Guest Speakers

Congratulations to the Class of 2023

May 10, 2023 by University Communications & Marketing

Inspiring words from Dr. Lynn Babington, Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami and Selected Student Speakers

In his opening remarks to graduating students, Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami ’01, reflected on his time on campus with his wife Monica and his own commencement. “As I look out into the sea of graduates, I see my own reflection in you,” said the 2001 Chaminade alumnus. “It makes me realize how quickly time goes by. But time is just a measurement, until it is filled with very special people who make tremendous impacts in our lives. And today, on this beautiful occasion, as you generously give me your time, each of you becomes a part of my life as well.”

The Commencement ceremony began with a special invocation from Fr. Martin Solma, Chaplain and Special Assistant to the President at Chaminade. President Dr. Lynn Babington then addressed graduates, acknowledging their accomplishments and sacrifices—especially in the face of global uncertainty.

Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington addresses graduates at Commencement.

“One of the distinguishing features of a Marianist education is a focus on adaptation and change—skills critically important in today’s challenging world,” Babington exhorted. “You have certainly become more comfortable with navigating the unknown. The ability to work with ambiguity means you’ll be able to face uncertainties, adapt to change and be flexible as the mysteries of life unfold.”

For many graduates, the ceremony is a time of reflection, pride and perseverance, especially with this particular graduating class, which endured a once-in-a-century pandemic, Covid protocols and restrictions, social distancing and a pivot to an online schedule before transitioning to a hybrid model.

“We’re all here today together, making it across that finish line,” said undergraduate speaker Eri Leong. “Through fears and failures, exams and assignments, break-ups and breakdowns, even through a global pandemic, no hurdle was high enough to keep us from walking this stage. Instead, we emerged triumphant over every adversity under the sun. And we’ll carry that unwavering resolve into the abundant opportunities that lie ahead.”

In Simon Bronner’s 1990 book “Piled Higher and Deeper: The Folklore of Student Life,” a chapter devoted to graduation explores how commencement has been celebrated across campuses and throughout the years.

According to the book, some colleges host 100-day countdowns to commencement, with a number of graduation-themed activities. At other schools, graduating seniors leave wills to underclassmen. Some institutions celebrate graduation with a balloon launch to symbolize students moving upward, while others have held ceremonial bonfires where seniors burn course materials or early drafts of their senior theses.

However, even with variation from campus to campus, the commencement ceremony itself remains very much a traditional event, a punctuation point to the collegiate experience with many customs deeply rooted in history, including the caps and gowns, university mace, and guest and student speakers.

“Commencements are a time to join as a community to celebrate the work of our faculty and staff who have supported you throughout your years of study with us, and we celebrate new beginnings,” Babington said in in her address to students. “You are leaving Chaminade University to go out and engage in the world as professionals, as neighbors, as citizens.”

Graduating with a Master of Arts in Teaching, Todd Sibley was selected by his peers to be the evening’s graduate speaker. Immediately preceding the pandemic, the native Californian worked as a social worker for a Hawaii nonprofit organization. When COVID spread across the islands, Sibley lost his job, and he decided to pursue his master’s in teaching social studies in secondary schools.

“Graduates, we have proven ourselves to be resilient, resourceful and resistant to giving up,” Sibley asserted. “The global pandemic would have been an easy excuse to have quit on ourselves and our dreams, but we didn’t. We persevered no matter the obstacle because that’s what we faced—obstacles not barriers.”

As Kauai Mayor during the pandemic, Kawakami confronted his own difficult decisions, turning camp grounds into Safe Zones, ordering shut downs and unpopular vaccine mandates. And through it all, he thought only of his constituents, responding to their needs in the most dire of times.

“What I got most out of my time at Chaminade wasn’t the correct way to structure a sentence or what I gained out of my statistics class; it wasn’t what I gained out of a book,” Kawakami said. “It was the importance of the human element, and the power that simple random acts of kindness can shape the future of one person’s life. That although certain things will fade overtime, the people who cared, the ones that shared, the ones that believed, and made you believe in yourself, will remain with you.

