Chaminade University of Honolulu

Campus Event

Early College Exposure

High school students earn college credit

For the past two years, Kapaa High School seniors, Tatum Harper and Taeani Largusa, have taken several synchronous online courses with Chaminade University professors, earning college credit while simultaneously fulfilling their high school requirements. The hours of studying and discipline paid off. Learning she just got into Columbia University, Harper was ecstatic.

“It’s my dream school,” said Harper, during Chaminade’s inaugural Early College Summit, which was attended by a mix of 70 students from Kapaa High School, Sacred Hearts Academy and Saint Louis. “Participating in this program has really prepared me for college.”

Largusa echoed the same sentiment, adding that she expects to hear from Syracuse University soon. “When I took the virtual campus tour I fell in love with it,” says the first generation, soon- to-be-college student. “This program has given me confidence in knowing that I can handle the demand of college courses.”

Early college programs can provide several benefits, including the opportunity for students to accelerate their education, which can lead to the completion of college degrees at an earlier age. There’s also the perk of cost savings, reducing tuition costs for future higher education.

Sacred Hearts Academy counselors Ashley Luke and Sharlene Chock both agreed that Chaminade’s early college program will help students become familiar with the expectations and rigor of college-level coursework, easing their transition to full-time college later on.

Students circled the room to fill out their bingo-like cards.
Students circled the room to fill out their bingo-like cards.
Saint Louis and Kapaa High School students mingled during the Early College Summit.
Saint Louis and Kapaa High School students mingled during the Early College Summit.
Sacred Hearts Academy students played a bingo-like game, with the first one to fill all 25 boxes with the right answers winning the grand prize.
Sacred Hearts Academy students played a bingo-like game, with the first one to fill all 25 boxes with the right answers winning the grand prize.
Chaminade’s Early College Director, Kim Baxter, addressed the students at the T.C. Ching Conference Center in Eiben Hall before they set off to visit other campus locations.
Chaminade’s Early College Director, Kim Baxter, addressed the students at the T.C. Ching Conference Center in Eiben Hall before they set off to visit other campus locations.
Sacred Hearts Academy juniors completed their first semester of college courses.
Sacred Hearts Academy juniors completed their first semester of college courses.

“Some struggled initially with the transition because of the extra studies involved in taking college-level courses,” said Luke, who counsels 10th and 11th graders. “Even our top students were stretched because they didn’t understand process versus perfection, which they’re used to achieving in high school.”

With this first cohort of 17 Lancers, Chock believes the college exposure will help them navigate the waters of post-secondary education. “They have already been individually challenged,” said the 12th grade counselor. “I think the experience shows them that college is attainable.”

Saint Louis School students Landon Dimaya, Cash Acorda and Kevin Simmons will begin their college courses next semester. The three Crusaders cited different reasons for participating in the program. Dimaya is a fraternal twin whose sister Lindsey is already a Sacred Hearts Academy participant. “I want to reduce the financial burden on my parents,” he said. “It would be really expensive to have to pay tuition for me and my sister at the same time.”

“I want to get ahead,” offered Acorda, who plans to apply to Stanford, with Simmons further noting that the experience would look good on his application.

Research demonstrates that early college programs show strong and lasting evidence of effectiveness for all students. It promotes both post-secondary access and success. The data is undeniable that students who participate in such programs will be ahead of their peers and graduate from a four-year university either debt-free or with very little federal student loan debt. The latest data further supports the claim that students who participate in these programs are better prepared to transfer to a four-year university than students who attend the university without prior college experience. 

Moreover, encouraging students to attend college improves individuals’ earnings over a career, increases the amount of taxes the government collects, and reduces government spending on federal assistance programs. 

“This program is such a great opportunity for these high school students to earn dual credits,” said Kim Baxter, Chaminade’s Early College Director. “And it gives them that real college experience.”

