View the slideshow below or go straight to the UH spring commencement Flickr album.

Leeward Community College Spring 2013 Commencement

Leeward Community College graduates at the campus' commencement ceremony at the Tuthill Courtyard. May 4, 2013

View more photos at www.flickr.com/photos/leewardcc/sets/72157633591032402

Leeward Community College Spring 2013 Commencement

Leeward Community College graduates at the campus' commencement ceremony at the Tuthill Courtyard. May 4, 2013

View more photos at www.flickr.com/photos/leewardcc/sets/72157633591032402

Leeward Community College Spring 2013 Commencement

Leeward Community College graduates at the campus' commencement ceremony at the Tuthill Courtyard. May 4, 2013

View more photos at www.flickr.com/photos/leewardcc/sets/72157633591032402

School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology Spring 2013 Commencement

Global environmental science graduates at the University of Hawaii at Manoa commencement ceremony. May 11, 2013.

School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology Spring 2013 Commencement

Global environmental science graduate Christina Johnson at the University of Hawaii at Manoa commencement ceremony. May 11, 2013.

School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology Spring 2013 Commencement

SOEST student ambassadors Laura Corley and Kimberley Mayfield at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's commencement ceremony. May 11, 2013

School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology Spring 2013 Commencement

Global environmental science students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's commencement ceremony. May 11, 2013

School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology Spring 2013 Commencement

Christina Johnson, a received her BS in global environmental science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's commencement ceremony. May 11, 2013.

University of Hawaii at Manoa Spring 2013 Commencement

University of Hawaii at Manoa graduates at the campus' commencement ceremony at the Stan Sheriff Center. May 11, 2013 (Photos by Tim Ing)

College of Engineering spring convocation ceremony

The University of Hawaii at Manoa's College of Engineering held its annual spring convocation ceremony for graduating engineering students at Campus Center in front of 500 family and friends. May 10, 2013

College of Engineering spring convocation ceremony

The University of Hawaii at Manoa's College of Engineering held its annual spring convocation ceremony for graduating engineering students at Campus Center in front of 500 family and friends. May 10, 2013

College of Engineering spring convocation ceremony

The University of Hawaii at Manoa's College of Engineering held its annual spring convocation ceremony for graduating engineering students at Campus Center in front of 500 family and friends. May 10, 2013

John A. Burns School of Medicine Convocation Ceremony

Dr. Brendan Inouye with Dr. Alycia Lee, after the John A. Burns School of Medicine Convocation Ceremony at Kennedy Theatre. May 12, 2013

For more photos go to the School of Medicine's Flickr album.

John A. Burns School of Medicine Convocation Ceremony

Krista Kiyosaki was presented the Hawaii Medical Association Alliance Endowment Awardat the John A. Burns School of Medicine Convocation Ceremony at Kennedy Theatre. May 12, 2013

For more photos go to the School of Medicine's Flickr album.

John A. Burns School of Medicine Convocation Ceremony

Hawaii's newest MDs recite the Hippocratic Oath during the John A. Burns School of Medicine Convocation Ceremony at Kennedy Theatre. May 12, 2013.

For more photos go to the School of Medicine's Flickr album.

School of Law Spring 2013 Commencement

Members of the 2013 William S. Richardson School of Law graduating class receiving Native Hawaiian Law Certificates chant an oli for the assemblage at the school’s commencement ceremony. May 12, 2013. (Photos by Mike Orbito)

For more photos go to the School of Law’s Picasa album

School of Law Spring 2013 Commencement

William S. Richardson School of Law graduates raise their arms in victory as they sing Hawaii Aloha at the end of the school’s commencement ceremony. May 12, 2013. (Photos by Mike Orbito)

For more photos go to the School of Law’s Picasa album

School of Law Spring 2013 Commencement

William S. Richardson School of Law graduate Eryn Leong and her 13-month old daughter Adelyn hold their certificates. The Law School has a unique keiki support program that embraces students who are also parents, and creates special certificates for the children who have been supportive of their parents through law school. May 12, 2013. (Photos by Mike Orbito)

For more photos go to the School of Law’s Picasa album

University of Hawaii at Manoa Spring 2013 Commencement

UH Manoa's campus security keeping everyone safe at the commencement festivities.

School of Travel Industry Management graduation ceremony

School of Travel Industry Management graduates at the school's graduation ceremony.