“I feel incredibly grateful to witness this commencement of your next step,” he concluded. “Fair winds and following seas, always be caring and always be trustworthy. Congratulations to this beautiful graduating class of Chaminade University!”

Dr. Lynn Babington presents diploma to graduating student

Student Athlete

Graduating Students

Father Chaminade

Sarah Robertson is all smiles, even with crutches

Janine Abad posed with her family and friends.

MBA graduate Jeremiah Bautista poses with family and friends.

Provost Dr. Lance Askildson

Keynote speaker Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami

Graduate speaker Todd Sibley

Undergraduate student speaker Eri Leong

A promising message on a mortarboard

Emcee Kaipo Leopoldino

All smiles and laughs

BSN graduates with Student Athlete

Graduates’ family and friends attended the Chaminade Commencement at the Waikiki Shell on May 6.

Hogan’s Hero

April 21, 2023 by University Communications & Marketing

Haelee Tallett ’18 Champions Entrepreneurial Program

Before ceding the room to Haelee Tallett —or Haels, as she prefers to be called— Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program director, Dr. Roy Panzarella quipped that the Hogan Speaker Series is setting a new Guinness World Record tonight by inviting the youngest guest speaker ever.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get to that,” Tallett joked about her age. “I’m not mysterious and I don’t put on any façades. I’m an open book with a story to tell and I’m glad to tell it.”

Tallett’s entrepreneurial achievements certainly belie her youthful age of 26. Owner and CEO of Ocean Creations, a custom jewelry company inspired by her love for the ocean, the Hogan Entrepreneurial Program ’16 and Chaminade ’18 Business Administration graduate began her now-thriving business as a hobby when she was a young 16-year-old teenager.

“I just learned that when Haels was a freshman at Chaminade, she already wanted to enter the Hogan program, which wasn’t possible because entry requires students to be juniors, seniors or graduate students, but she was determined,” Panzarella told attendees. “It’s powerful what she has been able to achieve, and is now giving back to the community.”

Entrepreneur Haelee Tallet discussed her business, Ocean Creations, during the Hogan Speaker Series.

The point wasn’t lost among attendees and Tallett’s support network of 10 employees and close friends, including her former Chaminade classmate, Brandon Espiritu, ’16. “She has always worked hard so I’m here to support her,” he said. “It’s nice to see Haels achieve so many milestones and I’m super proud of her.”

Tallett’s modest beginnings started with her brother’s passion for diving and bringing home shells of all shapes and sizes. Initially, she would turn the shells into whimsical jewelry for herself, but she would eventually give them as gifts in hopes of saving money. Then the compliments and requests came in.

“I wanted to make jewelry that was affordable and made young women feel good,” says Tallett, who recently expanded Ocean Creations with a second location at Ala Moana Center. “I wanted to empower young women to be the best of themselves.”

Tallett credits Chaminade for shaping her as an entrepreneur, and teaching her what she calls the necessary “soft skills” to run a business. “The professors here taught me confidence building and effective communicating,” said Tallett, who opened her first brick-and-mortar shop at Ka Makana Ali‘i in Kapolei. “They told me about challenges that an entrepreneur will face and how to meet them.”

Haels, though, isn’t the first generation of Talletts to attend Chaminade, Panzarella pointed out. “I believe her grandfather came here [Willibrord “Willie” K. Tallett ’61] and also her aunt [Theresa (Tallett) Edwards ‘89].”

“I’ve always been super interested in Chaminade because of my grandpa,” the younger Tallett said. “And I’ve always wanted to be in the Hogan Program. My relationship with the faculty still stands out as very special because my professors were so committed to helping us along the way. They would always go the extra mile, and my classmates and I knew we could count on them to help us, even if it wasn’t directly related to our classwork.”

As for the future, Tallett hopes to grow her business and to continue to have the opportunity to support young women. Standing in front of the class, the young entrepreneur encouraged the budding MBA students to pursue their dreams.

