Christopher Patrinos in praise of Francis. “Allison deserves a lot of credit for writing and directing such a challenging theme.”

Class Act

Students, staff volunteer to help The Institute for Human Services

Not to be confused with Service Learning Day, Servant Leadership Day only happens once a year in January to coincide with Founders’ Week. In the half century since its introduction, Robert Greenleaf’s “Servant Leadership” theory has become increasingly popular among American corporations. Companies such as Nordstrom, Starbucks, The Container Store and FedEx have all adopted the theory that a leader must be a servant first and a leader second. This was indeed the case when Chaminade University’s Mitch Steffey joined students and fellow staff members in an effort to help The Institute for Human Services (IHS).

“We’re learning just as much from the community as we are giving to it,” says Steffey, Associate Director

Students volunteered to participate in Servant Leadership Day at IHS.

of Service Learning and Community Engagement. “The idea is you’re leading for the people to accomplish their goals and not ours. It’s also talking about the difference between sympathy and empathy.”

Silversword senior, Montserrat Lanfranco ’23, was among the volunteers who helped haul away old furniture, appliances and miscellaneous equipment in a Herculean effort to organize a large storage area at IHS. To Steffey’s point about empathy, Lanfranco muses that “everyone has a different situation as to why they’re homeless.”

During an on-camera interview with KGMB’s Hawaii News Now, Montserrat says by helping IHS—and thus, in essence, its clients—they’re digging into the roots of houselessness and helping a marginalized population of society plant new roots to promote a healthier type of system.

“At least that’s how I see it,” Montserrat concludes. “I feel like if we can get down to it (the root of the cause) then we can really solve the problem.”

Across the nation, homelessness has become a major flash point, attracting the attention and the ire of local, state and national lawmakers. On Dec. 19, 2022, the Biden-Harris administration released a federal plan for ending homelessness in America that starts with the ambitious goal of reducing homelessness by 25 percent by 2025. All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness builds on the success of previous plans and will do more than any previous federal effort to systemically prevent homelessness, and combat the systemic racism that has created racial and ethnic disparities in homelessness.

Mitch Steffey organized Servant Leadership Day with IHS.

Modeled after the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, The Hawai‘i Interagency Council on Homelessness (HICH) is an advisory body that serves as a statewide homelessness planning and policy development entity with broad representation from State and County government and the community. The council has adopted its own 10-year plan that utilizes an active implementation framework with the work divided into four general stages for implementation: exploration, installation, initial implementation and full implementation.

According to the released Ten-Year Strategic Plan and Framework, the proposal advances the vision of ending homelessness in Hawai‘i by implementing and sustaining a housing-focused system that draws upon the efforts of multiple partners and creates a clear pathway to stable housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. The plan and vision acknowledge that the work to combat homelessness cannot be addressed by any single government entity or provider alone, and requires a shared community effort and “all-hands-on-deck” approach. 

Steffey shares the same approach when he organizes these types of service events, which he hopes will become more frequent. “What we did at the IHS shelter is the community engagement part of my job,” says the Pennsylvania native, emphasizing the second half of his official staff title. “I’m trying to get students out of their residence halls, out of their homes and into the community.”

Steffey distinguishes the difference between community service and learning service. Citing an example of the latter, he uses a biology student who could go out in the lo’i kalo (taro patch) to test the waters to see why one part of the patch produces more kalo than another.

“He/she can test if there’s too much acid in the water,” Steffey explains. “So we’re going to the community to fulfill a need with the expertise that we already have through our professors, courses and classrooms.

“You don’t have that at beach cleanup,” Steffey continues. “The cleanup is good for the community, but there isn’t much learning being done.”

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.