Cybersecurity Workshop

Expert warns of maintaining healthy online hygiene

Similar to what you would hear at a dentist office, Liam Wesley dispensed advice about the importance of daily hygiene during a Cybersecurity Workshop at the Data Science Center in Tredtin Hall. But for the cybersecurity expert, this means never using the same username nor the same password ever! Just like you would never keep using the same strand of floss.

In an era dominated by digitization, Wesley described the importance of robust cybersecurity measures that cannot be overstated. As online users navigate an increasingly interconnected world, the guardians of our digital realm are facing new challenges and adapting strategies to protect against evolving cyber threats. Wesley is among them fighting the digital perils.

The 90-minute Cybersecurity Workshop was hosted by the National Science Foundation ALL-SPICE Alliance, which includes the United Nations CIFAL CENTER of Honolulu, Information Technology and Services Department (senior director Jules Sukhabut), the Networking Department (director Joseph Rosario), Data Science, Analytics and Visualization Program (director Rylan Chong, Ph.D.) and the Computer Science Department.

Liam Wesley—a penetration tester and cybersecurity engineer with High Tech Hui, LLC and Cyberruptive—demonstrated some of the tools that professional hackers keep in their arsenal.
Liam Wesley—a penetration tester and cybersecurity engineer with High Tech Hui, LLC and Cyberruptive—demonstrated some of the tools that professional hackers keep in their arsenal.

“We brought in Liam to demonstrate real cyberattacks, and discuss how a student can protect themselves for educational purposes and build awareness,” said Chong, Co-Principal Investigator of the National Science Foundation’s Alliance Supporting Pacific Impact through Computational Excellence (ALL-SPICE) grant. “Joe and I plan to pilot this cybersecurity workshop to Natural Sciences and Mathematics students to gauge interest. This will help us understand if there is interest for future workshops, larger workshops and/or a need for a cybersecurity course or program.”

Cybersecurity experts, like Wesley—a penetration tester and cybersecurity engineer with High Tech Hui, LLC and Cyberruptive—warn of the escalating sophistication of cyber threats, ranging from ransomware attacks that cripple essential services to targeted phishing campaigns exploiting the remote work landscape. The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices—AI voice assistants like the Amazon Echo and Google Home—coupled with the rise of artificial intelligence in cyberattacks, adds a layer of complexity to the battlefield.

In the face of these evolving threats, organizations are doubling down on best practices to fortify their defenses. This includes regular employee training to recognize and thwart phishing attempts, implementing multi-factor authentication, and keeping software and systems up-to-date with the latest security patches.

“Patching is absolutely necessary,” Wesley said. “But wait a few days to avoid the potential for buffer overflow, which are memory storage regions that temporarily hold data while it is being transferred from one location to another.”

Initially limited to Rosario’s computer science networking class, the workshop was eventually opened to all Natural Sciences and Mathematics students due to the importance of the topic and the large interest from Chong’s previous presentation on the topic.

One of the workshop’s primary goals was to bring awareness and introduce education innovation. Chong explained that the topic is very important for the University’s DSAV, CS and NSM students, as many of them are doing research, working with data and sensitive data at various organizations for jobs and internships, and using computers.

“Instead of traditionally just bringing in someone to talk about cybersecurity in general, our goal was to make this relevant to the students to build awareness, address on the national security level the lack of cybersecurity education in schools, and an approach to work on better securing our campus,” Chong said. “In addition, we are planning to take an innovative educational approach by actually demonstrating how easy it is to hack and simulate how bad a cyberattack can be to an organization.”

The landscape of cybersecurity is indeed dynamic and ever-evolving. Experts agree that a collaborative, proactive approach—comprising technological innovation, regulatory compliance and ongoing education—is essential to safeguarding our digital world against the relentless tide of cyber threats.

“There was a lot of information, which was hard to keep up with,” said data science and visualization major LaVelle White ’26. “He explained pretty well how hackers get into systems, even though I can’t hack, but I understood the concept.”