“When I was in your position I had no idea I would have two stores in two of Hawai‘i’s largest malls,” she said. “I wake up sometimes and I feel like I have impostor syndrome, and I ask myself, ‘How did I get here?’”

Words of Wisdom

March 10, 2023 by University Communications & Marketing

Villanova scholar offers strategies during her ‘A Life Worth Loving’ lecture

Two college students. Two different experiences. And one identical outcome: Brooke and Sophia (pseudonyms for two Villanova roommates) ended up, on separate occasions and during their same senior fall semester, in Dr. Anna Moreland’s office—in tears.

During her freshmen year, Brooke developed paralyzing anxiety about her future, which resulted in weekly therapy sessions. In her sophomore year, she decided to isolate herself, alienating her entire group of friends, and only talking to her boyfriend. The 18-year-old also chose to keep herself extremely busy, thinking that it would alleviate her angst.

“It didn’t work; it just made things worse,” read Moreland, sharing Brooke’s letter with attendees during her “A Life Worth Loving” lecture on Feb. 19. “It did help me fill my resume, and I thought it would help guarantee me a job. Now I’ve got what all my friends want: a well-paying job at a top bank. But, I wasn’t sure this is what I wanted. I felt backed in this career because it was something practical and prestigious.”

Dr. Anna Bonta Moreland received the Mackey Award for Catholic Thought.

In Sophia’s case, the then-freshman did not want to repeat what she felt in high school—burnout and competition. So, she decided that her college experience would be focused on what she wanted to learn, which was anthropology. However, in her senior year she had no idea on how she was going to go “from courses she loves to a life she loves and to a professional life that she actually wants to do,” according to Moreland, whose discussion centered around her third forthcoming book, “Daring to Live: A Guide to a Meaningful Life,” co-authored with former colleague Dr. Thomas Smith from Catholic University of America.

“This is a book that I almost randomly wrote,” Moreland recounted. “But I wrote it after 17 years of listening to my students and being concerned about them. I wanted to give them a wider vocabulary and a wider vision for a good life.”

Moreland offered three challenges that confront young adults in today’s world: the meaning of work; the meaning of leisure—which she quipped—they don’t even know how to spell; and loving relationships.

“Young men and women really suffer from choice paralysis,” Moreland said. “We need to help them move through this. We need to help them think more broadly, more ambitiously and more fully about the lives that they are building.”

During her lecture, Moreland asserted that Brooke and Sophia treated high school like a race with a clear end marker—college. They had won the race. And now that they were in college, they were again treating the experience like another marathon.

Lecture attendees listened to Moreland's "A Life Worth Loving." — Lecture attendees listened to Moreland’s “A Life Worth Loving.”

“But college is not a marathon,” Moreland said. “It’s a big confusing supermarket—think of Costco or Sam’s Club.

“Brooke races through the aisles, throws things in her cart, and races to the cashier,” Moreland added. “Sophia ends up being paralyzed in one of those overwhelming Costco aisles, unable to move or commit to the 84 rolls of toilet paper.”

They both suffer from choice paralysis. They’re both hungry, but they don’t know for what.

The Villanova Department of Humanities professor later spoke to Brooke and Sophia about four ingredients that would help them move through those aisles: 1) to rehabilitate their imagination; 2) to move away from pro-and-con lists and from right and wrong, and towards goods versus goods or rights versus rights; 3) to not think about what they’re good at, but to think about what they want to become good at; and, 4) to encourage them to seek companions.

The latter point is of great concern to Moreland, who said that young adults don’t know how to form long, loving relationships because of their fear of failure and rejection.

“The hook-up culture is not the problem,” Moreland said. “It’s actually the epidemic of loneliness.”

Dr. Moreland discusses the challenges that college students face today on campus.

It starts with technology, and being enslaved to our phones and, for some students, alcohol.

“Marry the two and it ends up being an exhausting social life and a toxic combination for leisure time,” Moreland explained. “How you spend your leisure time shapes you, molds you and changes you, just as much as how you spend your work time.”

