This article by Native Hawaiian Initiative Alakaʻi (Coordinator) at the University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz� Kamakanaokealoha Aquino was first published in .

As we begin this new year, let us take a moment to reflect on 2025. During the 2024-2025 academic year, the University of �鶹��ý awarded 2,086 degrees and certificates to Native Hawaiians. As of fall 2025, there are 12,618 Native Hawaiians enrolled.

There are so many accomplishments by students, faculty, staff, and administrators, to programs, community outreach, and engagement to highlight. Here are a few:

• Hear from Native Hawaiian community college students fulfilling their kuleana: Cathryn Krueger, �鶹��ý CC; Kamananui Anderson, Honolulu CC; Melanie Camat, Kapiʻolani CC; Hiʻilani Cremer, Kauaʻi CC; Stevie Puna, Leeward CC; ʻAleʻa Kimokeo, UH Maui College; Kauakaweli Haili-Nakamoto, Windward CC.
• UH Hilo honored Mary Kawena Pukui with a panel that coincided with Women’s History Month and her posthumous selection as a 2025 honoree for the U.S. Mint’s Native American $1 coin.
• The Hawaiian collection at the UH Hilo Edwin H. Moʻokini Library was named the Edith Kanakaʻole Hawaiian Collection.
• UH West Oʻahu hosted a two-day ʻAha Hoʻoponopono with 300 haku hoʻoponopono, social sector professionals, aloha ʻ�徱�Բ� practitioners, and community members.
• UH ����ԴDz�’s Hawaiian Theatre program celebrated its 10th anniversary with its latest Hawaiian language production Puana, and an invitation to perform at the Kia Mau international Indigenous-led performing arts festival in Aotearoa.
• Windward CC extended its Hawaiian studies program to paʻahao incarcerated at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona, with 25 students enrolled in their first course.
• Haʻina Ko Wehi: Celebrating West Maui in Mele a project by students from UH Maui College’s Institute of Hawaiian Music was named Compilation Album of the Year at the 2025 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards.
• Honolulu Community College hosted a two-day Indigenous education symposium ʻAha Kūkalahale 2025, uplifting Hawaiian knowledge funded by the Kūkalahale Title III Grant and in partnership with Kanaeokana and Pacific Rim Concepts.
• UH ����ԴDz� Native Hawaiian Student Services’ Hawaiian Youths Abroad program Japan took a cohort of 13 students and 6 faculty/staff to explore Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, while retracing connections between the Hawaiian Kingdom and Japan.
• Kuiokalani L. Gapero succeeded Ernie Kaʻaumoana Wilson Jr. to the UH Board of Regents for a 5-year term.
• Winners of the Board of Regents Medal for Excellence in Teaching included: Mapuana Antonio (public health associate professor, UH ����ԴDz�); Ashlee Kalauli (math instructor, �鶹��ý CC); Tracie Kuʻuipo Losch (Hawaiian studies professor, Leeward CC); Mehana Kaʻiama Makaʻinaʻi (Hawaiian studies instructor, UH ����ԴDz�); Peter Kalawaiʻa Moore (Hawaiian studies professor, Windward CC); and Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio (political science associate professor, UH ����ԴDz�).
• Kenny Kaʻaiakamanu-Quibilan received the UH ����ԴDz� Pākela Award for being an outstanding academic advisor.
• Shayla Spotkaeff, a business management major and undergraduate research assistant at the Center for Oral History received the UH ����ԴDz� Student Employee of the Year Award.
• Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law at UH ����ԴDz� William S. Richardson School of Law celebrated 20 years.

University of �鶹��ý at Maui College music student Kellysa-Michiko Nāmakaokalani Pauʻole recently won the 4th Annual Carmen “Hulu” Lindsey Leo Haʻihaʻi (Falsetto) Song Contest, held at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea on October 24.

“We are so proud of Nāmaka. Her success at the song contest is a testament to both her talent and hard work,” said Keola Donaghy, UH Maui College faculty coordinator for music studies and the Institute of Hawaiian Music. “She has found a wonderful balance between her formal studies and developing her career as a professional musician. She’s truly an inspiration and a model for her peers to follow.”

UH Maui College recently awarded the Emma Veary Scholarship to Pauʻole. Established nearly 10 years ago, the scholarship is given annually to a UH Maui College student who demonstrates a strong interest in Hawaiian music.

For more information about the Emma Veary Scholarship or music studies at UH Maui College, contact Donaghy at (808) 769-8133 or email donaghy@hawaii.edu.

A powerful musical tribute to Lahaina and West Maui has earned �鶹��ý’s top recording industry recognition for students and faculty at the University of �鶹��ý Maui College.

The album , created by students in the college’s Institute of Hawaiian Music (IHM), was named Compilation Album of the Year at the 2025 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards in June.