Community Garden

Students tend to the māla as part of EN102

Pushing a wheelbarrow in the māla, Zachary “Pono” Narcisco was learning how to garden—not exactly what he had in mind when he enrolled in his English class. The “cultivating” effort is all part of Dr. Koreen Nakahodo’s mandatory service-learning component of her EN102 Composition and Rhetoric course.

“We have to do at least six hours of service learning,” said Narcisco, a freshman and an aspiring nurse. “Dr. Nakahodo asked us to write about our experience at the māla, and what value we can bring out from gardening.”

Many universities offer some form of service-learning, which is an educational approach that combines community service with academic learning to provide students with a holistic and hands-on learning experience. This experiential learning approach also helps students deepen their understanding of course material and how it applies to the everyday world.

“Unlike community service—which might include something like a one-day beach clean-up and then you go home—service learning directly connects service-to-course content,” said Mitch Steffey, Chaminade’s Associate Director of Service Learning and Community Engagement Service. “Learners try to apply aspects of the course while simultaneously working to satisfy the needs of the community.”

Nakahodo’s pedagogical approach to teaching is based on three principles: place, space and transactional writing. For this Fall’s EN102, she initially themed it “Food Insecurity,” which would have involved Christina Klimo, University of Dayton’s Write Place Coordinator with the Office of Learning Resource.

“Two years ago, we met while participating in the Marianist Educational Associates formation program, and we shared similar ideas,” said Nakahodo, who has taught at Chaminade since 1998. “Then we started having weekly Zoom meetings and it just progressed from there.”

After numerous Zoom conference calls, Nakahodo and Klimo had coordinated to collaborate on a course this term that would be based on the two universities’ community gardens, hence the theme. The first session was hosted by Silverswords who held up their laptops to capture the views of Diamond Head and the ocean to show the UD students.

“It was a get-to-know-each-other meeting,” Nakahodo said. “The second session was going to be hosted by UD and the third session would have been a collaborative effort. But unfortunately, Christina got sick and we had to postpone the session.”

Shoveling mulch into the wheelbarrow, sophomore Maka‘ala Ng said it’s difficult to grow plants and vegetables in this garden because of the quality of the soil, but they’ll persist, as long as students keep helping to tend the garden.

“When vegetables do start growing, we’re going to give them away,” said Ng, an Environmental Science and Environmental Studies double major. “Right now, we’re planting corn, peas, cucumbers and indigenous plants. We also apply three different methods to compost waste: tumbler, which looks like a cement mixer; vermicomposting or worm farm composting; and in-ground composting.”

 Steffey has spearheaded the garden endeavor for the past couple of years with the help of students like Narcisco and Ng, and professors like Nakahodo who want to address the disconnection between island residents living in today’s fast-paced, consumer-oriented society and their lack of awareness of food origins and production.

“Eighty-five to 90 percent of our food is imported,” Steffey said. “We need policies and actions to increase the amount of locally grown food consumed by Hawaii’s residents. And we’re trying to do our own little part for our community.”

I Go 2 College

Fifth graders experience campus life for a day

Trying to explain Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ (“Praise be to you,” a quotation from St. Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Creatures”) to 12-year-old kids in a university environment is no easy task. Yet, Bro. Ed Brink, S.M. comfortably stood in front of a group of Sacred Hearts Academy, and St. Theresa and St. Elizabeth students and started his discussion with a simple question: have you ever received a birthday card in the mail? 

Raising her hand, Charlie Yim screamed out “from my auntie.” Sitting next to Yim, fellow Lancer, Camryn Abe, echoed the same response. In fact, every student had received a card, either from an auntie or a grandparent. Some even said they had received letters, which was the perfect segue for Brink to ask his second question: Why do we send cards and letters?

Surely enough, students answered with “to let us know they care for us and they love us.” It was a response that could not have been any better scripted than if Brink had pre-written the answer himself. After all, the Pope’s 184-page encyclical letter—Laudato Si’— focuses on care for the natural environment and all people, as well as broader questions of the relationship among God, humans and the Earth. The encyclical’s subtitle, “Care for Our Common Home,” reinforces these key themes.

