In 2003, when California resident Ben Weitz was close to earning his master’s in speech at the University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz�, he was certain of one thing: One day, he would return to �鶹��ý to work, live and raise a family. Twenty years later, that prescient vow has been realized. In October 2023, the ’ alumnus began his position as executive director of . Shangri La is the center of the Doris Duke Foundation on the stunning Diamond Head coastline.

“Since starting with Shangri La, I’ve been inspired and challenged every day,” Weitz said. “While it is certainly a museum, Shangri La is also an international center for transformation, and we are leading conversations of local, national and global significance.”

Weitz has had an impressive career since earning his MA in the College of Social Sciences department now known as .

“I credit UH with giving me the leadership building blocks that made me an empathetic, strategic and creative executive,” Weitz said. “Thanks to the program and its exceptional faculty, my communication and listening skills were optimized at a relatively early time in my career. One of my greatest mentors was my thesis advisor, Dr. Amy Hubbard. She had the patience of a saint and always had the best advice for me. I am forever grateful for her mentorship.”

The Los Angeles native was previously the inaugural chief brand officer for UCLA; before that, he spent a decade leading brand marketing and storytelling at Disney in Burbank, California.

“Without question, these two experiences will inform the kind of brand cohesion that is critical to Shangri La’s identity,” Weitz said. “The goal is to appropriately translate that identity to the diverse audiences who visit Shangri La. They learn about global cultures and are transformed by its design and collection, while we’re also introducing it to so many from our islands who have not heard of Shangri La or have only seen it from Cromwell’s (beach).”

For more about his time at UH Mānoa and anticipation for the job ahead, .

What happens when the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa (SCI) throws its first open house? The results are more than 160 RSVPs to lively mini workshops attended by (CSS) students and alumni; an all-encompassing presentation about the within SCI; and a networking reception honoring the first five SCI distinguished alumni for their exceptional leadership and significant contributions to the community.

It all happened on April 5, at George Hall and the Architecture Building at the SCI event spotlighting the programs of , , , , and the . Now one of the largest academic units at UH ����ԴDz�, SCI has 24 faculty members, 305 undergraduate majors and 76 graduate students, with a total of more than 4,000 UH Mānoa students taking 220-plus SCI classes over the course of an academic year.

Communication competence, information literacy and communication technology literacy are foundational skills that our students need to succeed in today’s world.—Hye-ryeon Lee

“The open house aimed to showcase the new school’s core values of communication, connection and community, and to foster relationships with alumni and community partners for collaborative growth and development,” said Hye-ryeon Lee, SCI chair and communicology professor. “Communication and information are at the core of our existence. Communication competence, information literacy and communication technology literacy are foundational skills that our students need to succeed in today’s world. The SCI is the core unit that provides this important education at the university.”

Announced at the presentation were the five inaugural recipients of the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award. They are Ruth Horie, retired catalog librarian at UH Mānoa; Nyle Sky Kauweloa, director of UH Esports and faculty specialist in interdisciplinary studies; Anne Marie Smoke, administrator of the �鶹��ý State Judiciary’s Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution; Jennifer Sur Matayoshi, lead deputy Title IX coordinator and senior investigator at UH Mānoa; and Suzanne Puanani Vares-Lum, president of the East-West Center.

Tara Sutton’s path to the commencement stage hasn’t been easy. The 46-year-old University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa senior didn’t get the support to attend college early on. It was through her second marriage that she gained the encouragement to pursue her dreams of higher education.

“My first husband of 13 years didn’t let me go to college. It was always ‘his turn’ to attend school, never mine,” Sutton shared. “I was never seen as equal with respect to education or career… I met my second husband in Alaska—we’ve been married for four years—and when we moved to Oʻahu in 2019 with my daughter and son, I started classes at UH Mānoa two weeks later.”

Passion awakened

Sutton originally declared as her major, which taught her theories of intergroup and intercultural communication, as well as persuasion, specifically, persuasive message construction for social justice contexts. It was pursuing her passion that eventually led to her adding not just one, but two more majors.

“My general education electives, like Linguistics 102 and Religion 150, awakened a passion to learn about peoples, cultures and languages of the world,” Sutton said. “It prompted me to add as a second major, which led to training in ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative research. I also sought out courses in , my third major, which offered transformational learning experiences with a solid background in social justice and community engagement.”

After her four years at UH ����ԴDz�, Sutton will graduate with a 3.9 GPA and a long list of accomplishments.