Moreland believes we need to reclaim our free time, and redefine how we choose to spend that time.

“There’s an epidemic of loneliness on campuses across the country, and it is heartbreaking to me,” the religious scholar said. “And if they’re lonely, there’s no way to develop a great leisure life because friendship is at the heart of leisure practices. Loving is at the heart of human life, and friendship, loving relationships are at the heart of how we should spend our leisure time.”

In conclusion, Moreland ended with a hopeful story about a group of Villanova students who bonded through a shared passion for playing The Settlers of Catan and service.

Reciting a junior student’s letter aloud, Moreland read: During one night of heavy drinking, we all admitted to each other that we loved playing The Settlers of Catan with our friends and families growing up. We started jostling with each other about who could build the largest settlement.

By the end of the night, the group decided to start playing regularly, getting together once a week to play Catan, which eventually expanded to include other games.

“It was the first time in college that I had done any fun type of activity that was planned other than drinking,” the student wrote. “We became really close, and they’re still some of my best friends today. I actually met my boyfriend through Catan nights. This is my favorite memory of college.”

Chaminade Hosts Virtual Forum with Medical Team Who Performed the First Pig-Heart Transplant

June 24, 2022 by University Communications & Marketing

In January 2022, 57-year-old David Bennett, Sr., was suffering from terminal heart disease when he made history—and grabbed headlines—as the first person to receive a genetically modified pig’s heart. The groundbreaking operation inspired millions and heralded a new frontier in transplant science.

Bennett, Sr., lived for two months with his donor heart before his condition deteriorated and he was administered palliative care when it was clear he would not recover. David Bennett, Jr., said his father will be remembered for his humor, his kindness, and his ardent belief in the power of education.

It was that legacy that helped make a rare opportunity a reality for the Silversword community.

On the afternoon of May 31, about 100 Chaminade faculty members and students gathered for “Advances in Porcine Xenotransplantation,” a virtual forum with Bennett, Sr.’s, medical team and his son. The event was an opportunity for attendees to unpack the latest on the first-of-its-kind transplant, while also learning more about David Bennett, Sr., the “goofy” patient and beloved father and grandfather.

“It’s an honor and privilege to do this for my dad, who helped to advance science,” David Bennett, Jr., told participants. “He was always generous with his time and he always reminded me how proud he was of me. My dad was somebody who had lots of friends and who got along with people very well.”

Dr. Bartley Griffith, the world-renowned cardiothoracic surgeon who performed the surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center, said Bennett, Sr., was a “terrible candidate” for the operation “in the truest sense of the word.” His overall health was poor and his ability to fight infections low.

“He would be classified as almost untreatable by transplantation standards,” Griffith said.

He was also deemed ineligible for a traditional heart transplant.

“The only thing about Dave that made him a great candidate was his toughness,” Griffith told participants, adding genetically modified pig hearts had only ever before been transplanted into non-human primates. “We didn’t know if the pig heart would work for two minutes, two days, two months or two years. The testing of this was just done in animals and they have a different immune system.”

Dr. Genevieve Griffiths, Dr. Claire Wright and Dr. Sandra Bourgette-Henry, of Chaminade, moderated the conversation and presented questions gathered in advance from students and members of the faculty.

Wright, an associate professor of Biology, called the forum a great opportunity to learn about the scientific and human aspects of a massive medical innovation. “This was a human who meant so much to his family and friends and now leaves us with this wonderful legacy,” she said.

Griffith, the surgeon, agreed. “We are doing exactly what Dave Bennett, Jr., requested of us, which is to learn something and to spread that learning to those who are interested,” he said. Griffith added there is still much to discover about the transplant itself and about Bennett, Sr.’s, cause of death.

“We are still working with tissues to take a deep dive on what really happened,” Griffith said.

Dr. Kapil Saharia, an assistant professor of Medicine at UMMC’s Institute of Human Virology and Bennett’s infectious disease specialist, said the transplant underscores just how far transplant science has come in the last decade alone. “I think this is setting the stage for really bigger steps,” he said.

