Ka Pe‘ahi Lono: Monthly Message for March 2024
Date/Time sent: 03/04/2024 12:00 pmUH West Oʻahu Value Proposition
We prepare 21st Century leaders, career creators through integrated, transdisciplinary programs where learners and teachers, together, discover and innovate and engage diverse communities to create a vibrant and socially just world.
Aloha mai kākou e UH West Oʻahu ʻOhana!
In February, DTL launched their free app Actions of Aloha, which serves as a portal to aloha and wellness. The app is filled with actions of aloha, challenges, guided meditations, quotes, manaʻo, and podcasts that are updated every month, encouraging our community to join the movement of aloha. Download the Actions of Aloha app on the App Store or Google Play, and stay tuned for more exciting updates in the coming months. And, in honor of Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (in February) the Actions of Aloha app released 141 ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi flashcards in various categories including numbers, colors, emotions, and phrases. Each card comes with an audio file to hear how the word or phrase is pronounced. Please download a copy of simple phrases you can use in the workplace.
During the month of March we will be gearing up for the Onizuka Day of Exploration, Saturday, April 6, 2024. You can learn more about this event where you and your keiki can participate in a dynamic list of fun and exciting culture-based STEAM activities, prepare for college (UH West Oʻahu), explore a Blackhawk helicopter, and so much more.
2024 Onizuka Day Website
2024 Onizuka Day Flyer
2023 Onizuka Day Highlights
Many of our faculty participate by creating engaging hands-on experiences for keiki (young and seasoned) from gardening to a dig for fossils to flight simulations! Please think of sharing your special skills and knowledge – contact either Dr. Richard Jones or iAVCAA Camonia Graham-Tutt. Bring your family, friends, and neighbors to this free event!
March marks the midpoint of our spring semester. I know many of you are fully immersed in learning and teaching, mentoring, recruiting for summer and fall, and preparing for the final push toward graduation as well as the close of the fiscal year (#somuchmore). Through it all I hope that you continue to see the abundance of joy that embraces us all! Mahalo again for all you do to support the success of all our learners!
E ʻeleu mai ʻoukou!” Step lively, let’s move together!
E mālama pono!
Maenette Benham, Chancellor
Important Highlights and Staying Focused
Here are several highlights you might have missed:
- ACM connection results in cookie tin design
- Yong receives national honor for being ‘Outstanding Mentor’
- Getting to do ‘artsy stuff whilst also learning science’
- Micronesian artwork exhibited at UH West O‘ahu library
- UH West Oʻahu’s Major delivers remarks at mayor’s Black History Month ceremony
In celebration of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole Piʻikoi
On Tuesday, March 26, we will celebrate the birth of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole Piʻikoi and the passage of the Hawaiian Homelands Act. Keaʻili Makaʻainana, the Citizen Prince, as he became known, was born to High Chief David Kahalepouli Pi‘ikoi and Princess Kinoiki Kekaulike, the youngest daughter of Kaumuali‘i, in the Kōloa District of Kaua‘i, on March 26, 1871. He served as the second delegate to U.S. Congress from 1903-1921, and among his noteable achievements is remembered for getting Congress to designate public lands for Native Hawaiian families, the Hawaiian Homestead Act. Learn more about his life and contributions. If you have a bit more time, listen in to a CNHA-hosted presentation with Dr. Hailama Farden and Dr. Keith Akana
Here are some helpful links to help you stay informed:
Makahaiwaʻa – Weekly newsletter (emailed to students, faculty, staff on the first business day of each week). Includes weekly highlights, health, and safety reminders, UH System messages, etc.
Ka Puna O Kaloʻi – Online campus news site
Quarterly Impact Report – Campus highlights covering topics such as summer bridge programs, workforce development data, etc.
Communications Request Form (for faculty/staff submissions only) – Submit here to publicize events, honors, announcements campuswide.
Current Students page – Information for students about registration, financial aid, and support services, among other topics relevant to UH West Oʻahu students.
Faculty/Staff page – Information about campus departments, faculty/staff directory, and faculty resources, among other topics relevant to UH West Oʻahu employees.