After her four years at UH ����ԴDz�, Sutton will graduate with a 3.9 GPA and a long list of accomplishments. Among them, she was awarded the College of Social Sciences’ 2023 Outstanding Graduating Senior; she is vice president of Pi Gamma Mu, the College of Social Sciences honor society; a College of Social Sciences student ambassador; service chair for the Speech Communication Society; and volunteer coordinator and former president of the Anthropology Undergraduate Student Association. In April, she won the Joseph Fielding Smith Memorial Award for outstanding communicology undergraduate; in October 2022, she was the only student panelist at the UH Innovation Conference on Water Resilience in �鶹��ý.

Sutton credited many people at the College of Social Sciences with helping and encouraging her throughout her academic journey, including Department of Ethnic Studies Professor Davianna McGregor, Assistant Professor Aurora Kagawa-Viviani and Leah Bremer, director of the and associate specialist​​. Sutton also said through experiences at the North Shore Field School and Nā Koʻokoʻo: Hawaiian Leadership Program, she helped create a short public service documentary video on the Red Hill water crisis.

UH spring 2023 commencement schedule

“Going to school in �鶹��ý allowed me to evaluate my positionality as a settler in an Indigenous space,” Sutton said. “This was not easy, as I challenged myself to reevaluate much of what I had learned through my childhood education in mainstream public schools on the continental U.S., with social norms that I grew to accept in the predominantly white cities where I lived.”

Pursuing a graduate degree

Now with her three degrees in hand, Sutton will continue her dream and embark on her quest for a master’s degree at UH Mānoa in geography and environment. Her research thesis will focus on: instances when the U.S. Department of Defense polluted the environment, identification of patterns in their response tactics and the resulting relational impacts on host communities.

I waited a long time for ‘my turn’ to go to college. My husband and kids have shown me the kind of love that says, ‘We are all in this together.
—Tara Sutton

“These past four years have been an incredible journey,” Sutton said. “I hit the books in my forties after living a full life that included single parenthood in Alaska, and decades of rich work experiences at places ranging from a bakery to mortgage processing company to medium security prison.”

Sutton concluded, “Having to wait to go to college was a bummer, but the silver lining is two of my kids are college students, too. Dinner conversations can get very interesting at our house! This has been so exciting, especially for me. I waited a long time for ‘my turn’ to go to college. My husband and kids have shown me the kind of love that says, ‘We are all in this together.’ Because of their support, I’m earning my bachelor’s degree, receiving this award and transitioning to graduate school, which is incredibly humbling. I’m looking forward to my mom, husband and kids saying they’re proud of me.”

A new, innovative virtual reality (VR) lab is giving University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa students, faculty and staff a one-of-a-kind opportunity to polish their public speaking skills.

The lab, managed by the in the , utilizes state-of-the-art technology that allows the user to practice speeches and receive immediate feedback. It opened in fall 2022 and users have been raving about the new resource.

“A virtual reality setup gives you a kind of blend of both worlds,” said Amy Ebesu Hubbard, UH Mānoa communicology professor and project leader. “It gives you an opportunity to practice, but also gives you a way of playing it like a game to improve your score, so that’s why it’s a really awesome tool to be able to bring to the university and have people experience it.”

Paige Barnett is a sophomore communicology major and an undergraduate research assistant for the project. She said getting faculty and students accustomed to the lab has been a great experience.

“In a lot of my classes, I have group projects that I present and presentations I do myself so it’s really cool being able to just go in there, practice, see my analytics and improve in any way that I can,” Barnett said. “The feedback that we’ve received has been really great. Everyone who’s done it has wanted to either come again or just has had nothing but praise.”

Extramural funding

Funding for the VR lab was provided through the National Science Foundation (NSF). The $3.99-million grant was awarded in 2021 to researchers at UH Mānoa and Iowa State University to develop an efficient, robust genome engineering toolkit that plant breeders can use to speed the generation of resilient crops adapted to a changing environment. A portion of the grant was used to construct the VR lab to help researchers practice their communication skills and disseminate their project information to a wider audience. The grant runs until the end of 2025.

Part of the grant was included in UH’s record extramural funding of $505 million in fiscal year 2022. Extramural funding is external investments from the federal government, industry and non-profit organizations that support research and academic activities conducted by university faculty and staff.

“It’s one of our missions at the university, obtaining extramural funds so that we can improve the lives of everyone, not just at the university. We hope that the things that we teach in our classes, the experiences that they have, the tools that they use can then help them out in the community and have broader sorts of impacts,” Hubbard said. “With the science communication portion of this grant, it’s how do we communicate better the kind of work that we do here that oftentimes can be technical, it can be esoteric, into ways that people can better understand and can use in the future.”