Bro. Ed Brink teaches fifth graders about Laudato Si.

“Pope Francis’ encyclicals are letters to the people,” said Brink, Vice President of Mission and Rector. “They are letters to show his care and love for the people. Earth is God’s gift to us, and it belongs to everyone, but it needs our protection and immediate attention.”

After shuffling slides of a PowerPoint presentation, Brink handed out sheets of a word search puzzle that contained vocabulary that directly pertained to the environment and sustainability. Working together in groups of seven, students eagerly searched for words in the puzzle, circling “recycle” along a diagonal path and “earth” along a vertical column.

The exercise wasn’t lost on the students who were part of a cohort of 166 fifth graders who visited campus to experience college life. Now in its second year, “I Go 2 College” is a partnership between Chaminade University and Hawaii Catholic Schools.

“The I Go 2 College event exceeded my expectations,” said Llewellyn Young, Ph.D., superintendent of Hawaii Catholic Schools. “Our preliminary surveys showed that all stakeholders including teachers, parents and students were very satisfied with the experience.  

“Anecdotally, several parents called my office when we did our first event last spring to tell me that they thought the program was brilliant and inspiring,” Young continued. “Parents spoke with such enthusiasm. One parent told me that her son talked about it for a few weeks. He never mentioned college before the experience, but now he can’t wait to go.”

St. Theresa students, Heaven Lee and Katelin Nitta, and Sacred Hearts’s Lauren Schofield and Kiara Cruz all plan to attend university, and Chaminade may be their choice. The four fifth graders said this college experience was “fun—even with all the up-and-down hikes.” 

Attending for a second year, St. Theresa fifth-grade teacher Alyssa Yabes said last year’s students “really enjoyed it a lot.” “They kept talking that they loved going to college,” she said. “All the hiking, they told me, was worth it.”  

Started approximately 16 years ago, the “I Go To College” program aims to introduce 9-12-year-old students to higher education, even before they step onto a middle school campus. “The purpose of this program is to expose the students to college life at an early age and to provide them with a day that is fun and eye-opening,” said Kim Baxter, Director of Early College programs at Chaminade. “Additionally, one benefit to offering visit opportunities for younger students is that when they return as juniors or seniors, the students will be better prepared to participate in traditional campus visit programs.”

Amy Thompson of Mattel

’98 alumna shares her role with a leading global toy company

A word of advice from Amy Thompson: be open. Open to new ideas. Open to diversity. And open to equality and inclusion. As executive vice president and chief people officer for Mattel, the ’98 Chaminade alumna oversees all global human resources functions, including compensation and benefits, organizational design and leadership development for the company.

Speaking virtually to students during the Dean’s Speaker Series, Thompson shared her impressive employment history. Before joining Mattel, she served as chief people officer for TOMS Shoes, where she successfully developed and implemented organizational plans to scale the company globally by elevating talent and direct-to-consumer capability. She also founded TOMS Leading Ladies, an organization dedicated to empowering and inspiring women leaders.

Prior to TOMS, she held several global HR leadership roles at Starbucks Coffee Company, as well as led HR teams and departments at Ticketmaster Corporation and Citysearch.com.

Amy Thompson addressed students during the Dean’s Speaker Series.

“I believe my formative experiences, including at Chaminade, shaped my future,” Thompson told attendees. “I came to Chaminade on a full athletic scholarship and, as an athlete, you have to be disciplined.”

The Dean’s Speaker Series is designed to bring private, nonprofit and public sector leaders who have achieved recognition in their respective fields to share their expertise and insights on a broad range of timely issues, as well as share the highlights, challenges and turning points of their individual career paths.

“The Speaker Series is intended to extend classroom learning,” said School of Business and Communication Interim Dean Annette Santos. “It’s a co-curricular experience where the integration between theory and practice is reinforced and realized.”