Originally intended to celebrate West Maui through song, the project took on deeper meaning after the 2023 wildfires devastated Lahaina. IHM students responded by composing original mele that reflect the town’s rich history and their hopes for its future.

• Related UH News story: Celebrating Lahaina in song, UH Maui students record album, May 28, 2024

“We are very proud of our students, some of whom were directly impacted by the Lahaina fires. Our gatherings, where they learned to write songs for West Maui and record them in our campus’ studio, greatly contributed to their healing and forged bonds that will last our lifetimes,” said UH Maui College Associate Professor Keola Donaghy, who coordinates the IHM and is a multiple Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winner.

Student artists Bobbi Bridges, Herb Folsom, Grace Gomes, Aaron Grzanich, Mākena Laurion, Hualani Moore, Iraj Namiranian, Al Nip and Mehra Park met nearly every Saturday in fall 2023 to write and rehearse. Recording and mixing finished in April 2024. The album was produced by Donaghy, UH Maui College lecturers Joel Katz and Stephen Fox, and Lance D. Collins.

Donaghy said, “We are especially grateful to the North Beach West Maui Benefit Fund, the HK West Maui Community Fund, and to Lance D. Collins and Jocelyn Romero Demirbag for connecting us all and making the project possible.”

This is IHM’s fourth Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award, including three wins for compilation albums and one for Hawaiian EP of the Year. IHM is recruiting a new cohort of students to begin Fall 2025. Interested students can contact Donaghy at donaghy@hawaii.edu or (808) 984-3570.

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University of �鶹��ý Maui College students have released an album of original music about Lahaina, its rich history and their hopes for its future.

Haʻina Ko Wehi: Celebrating West Maui in Mele, the college’s (IHM) project, was originally intended to create new music for West Maui. However, on August 8—two weeks before the group was scheduled to begin work—wildfires burned on Maui, and the project’s focus shifted.

Students Bobbi Bridges, Herb Folsom, Grace Gomes, Aaron Grzanich, Mākena Laurion, Hualani Moore, Iraj Namiranian, Al Nip and Mehra Park, led by IHM faculty coordinator and six-time Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winner Keola Donaghy, gathered nearly every Saturday throughout the fall of 2023 to work. All songs were composed by December; recording and mixing were completed in April 2024. The album was produced by Donaghy, UH Maui College lecturers Joel Katz and Stephen Fox, and Lance D. Collins.

“Words cannot fully express the pride I feel for what these students experienced as individuals and as a group over the course of our time together,” Donaghy said. “They dug deep into their hearts, souls and experiences to produce incredible expressions of art and aloha. I am sure that anyone who listens to this recording will feel the same sense of pride and gratitude for their efforts to help our community heal in this time when healing is so badly needed.”

Haʻina Ko Wehi: Celebrating West Maui In Song is available on all major music download and streaming services, such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube. Physical CDs will be available this summer.

For more information, contact Donaghy at (808) 984-3570 or email donaghy@hawaii.edu.

Associate Professor Keola Donaghy, along with his musical group Aʻeaʻe, won two Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards in July; for Group of the Year and Hawaiian EP (Extended Play) of the Year; for their eponymous debut EP of country flavored, contemporary Hawaiian music.

��ʻ��ʻ�� means, “Mixing of a dark or brilliant color with a lighter one, as feathers in a lei; of dark hair of a young person with streaks of gray.” Members include Maui residents Donaghy and Tarvin Makia, ��ʻ����� resident Kenneth Makuakāne, Nashville-based Jeff “���ǰ�dz������첹ʻ��” Dayton and Māpuana Mākia. Most have been long-time friends and occasional collaborators.

“For me, the biggest thrill was sharing the stage with my friends Tarvin and Jeff and my niece, Māpuana,” said Donaghy. “It was also a thrill to have Gaylord Holomalia of Kalapana and Israel ���������첹�ɾ��ɴ�ʻ�DZ���‘s band join us on keyboard. Gaylord wrote “Lover of Mine,” and my Hawaiian interpretation of it was one of the songs we performed. It was just an amazing night.”

• Related UH News story: Record your own mele! UH Maui College offers free music composing course, May 2, 2023

Donaghy is the faculty coordinator of music studies at UH Maui College, and is a prolific haku mele (composer of Hawaiian language poetry). His compositions have been recorded by ���𲹱���ʻ�� Reichel, The Pandanus Club, Willie K. and Amy ����Բ���������ʻ�� Gilliom, the De Lima ʻ���󲹲Բ�, O’Brian Eselu and many others. He has produced five CDs by students in his program at UH Maui College, which have garnered three Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards.

Three of the EP’s five tracks are originals. Donaghy composed “Aia I Kīlauea (ʻĀ Mai)” after a visit to the �Ჹ���𳾲�ʻ�ܳ���ʻ�� Crater several years ago, to which Makuakāne added the music.