Here are some dates to put on your calendar
March 14 – Screening of Many Hands Make Light Work
March 18-22 – Spring Break
March 18-22 – Installation of circle sculpture
March 25 – Blessing of our new circle sculpture
April 6 – Onizuka Day of Exploration Hosted at UH West Oʻahu
April 9 – AES (Solar Panels on Mauka lands) Ribbon Cutting Reception
April 26 – Last Day of Instruction
May 4 – Commencement
Hana Lawelawe: On Leadership
Through our efforts to strengthen assessment efforts across our campus, Dr. Jessica Miranda in partnership with OPDAS, is hosting a series of workshops to introduce as well as strengthen the work we do. Dr. Linda Suskie will be leading a four-part workshop series starting this Wednesday, March 6. Dr. Suskie is an internationally recognized educator, assessment expert, and author on curriculum and assessment.
Workshop #1 topic: Assessing student learning meaningfully and effectively.
Date: Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Time: 1 to 2 p.m.
Location: Zoom meeting (link will be emailed to you after you register)
Registration Link
Dr. Linda Suskie will tailor the workshops to use actual examples and materials provided by our UH West Oʻahu faculty/staff. Please consider emailing Linda (suskie.linda@gmail.com) examples of your course-level SLOs, rubrics that faculty are now using to grade/assess student work, assignments that faculty would like to develop rubrics for, and course syllabi. This is a chance for you to get some free consulting advice!
Please visit the OPDAS page for info and registration links for each session of the upcoming assessment workshop series with Dr. Linda Suskie, and also the two-part assessment workshop series focused on AI and closing the feedback loop with Dr. Phil Dawson of Deakin University.
Take a moment and catch up with Dr. Manu Meyer and Niu Now
Indrajit Gunasekara, Search and Identification of the Hawaiian ʻNiu Hiwa’ Within Hawaiʻi’s Coconut Diversity March 13
Niu Now Events June 6 – 15
ʻAha Nui International Coconut Conference, June 12-14
Hoʻomanaʻo Mai
For ALL Undergraduate UH West Oʻahu Students – The Millennium Fellowship Class of 2024 application is NOW OPEN!
The United Nations Academic Impact and MCN presents the Millennium Fellowship. Selected Millennium Fellows gain access to world class training, connections, and credentials to support their civic leadership. To build an inclusive network, this program is tuition free. For a campus to be eligible for consideration, it needs 8+ undergraduate applicants (we typically recommend 15-20+ applicants). If you are interested or if you have students who would benefit from this extraordinary opportunity, then the application is open until March 31.
If you have 90 seconds, I would like to introduce you to Chijioke Kalu, a 2023 Millennium Fellow. Through his Fellowship project, Kalu collaborated with local farmers in Rwanda to convert cassava peel waste (a serious waste problem) into biogas cooking fuel. Kalu was one of 4,000 Millennium Fellows at 268 campuses worldwide in the Class of 2023, each running a unique social impact project to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.
Office of Professional Development and Academic Support
Spring 2024 semester activities:
1) OPDAS & ODEL Professional Development Series – includes topics such as: Designing Assessment for an Age of AI, Creating Course Learning Outcomes Rubrics, and Closing the Feedback loop (various dates March – April 2024)
2) Assessment Workshop Series (2nd Fridays)
3) NEW!! Professional Development Registration Fund Awardee Presentations (May 2024)
4) OPDAS Professional Development Institute Week (May 2024)
Ongoing opportunities:
1) Excellence in Teaching Awards (e.g. Regents Medal for Excellence in Teaching, Frances Davis, Laulima Innovation, Lecturer Excellence in Teaching) (each Spring)
2) Staff awards (e.g. Kumupaʻa) (each Spring)
3) New Faculty & Staff Orientation (each Semester)
4) Piliʻāina (each Fall semester)
5) Teaching Triangles (offered each year)
6) Teaching Academy (offered each year)
7) Contract Renewal / Tenure & Promotion Support (offered each year)
Please visit the OPDAS Events Page for more information.
UH Foundation Annual Report
For your information, here is a link to the UH Foundation Annual Report, 2023.
Kūlia i ka nuʻu. Strive for the summit.