Another intention of the forum is to bring a diversity of social, cultural, economic and other business-related perspectives to the Chaminade community in order to engage in ways that inform and encourage sustainable business for good. 

“One of Mattel’s external recognitions that I’m really proud of is its standing with the Human Rights Campaign,” Thompson said. “In 2022, for the fourth year in a row, Mattel received a perfect score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey that measures corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality.’”

As chief people officer, Thompson is guided by several key questions: “Do employees feel supported? Can they be authentic? Do they feel that they belong?”

“We have three values that are foundational to Mattel,” Thompson pointed out in her PowerPoint slide. “Collaboration, Innovation and Execution, which leads to our pillars of leadership: build and drive culture, manage performance, support career growth, promote wellbeing and growth mindset.”

School of Business and Communication Senator and Intern, and United Nations Association of Chaminade University (UNAC) President, Jasmine Mondelo could clearly sense that Thompson immensely cares for Mattel’s culture and talent. She also believes that Mattel offers a prime business model that fosters and values employee relations.

“As a college student who will set out on my own career path after graduation, Amy Thompson and Mattel’s message of inclusivity, fairness and commitment to personal and professional growth is inspiring to me,” said Mondelo after attending the lecture. “Wherever I work, I would want to feel valued and respected as an employee, motivated to achieve success for myself and the company, and capable of continuously improving myself.”

Santos hopes that students will have several takeaways after attending and listening to these guest speakers. “1) I hope that students would be inspired by the personal and professional journey of the featured speakers in ways that enhance their educational experience,” she said. “2) Understand that personal and professional growth is a process that involves challenges and turning points on the way to wins and transformation; and 3) this event also provides opportunities for students to build their network, possibly creating meaningful connections with speakers or those in attendance.” 

God’s Mechanics

There was time for one more question before the close of the Marianist Lecture. Chaminade student Noelani Tugaoen stood up and politely asked, “How are we able to foster the dialogue of faith and science with those who are younger and don’t have any experience with the religious world?” 

Lecturer Bro. Guy Consolmagno, S. J. half-smiled before laughing and saying, “Boy, I wish I knew the answer to that.”  The audience then joined him in light laughter. 

As the Director of the Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, Consolmagno clearly knows the answers to most any question that comes his way.  A native of Detroit, Michigan, he earned undergraduate and masters’ degrees from MIT, and a Ph. D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona; he was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard and MIT, served in the US Peace Corps (Kenya), and taught university physics at Lafayette College before entering the Jesuits in 1989. 

Yet on October 8th in the Mystical Rose Oratory as part of the Marianist  Lecture Series, he humbly replied that he didn’t know the answer to Tugaoen’s question.

His lecture, “God’s Mechanics: How Scientists and Engineers Make Sense of Religion,” however, was packed with answers to lofty questions about science, astronomy, commonalities and differences between different religions, and – ultimately – what “believing in God gets you.” He also delved into ways that “techies” deal with why so many religions exist in our world today. 

He opened his talk by playing a video from the Vatican Observatory, and then he dove head first into how scientists and engineers make sense of religion. His full talk can be viewed here. 

At the Vatican Observatory since 1993, Consolmagno’s research has explored connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies, observing Kuiper Belt objects with the Vatican’s 1.8 meter telescope in Arizona, and applying his measure of meteorite physical properties to understanding asteroid origins and structure. 

Consolmagno also spoke with Chaminade Scholars on October 6 during lunch. The conversation was lively and insightful with much mutual respect between Consolmagno and the students. At the end of the presentation, Consolmagno was presented with the Mackey Award for Catholic Thought, given to a speaker per year. This award is given to those who help continue the Marianist charism and make a difference in the community.

The Marianist Lecture series is sponsored by Chaminade University, Marianist Center of Hawaii and St. Louis School with the next installment of the series on February 18, 2024 featuring Dr. Steve Neiheisel who will focus on Catholics in the public square during an election year.