Dr. Alison Grazioli, UMMC medical director and the head of the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit, added Bennett, Sr.’s, transplant was “in many regards a success. We learned so much from Mr. Bennett and will continue to do so. It is everybody’s great hope that xenotransplantation will continue to improve.”

Grazioli spent long days—for months—caring for Bennett, Sr., and said she built strong relationships with him and his family along the way. “The greatest thing we got out of it was getting to know Dave Bennett, Jr., and his family,” she told attendees. “All of those unexpected things and all the hurdles that we had to overcome, it was made so much easier that we developed relationships with such great people.”

In response to a question about what’s next for animal organ transplants, Grazioli said more breakthroughs are around the corner. “There’s talk of clinical trials where we can, in a rigorous way … really get to define who should get these transplants and save the most lives,” she said.

“Mr. Bennett energized the science and I think you’re going to hear a lot more about it.”

Healthy and Sustainable Hawaii Speaker Series

May 4, 2022 by University Communications & Marketing

A series of speakers exploring everything from climate change resilience to indigenous wisdom to healthcare equity helped launch the new United Nations-affiliated CIFAL Honolulu Centre at Chaminade University.

The events in April were aimed at underscoring the mission of the center, an exciting partnership between Chaminade and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. CIFAL Honolulu is designed to serve as a hub in Hawaii and the Pacific Region for leadership, training and education around key sustainable development goals—convening and empowering people to maximize their positive impact.

The Healthy & Sustainable Hawaii Speaker Series kicked off on April 12, with Lt. Governor Josh Green.

Green, a practicing physician, discussed his vision for bolstering the health and wellbeing of people in Hawaii and the Pacific, encouraging attendees to consider how a plethora of social issues—drug addiction, domestic violence, homelessness, poverty—are all connected to health metrics.

“Systems are complex and they require complex thought,” Green said, adding COVID has both complicated the state’s healthcare landscape and introduced new opportunities, like broadening the availability of telehealth services. “The consequences of health disparities are great. There’s no choice but to address them. What we now know is that your zip code matters more than your genetic code.”

In his speech, Green talked about how he came to the islands from Pennsylvania to serve as a rural doctor on Hawaii Island and then decided to run for office in hopes of bringing attention to healthcare disparities he was seeing first-hand. Fast forward to 2019 and he was in the lieutenant governor’s office and having a conversation with the government of Western Samoa about a huge measles outbreak.

They asked Green, “Could you come and vaccinate our entire country?”

Green wasn’t sure how he was going to accomplish it, but he corralled resources in lightning speed. Hundreds of Hawaii healthcare professionals volunteered to assist. Airlines donated travel. And vaccines were provided free of charge. Over just 48 hours, some 37,000 measles vaccinations were administered.

And just a few months after that ordeal, Green and his team started getting wind of a worrisome new coronavirus making people sick in China and spreading to U.S. cities. “There was a problem on the horizon and we just witnessed what a virus could do,” Green said. “I knew we better get ready.”

Within weeks, a pandemic was declared and the state was shut down.

Green said COVID-19 underscored the power of working together, especially in emergencies, to shepherd resources and keep people safe. He said that same approach is necessary to grapple with some of the biggest crises facing Hawaii, many of which have significant implications on health.

Lucy Lee '23 and Ramsay Taum posing for the camera with Diamond Head in the background — *Lucy Lee ’23 and Ramsay Taum*

Also on April 12, the CIFAL Centre hosted Life Enhancement Institute of the Pacific Founder and President Ramsay Taum and Hōkūleʻa student navigator Lucy Lee ’23 for a conversation about cultural and historical connections across the Pacific that could guide the way for sustainable development.

In considering climate change resilience and sustainability, Taum told attendees we must begin by “considering the empty chair”—our ancestors, loved ones who have departed and relatives who have not yet been born but also those we are trying to protect. “Who is it that you are accountable to?” Taum said, adding that he writes a letter every night to the people who will become his great-great grandchildren to answer their question, “What did you do when you had the chance?”