School of Travel Industry Management graduation ceremony

School of Travel Industry Management graduates Chi Wai Chan, Alvin Castro, Lazar Bogdanovski, August “Kino” Belden and Nerine Asbel at the school's graduation ceremony.

University of Hawaii at Manoa Library and Information Science graduates

UH Manoa Library and Information Science program future librarians, archivists, and other information specialists celebrate after receiving their MLISc. (Photo by Andrew Wertheimer)

Go to the program's Flickr site for more photos

University of Hawaii at Manoa Spring 2013 Commencement

UH Manoa School of Communications graduates at the campus' commencement ceremony at the Stan Sheriff Center. May 11, 2013

Go to the school's Facebook page to see more photos - www.facebook.com/UHMCOM

University of Hawaii at Manoa Spring 2013 Commencement

University of Hawaii at Manoa graduates at the campus' commencement ceremony at the Stan Sheriff Center. May 11, 2013

University of Hawaii at Manoa Spring 2013 Commencement

University of Hawaii at Manoa graduates at the campus' commencement ceremony at the Stan Sheriff Center. May 11, 2013

Honolulu Community College Spring 2013 Commencement

Honolulu Community College graduates at the campus' commencement ceremony at the Waikiki Shell. May 10, 2013

Go to the campus' Facebook album for more pictures.

Honolulu Community College Spring 2013 Commencement

Honolulu Community College graduate at the campus' commencement ceremony at the Waikiki Shell. May 10, 2013

Go to the campus' Facebook album for more pictures.

Maui College Spring 2013 Commencement

UH Maui College spring graduates. May 12, 2013

View more photos on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/UHMauiCollege

Maui College Spring 2013 Commencement

UH Maui College spring graduates. May 12, 2013

View more photos on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/UHMauiCollege

Maui College Spring 2013 Commencement

UH Maui College spring graduates. May 12, 2013

View more photos on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/UHMauiCollege

Kauai Community College Spring 2013 Commencement

Kauai Community College spring graduates. May 10, 2013

See more photos on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/KauaiCC

Kauai Community College Spring 2013 Commencement

Kauai Community College spring graduates. May 10, 2013

See more photos on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/KauaiCC

Kauai Community College Spring 2013 Commencement

Kauai Community College spring graduates. May 10, 2013

See more photos on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/KauaiCC

University Center, West Hawaiʻi Spring 2013 Commencement

University Center, West Hawaii commencement ceremony. May 11, 2013

UH West Oahu Spring 2013 Commencement

University of Hawaii-West Oahu graduates. May 4, 2013

View more photos at the campus' Flickr page.

UH West Oahu Spring 2013 Commencement

University of Hawaii-West Oahu graduates. May 4, 2013

View more photos at the campus' Flickr page.

UH West Oahu Spring 2013 Commencement

University of Hawaii-West Oahu graduates. May 4, 2013

View more photos at the campus' Flickr page.

UH Manoa College of Education Convocation Ceremony

Congratulations and hugs from College of Education Associate Dean Beth Pateman. May 10, 2013

UH Manoa College of Education Convocation Ceremony

Hula performance at the College of Education Convocation. May 10, 2013

Windward Community College Spring 2013 Commencement

The first agripharmatech certificate of achievement graduates with Inge White and Chancellor Doug Dykstra. May 11, 2013 (Photo by Peter Tully Owen)

See more photos on the campus' Facebook page.

Windward Community College Spring 2013 Commencement

Jena Azura walks through a lineup of Windward CC faculty congratulating the graduates. May 11, 2013 (Photo by Peter Tully Owen)

See more photos on the campus' Facebook page.

UH Hilo Spring 2013 Commencement

A surprise gift from Irene Hirano Inouye to UH Hilo's Dean of the College of Pharmacy John Pezzuto. May 11, 2013

See more UH Hilo photos at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Alumni and Friends Facebook page.

UH Hilo Spring 2013 Commencement

UH Hilo's commencement keynote speaker U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. May 11, 2013

See more UH Hilo photos at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Alumni and Friends Facebook page.

University of Hawaiʻi President M.R.C. Greenwood sat down with Tannya Joaquin of Hawaiʻi News Now for an exclusive half hour interview titled “MRC Greenwood defending her record,” which aired on May 20.

Greenwood calls the Stevie Wonder Blunder the “least significant thing” that has happened during her presidency, but she believes it has overshadowed accomplishments over her four years as president such as the opening of UH West Oʻahu and the UH Cancer Center.

