Chaminade’s future business professionals were honored at the Hogan Entrepreneurial Program’s Induction and Graduation Ceremony on April 25 at the Mystical Rose Oratory.
The Hogan Entrepreneurial Program, funded by the Hogan Family Foundation, aims to teach Chaminade students how to be successful in business through weekly lectures with experienced Hawaii business leaders, study abroad trips, community service projects, academic coursework, mentorship and more. Each year, about 25 students from all majors, including undergraduate juniors and seniors and graduate students, are accepted into the one- or two-year certificate program.
Hogan’s motto is “doing business things that make social sense, doing social things that make business sense,” and emphasizes entrepreneurial practices that benefit the community.
At the ceremony, the graduating Hogan students were honored for completing the program and the incoming Hogan students were inducted in front of their Chaminade community, friends and family. Six awards were presented to 11 Hogan students, including the Outstanding Hogan Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Outstanding Graduate Student Award, the Outstanding Junior and Senior Awards, as well as the Aloha Spirit Awards and the In the Arena Award.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Vaughn G.A. Vasconcellos, former president and CEO of Akimeka LLC and founder and principal of the Alakaʻina Foundation, which is a Native Hawaiian Organization nonprofit based in Hawaii. The foundation provides federal contracting opportunities to Native Hawaiian companies and a portion of the profits from these companies aid the foundation in its philanthropic mission. Vasconcellos has formerly served as advisor to the Hogan Entrepreneurial Program and was a Chaminade University Board of Regents chairman.
The program also featured a special tribute to the Hogan Family with remarks from Savannah Lyn Delos Santos, a business marketing major from Saipan, and readings of original poems by Fabian Patterson and Laurin Von Krueger.
Patterson and Krueger’s poems both touched on how the Hogan Entrepreneurial Program provides equal opportunities to everyone involved. Patterson, a psychology major originally from Jamaica, thanked the Hogan family for providing him with academic and professional opportunities in his poem “How Could This Be?”
“I didn’t get here because America is the Promised Land, but because there is a God, because of helping hands, because of people like the Hogans,” Patterson said. “It’s people like them that make this country greater than all the other countries in foreign lands. It’s the Hogan’s belief that if you’re not having fun while working, then you’re certainly not pursuing your passion. It’s their belief in me, us, the younger, future generation that strengthens my belief and refuels my passion.”