Two tracks are Hawaiian interpretations of well-known English songs. “Tennessee Whiskey” was composed by Dean Dillon and first recorded by George Jones, and most recently reinterpreted by Chris Stapleon. After securing Dillon’s blessing, Donaghy created this version in ʻō������� �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ��.

The final track, “I Ka ����ʻ�� O Lahaina,” is a reinvisioned re-recording of one of Donaghy and Makuakāne’s earliest collaborations. Jim Riley, drummer of the country music group Rascal Flatts, contributed drum tracks to the song.

Makuakāne and Donaghy also won the Anthology of the Year award as producers of Makuakāne’s anthology, Huliau.

��ʻ��ʻ�� is available on all major digital download and streaming services such as Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music.

The (IHM) at the will form a cohort of students for the fall 2023 semester to participate in a free Hawaiian music composing course, “Haʻina Ko Wehi: Celebrating West Maui in Mele.” The course will culminate in the production of a compilation CD containing songs that the students will compose during the semester. Upon completion of the course, each participant will receive a certificate of achievement from IHM, a copy of the CD and a $750 stipend.

“West Maui is a storied and powerful area whose history is unparalleled,” said Assistant Professor of Music and IHM Faculty Coordinator Keola Donaghy. “Preserving this knowledge and these experiences through mele is a cultural legacy that will serve untold future generations. Excursions during the semester will include time to explore sites, gain familiarity with winds, rains, sea names, significant individuals, as well explore the songwriting process.”

In the first half of the semester, students will work with music industry mentors to learn the art and craft of songwriting (in both English and ʻŌlelo �鶹��ý) and music composition. They will travel to West Maui’s historic sites and learn from kamaʻāina (residents). In the second half of the semester, students will again work with their mentors to compose songs and prepare to record them. At the end of the program, students will record their songs at IHM’s Apo Leo Learning Studio.

Participation is limited to 12 students. All class sessions will be held on Saturdays.

An information session about the course will be offered on Wednesday, May 17 at 5 p.m. in Room 108 of the Kaʻaʻike Building on the UH Maui College Kahului campus, and also online via Zoom. Those who are interested but unable to attend may make an appointment to meet with Donaghy individually.

To learn more about the program, visit the , or contact Donaghy at donaghy@hawaii.edu.

The Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching for a faculty and a graduate assistant recognizes dedication and demonstrated excellence as teachers of undergraduate students. It was established as a memorial to the late Frances Davis, who taught mathematics at Leeward Community College and the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa for 19 years. Joseph Keola Donaghy, Hoa Le, Brent Kawika Rubio, Tarisi Vunidilo and Justin Walguarnery received the award for 2022.

Joseph Keola Donaghy, UH Maui College

Joseph Keola Donaghy is an assistant professor of music and serves as the faculty coordinator for the at . The institute mentors and trains aspiring musicians in performing, singing, composition, recording techniques and marketing of Hawaiian music. Students are taken from the beginning of their musical training to their career debut.

Donaghy is passionate about Hawaiian music and has worked with students to produce albums, which has earned him a Nā Hōkū Hanohano award as producer of the compilation EP “He Lani Ko Luna, He Honua Ko Lalo.” He is accomplished in the Hawaiian music industry, serving as a member of the Board of Governors of the �鶹��ý Academy of Recording Arts.

He is also linguistically accomplished in Hawaiian, Te Reo Māori and Irish Gaelic. Donaghy is also the developer of the Hawaiian keyboard and recently developed and released Hulihua—a Hawaiian clone of the popular Wordle game.

One of his colleagues wrote, “His work in mentoring the next generation of musicians and giving students a pathway to utilize and embrace their talents as a musician is notable and should be celebrated!”

Hoa Le, UH Mānoa

Hoa Le is a PhD candidate in the second language studies department in the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa’s . During the past two years, she has taught undergraduate classes in the Vietnamese language program where she developed new, innovative syllabi and course material that served the diverse and real-world needs of her students.

She believes education, and language teaching in particular, should aim to contribute to modern society, which is rooted in rounded, open and well-developed educational concepts. Importantly, it should place the learners at the center of education, educating the whole person, and promote mutual aid and cooperation in the classroom.

When teaching online, Le put extra effort to take advantage of technology making her lessons engaging and motivating. Her students have expressed that they really enjoyed and were delighted learning this tonal language and connecting to its culture, while putting what they learned into real-world practice.

Brent Kawika Rubio, Honolulu CC

Brent Kawika Rubio is an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at . He is a proud alumnus of Pearl City High School, UH Mānoa, and the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he earned his PhD in chemistry and biochemistry.