The interview is posted on the Hawaiʻ News Now website. Due to varying editorial policies, news publications may remove or change a video link for archival purposes at any time without notice.

Seeds and seed pods of sacred lotus (photo courtesy of College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources)

The genome sequence for sacred lotus has now been reported in the journal Genome Biology. The international team of scientists was led by Ray Ming, a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa graduate who is now a professor at the University of Illinois, University of California-Los Angeles Professor Jane Shen-Miller and Director of the Wuhan Botanical Garden at the Chinese Academy of SciencesShaohua Li.

UH Mānoa Researcher Robert Paull and Junior Researcher Nancy Chen of College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources’ Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences were involved in this sequencing project. Their role was to analyze and annotate the predicted genes in cell wall metabolism and modification, and to determine their evolutionary relationships. This effort follows from their earlier collaborations on the papaya and Asian pear genomes, both of which efforts led to peer-reviewed articles in Nature and Genome Research.

The sequences revealed that sacred lotus bears the closest resemblance to the ancestor of all eudicots. Eudicots is a term used to refer to one of the two largest groups of angiosperms (flowering plants), constituting more than 70 percent of angiosperm species. Common species include papaya, cabbages, cotton, soybean, grapes and tomato. The other group is the monocots (grasses), which have a single seed leaf and include orchids, grasses, bamboo and banana.

Sacred lotus forms a separate branch of the eudicot family tree because it lacks the characteristic triplication of the genome found in other eudicots. Though it lacks the triplication, sacred lotus did undergo a duplication in its own lineage about 65 million years ago. A high proportion of the duplicated genes have been retained. For instance, the duplicated genes for wax formation (to repel water) and for plant survival in nutrient-poor watery habitats are retained. This gene retention was also seen in the cell wall genes in the analysis by Paull and Chen.

Paull and Chen, in collaboration with a colleague from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have already submitted a follow-up paper from the sacred lotus genome paper to another peer-reviewed journal. This paper focuses on the genes involved in cell wall synthesis and modification. It is thought that the cell wall structure plays a crucial role in imparting longevity to the seeds.

Read the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources news release for more on this discovery.

“It’s like a crash course in learning, in cooking, everything—all aspects of cooking and it’s really good,” said culinary student Joshua Planas.

“I thought I would have to learn a bunch of boring stuff but by the second day we were already in the kitchen cooking,” agreed fellow culinary student Gabrielle Clements.

The Culinary Institute of the Pacific at Kauaʻi CC is not just teaching students how to cook.

“We teach them to be humble,” said Martina Hilldorfer, the program coordinator and chef instructor. “We teach them to be patient, we teach them to cook with passion from their heart, we teach them the math that they will need in the industry to be successful.”

There’s a maximum of 55 students in the program at any given time, working towards a two-year associate degree in applied science.

“You don’t get an A, B, C or D in flipping an egg,” said Hildorfer. “You either do it, and pass, or you can’t.”

The program features a brand new, $2.3 million, state-of-the-art kitchen and regularly brings in Hawaiʻi’s top chefs like Chef George “Mavro” Mavrothalassitis, and food industry experts, for cooking and food demonstrations.

“Everybody who can give the students some bit of knowledge, we love to network with them and they love to work with our students,” said Hildorfer.

Along with basic college courses, the first year of the culinary program covers topics like the fundamentals of cookery, safety and sanitation and bakery. In the second year, the subjects include continental cuisine, Asian cuisine and garde manger.

“I enjoy the instructors,” said Planas. “They’re cool and they’re like witty but they are also very smart and they’re very knowledge about the field.”

“It’s kind of an honor to learn from them and have hands on experience,” said Clements.

The program ends with an eight-week long project where the students design their own restaurants.

“They create their own menus, they cost it out, they do all the staffing, they serve the guests,” said Hildorfer. “We are open to the public Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during the school year.”

The ultimate goal is to make sure each student has the knowledgable and skills to make their culinary dreams come true.

“Hopefully, I want to be overseas,” said Planas as he speculated about his future with an eager smile. “Maybe Japan.”

Clements had a different vision.

“I hope to own my own breakfast and lunch and coffee shop. A place with art, where people feel inspired and their bellies are full and happy.”