How it works

When someone arrives for their appointment, they go through a quick training session by the student research assistant. The user will select a setting, consisting of either an open prompt or a guided prompt with a specific question to address. Prior to their speech, they choose the type of audience environment, which ranges from polite to “hostile.” Afterwards, the program immediately delivers feedback, ranging from eye contact to hand gestures.

“It’s very valuable,” said Jay Stout, a UH Mānoa communicology lecturer focused on public speaking. “Often what we see in public speaking is that a lot of students suffer from anxiety so having an opportunity for them to practice and go through the motions of a speech without a live audience just yet, is really beneficial for them. Additionally, a lot of the feedback they get is really beneficial in terms of improving and enhancing their delivery for presentations.”

Kyle Perkins, a UH Mānoa communicology MA graduate and lecturer, who coached the fall 2022 commencement student speaker added, “When I was witnessing the commencement speaker, which is very nerve-wracking to speak in front of that many people, she did such a great job because it helped her with confidence. The VR allowed her to have that exposure to a lot of people without actually having that many people in-person to practice around.”

Currently, the center is prioritizing sessions to researchers working with the NSF grant. Other students, faculty and staff across the Mānoa campus are also invited to sign up for a session on a space available basis. For more information and to sign up for a session, .

In the future, Hubbard hopes to see the lab expand into several rooms full of VR headsets and separate consulting rooms where people can receive communication skills and public speaking coaching. She would like to open the lab up to the public, including K-12 students, as a resource for public speaking activities, such as testifying at the state legislature or commemorating a loved one.

The Communicology Program is housed in the in the .

—By Marc Arakaki

Five academic units from three different colleges at the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa are combining this fall to establish the (SCI) within the (CSS). The units, which have related yet distinct approaches to communication and information, are:

• The (COM) program, formerly in the School of Communications in CSS.
• The (COMG) program, formerly in the College of Arts, Languages and Letters.
• The (JOUR) program, formerly in the School of Communications in CSS.
• The Library and Information Science (LIS) program, formerly in the Department of Information and Computer Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences.
• The , formerly in the in CSS.

“This faculty-driven reorganization effort brings together units from across campus to leverage synergies and interdisciplinary opportunities for students interested in these fields,” said CSS Dean Denise Eby Konan. “It will allow them to explore the complexities of communication in one school to meet personal, relational, professional and community needs.”

Consultation of individuals and groups impacted by the proposed reorganization occurred from fall 2020 to fall 2021. The faculty-led working group reorganization team shared information and met with various units and constituencies across campus, set up a website for announcements and feedback, and held a series of town hall meetings. Faculty, staff and students have expressed enthusiastic support for the new school.

SCI is fundamentally concerned with the study of communication, including the creation and flow of information among people and communities, through media and technologies, and across time and cultures. The new school will help students to acquire the knowledge, skills and ethical perspectives to create, gather, analyze and share information. SCI graduates will have the tools and perspectives to solve problems by combining multiple approaches within the realm of communication and information.

“UH Mānoa students will now learn about communication from several distinct disciplinary perspectives,” said Colin Moore, inaugural SCI chair. “Students interested in all aspects of communication—from speech and persuasion, to technologies that facilitate communication, to how information is organized, to how it is reported by journalists—can take classes across disciplines without having to search through different colleges.”

With the support of UH Mānoa Provost Michael Bruno, UH President David Lassner signed the reorganization proposal this past summer, making it effective July 2022. SCI will be in a transition phase for the next academic year.

For more, see the .

Helping more young �鶹��ý professionals find affordable workforce housing is the goal of a movement led by a University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa alumnus. Sterling Higa co-founded and serves as executive director of , a nonprofit which seeks to create opportunities for �鶹��ý’s Generation Z and Millennials.

“The overall goal is to end the workforce housing shortage and the way that we want to achieve that is by educating and organizing students and young professionals, providing them with the skills and knowledge that they need for effective civic engagement,” Higa said. “…The leadership is not going to come from the people in power now. It’s up to the future generations to take charge and steer �鶹��ý in the direction we’d like to see it moving.”

Higa earned his associate’s degree from in 2011, and his bachelor’s degree in with a minor in from UH Mānoa in 2013. He also holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard University. It was after earning his bachelor’s degree that he was inspired to get involved in fighting for more workforce housing.

“Since graduation I’ve watched my classmates leave �鶹��ý to pursue opportunities elsewhere, in part because the cost of housing is so high,” Higa said. “…Sustainable means to me that our children and grandchildren can afford to stay. In order to create that sustainable �鶹��ý, young leaders, students, and young professionals need to take action today.”