Taum said it’s also important to understand our priorities as an island community. “When we take fertile lands that we grow food in, and grow cement in them instead, what we’ve suggested is that we’ve shifted a priority—we’re OK with shipping our food in rather than growing it,” he said.

“Imagine if we created policies on caring. Do you think the carrying capacities will follow? I think so.”

He added that it’s important to understand the difference between wisdom and knowledge and recognize the importance of each in creating resilient, sustainable communities. “Maybe our success living on this island called Earth could be supported by talking to islanders,” Taum said.

In her address, Lee also touched on the value of place-based solutions.

A solution for one community, she pointed out, might not work for another. She added that communication and dialogue are also central ingredients in making headway on some of society’s biggest obstacles. To underscore the point, Lee recalled her first navigation experience onboard the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hōkūleʻa. She and other students were charged with finding Nihoa island.

At the time, the Environmental Studies major said, Polynesian Voyaging Society President and Master Navigator Nainoa Thompson told her that he didn’t care if she found the island in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.

What he cared about was whether she was leading her crew. “You can be the best navigator in the world. If no one wants to be on crew with you, you’ll be sailing solo for the rest of your life,” she said.

*Josh Stanbro, Dr. Chip Fletcher, Dr. Gail Grabowsky, Chris Benjamin, Scott Glenn and Aimee Barnes*

The final event in the speaker series, on April 18, was a panel discussion on climate resiliency and mitigation. The talk was moderated by Alexander & Baldwin CEO Chris Benjamin and included scientists, policy leaders and others discussing the stakes for Hawaii, the fight ahead, and how the Hawaii Executive Collaborative is seeking to drive change for the better with its Climate Coalition.

“We’re here today because our planet is in peril,” Benjamin told attendees. “Hawaii will experience climate change particularly acutely. This can’t just be a government solution or a nonprofit solution. It’s not just about educating people. It’s about all of these things. We’re trying to connect the dots.”

Dr. Charles “Chip” Fletcher, a panelist and dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said climate change is an immense problem with no easy solutions. But he’s optimistic about how Hawaii will tackle global warming’s many challenges.

“We have the cultural and economic and social framework with which we can thrive in this century,” Fletcher said. “Our community in Hawaii can by strongly unified. That is a community that can be prepared for the shocks and stresses of climate change. But we have a lot of work to do.”

Aimee Barnes, founder and CEO of Hua Nani Partners, said despair and doom are frequent and unfortunate themes in climate change circles. As she told attendees, however, there is an antidote: action. “The work that we’re doing really does matter. It’s going to help,” she said.

And, said Elemental Excelerator Policy Fellow and former city Resilience Officer Josh Stanbro, sustainable action also adds up—especially at the local level. “When we’re talking about turning these islands into a climate resilient place, I think we have a better shot than most,” he said.

Panelist Scott Glenn, the state’s chief energy officer, agreed and said fighting climate change and mitigating its impacts shouldn’t be seen simply as good for the environment or for communities but should be considered the right thing to do. “For all of us, it comes down to the opportunities we have to be a good person, to be a decent human. Fighting poverty, planting a tree is about making life better.”

For more details on the speaker series and on CIFAL Honolulu, click here.

Catholic Intellectual Life

March 25, 2022 by University Communications & Marketing

Chaminade University is part of a rich Catholic intellectual tradition that not only seeks to educate and inform but also ask tough questions, prompt opportunities for reflection, create space for new ideas and assist the next generation of leaders in looking for ways to build a more peaceful and just world, said renowned Catholic education leader Fr. Dennis Holtschneider in a recent talk at the university.

“Higher education is complex and rarely possible without the assistance of charitable donations. We do it as a gift to the world. Why? Because ideas matter,” Holtschneider, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, told attendees at the March 15 address at Chaminade.

“Our graduates are gifts to a world that needs that gift for its improvement.”