Ka Leo Editor in Chief Bianca Bystrom Pino with the Pai Award

Ka Leo O Hawaiʻi, the student led newspaper for the University’s Mānoa campus, has won five awards in the past two months, including best student newspaper in the state.

The Hawaiʻi Publishers Association awarded Ka Leo first place for School Newspaper Excellence in its annual Paʻi Awards. Five college newspapers from around the state entered papers in that category. Windward Community College was awarded second place.

The judge said Ka Leo had “clean, crisp and consistent design; solid reporting and writing; broad coverage across a wide range of student, faculty and community interests. The fact that this newspaper publishes three times a week is a tremendous testimony to the commitment of students at the University of Hawaiʻi to do the hard work necessary to do good journalism.”

At the annual, national convention of the College Newspaper and Business and Advertising Managers in San Diego, Ka Leo won three, first place awards for best event promotion, best online display advertisement and best sales increase of a special issue. The paper was also awarded third place for its printed rate card. Student advertising sales executive Priya Singh took first place for best pitch project. Ka Leo topped rival schools such as the University of Texas at Austin, Pennsylvania State University, University of Kansas and Central Michigan University.

Ka Leo editors also have earned paid summer internships from the Hawaiʻi chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Outgoing Editor in Chief Marc Arakaki will work with Hawaiʻi News Now and Associate News Editor Alex Bitter will serve Honolulu magazine.

Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory

The Hawaiʻi Book Publishers Association announced the winners of the Hawaiʻi Book Publishers Association 2013 Ka Palapala Poʻokela book awards on Friday, May 10. University of Hawaiʻi Press titles were recognized with 7 of the 20 awards, including the top Samuel M. Kamakau Award for Hawaiʻi Book of the Year for Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory by Anwei Skinsnes Law with design by UH Press Production Editor Julie Matsuo-Chun.

In addition, the book tied as the winner of the Award of Excellence in the Hawaiian Language, Culture and History category and received an honorable mention in nonfiction.

Published with the support of the Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence at UH Mānoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine, the comprehensive work uses primary sources such as letters, petitions and oral history interviews to document the lives of individuals sent to the leprosy settlement at Kalaupapa.

The judges praised the volume as “a very important contribution to Hawaiian history” and recognized Anwei Law for “an exemplary job constructing an insightful narrative from these sources into a book that is beautifully realized by UH Press.”

Accolades also went to these UH Press titles and their authors:

• Ancestry of Experience: A Journey into Hawaiian Ways of Knowing by Leilani Holmes—Winner (tie) of the Award of Excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture and History
• I Respectfully Dissent: A Biography of Edward H. Nakamura by Tom Coffman—Winner of the Award of Excellence in Nonfiction
• Loulu: The Hawaiian Palm by Donald R. Hodel—Winner of the Award of Excellence in Natural Science
• The ʻUkulele: A History by Jim Tranquada and John King—Winner of the Award of Excellence in Special-Interest Books

Read more about other UH Press nominees.

—A UH Mānoa news release

The Imagine Cup is sponsored by Microsoft and is considered the world’s premier student technology competition.

UH Hilo students Mike Purvis, Ryder Donahue, Kayton Summers and Wallace Hamada created an app called Help Me Help. The app allows users to share photos and information about hazards they may encounter in emergency situations like fires, floods or roadblocks.

“During disasters, people are often panicked and they might not be able to describe very well over the phone, the exact details of the situation,” said Purvis. “Virtually everyone has a smart phone these days and so that’s really why we want to tap into the camera for this purpose.”

Help Me Help is getting attention nationally and could have a real impact locally.

“We’ve already talked to a local civil defense representative and he said they are very interested in the application, they have ideas in the past that are similar to it,” said Donahue.

UH Hilo administrators and faculty are bursting with pride that a group of UH Hilo students created something to help their own community, and the world. Not bad for an idea that grew out of a senior project to design software that could track native and invasive plant species.

“We realized tracking that kind of information could be applied to a larger scale with more impact,” said Purvis. “So we decided to rewrite our entire idea for disaster response.”

The UH Hilo team will travel to St. Petersburg, Russia for the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in July.

Nainoa Thompson and M.R.C. Greenwood

The University of Hawaiʻi and the Polynesian Voyaging Society celebrated UH’s support of PVS’ upcoming Worldwide Voyage at the UH Cancer Center on Monday, May 13.