Higa plans to reach out to all 10 campuses in the UH System, and is targeting students who have led other movements for social change, such as the civil rights movement and the environmental movement.

“We plan to work with student governments at the UH System campuses, the RIOs (registered independent organizations) and professors to reach students,” Higa said. “Ideally we want to see UH Mānoa students and students across the University of �鶹��ý System serve as community leaders and advocates for workforce housing. On campus, we are happy to host informational sessions and also have talk story and brainstorming sessions.”

Higa added, “We want to make sure that the interests of what students are facing are represented in the conversation around housing.”

Interested students are encouraged to visit the or email Higa at sterling@hawaiisfuture.org.

Nationally ranked debate team

Higa credited his time in the communicology and English departments with developing his communication skills, saying, “I feel equipped to write and to speak and advocate for the causes that I believe in.”

In addition, Higa was part of a nationally ranked debate team, housed in UH Mānoa’s Department of Communicology.

“At UH, I competed on the British Parliamentary debate team and got to travel the country, travel the world, meeting articulate and passionate people from other universities and practicing the advocacy skills with them in the format of debate,” he said.

• Related UH News story: UH debate team arguably among the best, October 10, 2013

Higa’s work is an example of UH Mānoa’s goals of (PDF) and (PDF), two of four goals identified in the (PDF), updated in December 2020.

—By Marc Arakaki

A new educational podcast by a alumna is not only trending in several countries worldwide, it has also raised more than $14,000 for local charities. “The Communification Podcast” by Malika Dudley is a platform for communication researchers to share their latest findings and teach communication skills.

“Communification” means the “beautification of communication” or the ability to make communicating easier. The development of the podcast kickstarted in fall 2020 as Dudley’s final master’s in thesis project. She worked with her thesis advisor, Professor Amy Ebesu Hubbard, to make the idea become a reality.

Dudley launched the first season of the podcast in August 2021 with the topic of communication and technology. It features more than a dozen experts and guests, including Ebesu Hubbard, Assistant Professor Soo Yun Shin, and local musicians and content creators Anuhea Jenkins, Kimie Miner and Pashyn Santos. They cover various areas from cyberbullying, to social media and relationships, and digital deception.

“My purpose in coming back to school was to create a project that could combine using my skills as a journalist, and as a communication scholar to help people to lead better lives. I know that I need the help! So I figured others might feel the same way,” Dudley said. “The topics discussed in my communicology classes at UH were always so vibrant and relevant. But, a lot of that research and discussion is paywalled in academic journals or only discussed within higher education classrooms. I wanted to provide a resource to the community.”

Popular podcast

The podcast peaked at No. 13 in the U.S. under the social sciences category (top 1%) on Apple Podcasts, and also reached No. 9 in South Korea, No. 12 in Russia and No. 19 in Japan. It is also highly ranked in Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Germany.

“I just think the topics are relevant. Life is all about relationships, and relationships are all about communication. There is not one person on the planet that couldn’t benefit from learning about the scientific study of human communication,” Dudley said.

Ebesu Hubbard added, “Everyone wants to be better communicators. Everyone wants to gain more insight into their communication. However, in the public sphere, there are people who espouse knowledge about communication who are merely speculating and who are sometimes sharing erroneous or outdated information. Malika’s podcast is then both timely and needed.”

Dudley will release several more episodes for season one, focusing on online dating, relationship maintenance and development online, and loneliness and social media. Season two is scheduled to begin in fall 2022. The theme is yet to be announced, but it will have something to do with relationships.

Listen to the free “The Communification Podcast” on , , and .

Supporting charities

Dudley loves to give back to the community, which is why she came up with the idea of using the podcast to raise money for charity. Businesses or individuals are able to make a charitable contribution and in turn, Dudley will air an advertisement (contributing business’ choice) on her podcast. Each $500 donation equals a 15 second ad.

As a Maui Food Bank board member, Dudley encouraged people to donate to the food bank or another charitable organization of their choice. To date, 10 businesses or individuals have made contributions benefiting local organizations, with more than $10,000 going to the Maui Food Bank.

More about Dudley

Dudley earned a MA in communicology, and BA in communicology and French from UH ����ԴDz�. She earned her MA degree in spring 2021 and was selected to represent the graduating class at commencement as the . She also attended Mississippi State University where she earned her certification in broadcast meteorology. The former Miss �鶹��ý is an award-winning, Emmy-nominated journalist with 15 years of experience in media. She currently anchors Good Morning Hawaii Weekends on KITV4 Island News.

This work is an example of UH Mānoa’s goal of (PDF), one of four goals identified in the (PDF), updated in December 2020.

–By Marc Arakaki