Holtschneider’s talk was entitled “The Core of Catholic Intellectual Life,” and he spoke to university administrators, faculty members, staff, and others about the importance of embracing and admiring the intellectual, creative, teaching, and human development work that happens every day at the university.

Catholic universities, he noted, serve many roles. As a home for evangelization through campus ministries. As a place to offer opportunities to those from disadvantaged backgrounds. But first and foremost, Holtschneider said, “they’re in service of the intellectual life where ideas matter.”

And as the largest non-governmental provider of higher education in the world, he added, there is no shortage of ideas at Catholic universities. He pointed to just a few of the impressive projects happening at these institutions, from advancements in medicine to breakthroughs in economics or political theory.

“We prepare the next generation of teachers, social workers, nurse practitioners, business leaders, accountants, political advisers, communication professionals, counselors, scholars and more,” he said.

And this modern landscape of education is no “accident of history,” Holtschneider added, “but an expression of a Church that has welcomed, built, and supported the intellectual life for millennia. This is important work for us. This is one of our ministries. Now make no mistake, it’s a fray. If you hire an organization of independent thinkers, you get a lot of independent thought.”

In other words, he said, intellectual work means “intellectual upset.”

Beverly Sandobal, Shana Tong, Mandy Thronas-Brown, Bishop Larry Silva, Fr. Dennis Holtschneider, Dr. Lynn Babington, Dr. Scott Schroeder, Cynthia McIntyre, Bro. Edward Brink, and Margaret Rufo

It means debate. Disagreement. Growth. Reflection. And it means change.

Holtschneider pointed to the many scholars at Catholic institutions who helped present new ideas whose time had come. They were and are at the forefront of the civil and women’s rights movements, of the push to end poverty and of the monumental work to address the climate change crisis.

“It’s not a set of ideas. It’s a project. Catholic intellectual life is a project,” he said.

And importantly, Holtschneider said, while scholars in the Catholic intellectual tradition have no predetermined answers, they do have non-negotiable starting places that reflect a common set of values and ideals. “Our vocation as educators is to prepare the next generation, hoping they might even improve upon the world as we know it now. If that’s all we did, it would be enough,” he said.

“We care that our students become experts in the fullest sense of their chosen professions. We also care about who they become as they spend a life wielding the education that we have given them. We explore things with them and how they’re thinking about the world. We may not be ethics professionals all of us, but we dare not avoid ethics when teaching if we care about our students’ lives ahead.”

Holtschneider himself speaks as a Catholic scholar who believes strongly that robust academic environments help to drive positive change. He received a doctoral degree in administration, planning and policy from Harvard University, holds eight honorary degrees, and serves as a member of the faculty at several higher education leadership programs, including at Harvard and Boston universities.

“Nothing is more powerful than an idea that breaks through and changes everything,” he said.

Fr. Dennis Holtschneider speaking to Chaminade faculty and staff

Holtschneider’s presentation at Chaminade was part of a series of lectures that were made possible through the Association of Marianist Universities. He is set to speak at Chaminade’s sister universities—the University of Dayton in Ohio and St. Mary’s University in Texas—later this year.

After his presentation at Chaminade, attendees were given a chance to follow up with questions or reflections. Several people said they were moved and inspired by Holtschneider’s message and wanted to seek out ways to share it with a broader audience. Holtschneider applauded those efforts while noting that the intellectual tradition offers a pathway without a set endpoint or destination.

He called the process of searching out ideas “humbling” and full of exciting discoveries.

And it’s not just scholars on that journey; students are there, too.

“We ask them to look long and hard at the world for four years. But we also ask them to look long and hard at themselves and think about how they want to be actors in that world, about what they will value, what they will fight for in their lifetimes, and what they will work for,” he told attendees.

“Most importantly, we give them questions that matter and to think about in the lifetime ahead. And that is the Catholic intellectual tradition. All of it. Not a pre-determined answer that one generation passes onto the next but a constant searching for what’s true, what’s good and what’s holy.”