UH President M.R.C. Greenwood said the university is very honored to be the educational partner for the Worldwide Voyage, which will take the Hōkūleʻa and its crew to 28 countries and 62 ports during its 2013–14 voyage of Hawaiʻi and its 2014–15 voyage of the Pacific.

Master Navigator Nainoa Thompson credited the heroes who laid the groundwork for the Worldwide Voyage, including Eddie Aikau, Mau Piailug, Pinky Thompson and Lacy Veach.

Thompson volunteers as the special advisor to the University of Hawaiʻi president. Greenwood said Thompson has given generously of his time and expertise to the university, and this is a special opportunity for UH.

UH faculty, staff, students and alumni all over the world are involved in various aspects of this project. Monday’s gathering gave faculty, staff and students the opportunity to meet PVS members, see what other participants are doing and understand the role the university will play in the Worldwide Voyage.

Hōkūle‘a Worldwide Voyage at UH Cancer Center

Nainoa Thompson, M.R.C. Greenwood, Clyde Namu‘o

Hōkūle‘a Worldwide Voyage at UH Cancer Center

M.R.C. Greenwood

Hōkūle‘a Worldwide Voyage at UH Cancer Center

Nainoa Thompson

Hōkūle‘a Worldwide Voyage at UH Cancer Center

Crowd conversing

In conjunction with the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo will host the James Oliver Horton Symposium on Abraham Lincoln on Saturday, May 25, 1:30 p.m. in UCB 100. A second day of the symposium will be held at UH Mānoa on Sunday, May 26, 1:30 p.m. at the Art Auditorium.

The symposium, named after James Oliver Horton, the Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History at George Washington University and historian emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, will feature a trio of renowned guest speakers.

Symposium lecture series

• The President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy at Albany Law School Paul Finkelman presents “How a Railroad Lawyer Became the Great Emancipator.” Having lectured throughout the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America, Finkelman is the author of more than 30 books, along with various legal opinions which have been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Distinguished Professor of Humanities, Professor of History and Computer Science at Clemson University, and the Director of the Clemson Cyber Institute Orville Vernon Burton will speak on “Lincoln, Emancipation and Education.” Burton’s The Age of Lincoln won numerous awards and was nominated for a Pulitzer.
• University of Richmond President Edward L. Ayers will present “Where Did Freedom Come From?” Awarded the National Professor of the Year from the Carnegie Foundation, Ayers is the recipient of numerous awards including the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American History.

Tickets for either day/location of these limited seating events, including the reception, are $8 and available online or by calling the UH Hilo Conference Center at (808) 974-7555.

For more information about the symposium, visit the symposium website.

The college prides itself in providing affordable credit and non-credit educational opportunities in high quality programs, that are offered in stimulating learning environments, like the college’s brand new science building.

More than 9,500 students have graduated from Maui College in the last decade, with the number of graduates steadily increasing each year, from 581 in 2003, to more than 1,200 in 2012.

Students earned 569 degrees and certificates in the 2013 spring semester and 287 of them took part in the spring graduation ceremony at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, including valedictorian Shelly Silva.

“One thing that I have learned is the greatest barrier to success is fear,” said Silva. “And I have overcome too many obstacles in my life to allow fear to hold me back any longer.”

Silva dropped out of high school at the age of 16, had her first child at 18 and struggled with addiction for 13 years. She eventually enrolled at Maui College, and three years later, delivered the valedictorian address. She credited her professors for much of her success.

“They have shared with us their knowledge, their passion, their creative energy, teaching us to always strive for excellence,” said Silva.

Every student has a unique past and each came to Maui College in search of a better future. Faculty and staff say the graduating class of 2013 has also shown a true commitment to serving their communities.

“I think our students understand that, know that, and are articulate and thoughtful about the ways in which they apply their education to all of the kinds of the needs and opportunities that exist within the county of Maui, state of Hawaiʻi, and for that matter, around the world,” said UH Maui Chancellor Clyde Sakamoto.

As with every commencement ceremony, proud friends and family mobbed the graduates when it was over. While taking pictures with her family, Cynthia Taibemal said she was especially pleased her daughters were there to see her graduate.

“I want them to be happy and proud and I want them to know that education is a very important thing,” said Taibemal.

Thanks to the education they received at Maui College, the graduates say they are ready, willing and able.

“Oh I am so happy,” said graduate Lorenzo Valdez. “I can’t wait till work. It all paid off and this is for my mom.”