According to his nominators, Rubio is a “tremendous educator who embodies professionalism and inspires the desire to learn and grow.” “Best teacher ever” encapsulates the sentiments received from his students. Students also describe him as “passionate,” “extremely organized” and “able to make chemistry understandable.” One student said that Rubio “genuinely cared about his class and treated us all as equals.”

In addition to teaching, Rubio has held leadership positions such as division chair, STEM Center director, President’s Commission on LGBTQ+ Equality co-chair, and Pamantasan Conference co-chair. Since 1998, Rubio has served in the �鶹��ý Army National Guard. He is currently the first sergeant of the 111th Army Band.

Tarisi Vunidilo, UH Hilo

Tarisi Vunidilo is an assistant professor in anthropology and the coordinator of the at . Her area of specialization includes the cultures of Oceania with an emphasis on her home community of Fiji, and her topics of specialization center on indigenous museum studies. She is currently volunteering as secretary-general for the Pacific Islands Museums Association.

“Dr. Vunidilo embodies and leads by example the ethics set forth by the UH system initiative to indigenize university education, �鶹��ý Papa O Ke Au,” said a nominator. “She brings to the classroom a Fijian-based talanoa (storytelling) teaching style that allows her to effectively convey ideas while listening to students. With the online nature of teaching during the pandemic, Dr. Vunidilo has nurtured this pedagogy farther, integrating indigenous Fijian frameworks that center on the values of respect, reciprocity, and relationship (veiwekani), and conversing, listening and understanding (veivosaki).”

Another nominator said: “One of Dr. Vunidilo’s greatest strengths is her caring attitude toward students and fostering a nurturing learning environment. Several students have shared with us that it was their personal connection to Dr. Vunidilo and her genuine concern that sustained them in their journeys to graduation.”

Justin Walguarnery, UH Mānoa

Justin Walguarnery is an assistant professor of in the at the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa. He has rarely had a semester where he felt he could do what had been done before.

“Science by its very nature necessarily entails doing what has never been done and always exceeding your previous understanding, so it’s only ever made sense to me to do the same in my teaching of science,” he said.

To bridge practice to theory, he is acquiring courses in a third graduate degree in educational psychology in areas of cultural influences, cognition and qualitative research methods. He meets his students as equals with full respect of where they’ve come from and where they are going.

In the words of one student, “There was an inherent freedom of thought and the support and implementation to actually make it work.”

Walguarnery’s hands-on lab course taught throughout the pandemic resulted in the highest exam averages ever with half the time in lab under COVID conditions without reducing course content or compromising high standards.

The first cohort of students from the island of Molokaʻi in the University of �鶹��ý Maui College have released a compilation CD. Awaiāulu ʻIa E Ke Aloha Nō Molokaʻi (Bound Together By Love For Molokaʻi) featuring nine recordings, seven of which are original compositions by the students.

The students will celebrate with a live concert from Hiro’s ʻOhana Grill at the Hotel Molokaʻi. Because of COVID-19 protocols this event will not be open to the public, however, it will be broadcast live on Akakū and streamed live, starting at 5 p.m., Saturday, May 1. Visit the for more information.

“We are incredibly proud of this accomplishment by our Molokaʻi students. Their dedication and perseverance during trying times was incredible,” said Keola Donaghy, assistant professor of music and faculty coordinator for Institute of Hawaiian Music and music studies at UH Maui College. “We had to take our class online until it was safe to resume in-person classes, and once we did, we were able to complete the composition of their mele and recording of their release before their graduation.”

The new Awaiāulu ʻIa E Ke Aloha Nō Molokaʻi will be available for purchase online via .

Prior Institute of Hawaiian Music compilation CDs have been recognized with two Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards—the Compilation Album of the Year for the 2015 release Aloha ʻIa Nō ʻO Maui and Hawaiian EP of the Year for He Lani Ko Luna, He Honua Ko Lalo. Other graduates of the Institute of Hawaiian Music have also been nominated for Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards. These include the group Kūikawā (Josh Kulhavy-Sutherland, Lukela Kanae and Koa Mattos), Kyoko Meinen, who goes by the name “Malulani” and Robin Leihuanani Kealiʻinohomoku.

The Institute of Hawaiian Music will audition new students this summer as it begins a new cycle of classes on Maui. Free applied Hawaiian music classes are open to UH Maui College students, whether or not they are part of the Institute of Hawaiian Music.

• Related UH News story: Grammy-nominated artists honed craft at UH Maui College [VIDEO], March 9, 2021

“The class is part of the Hawaiian ensemble,” said Donaghy. In addition to learning the songs and instruments, it improves ʻōlelo �鶹��ý (Hawaiian language) skills.

For more information, please call (808) 984-3570 or email donaghy@hawaii.edu.

The University of �鶹��ý Maui College’s (IHM) held a blessing for its recently renovated ʻApo Leo Learning Studio last month, just in time to honor its faculty and students whose final recording project was selected as the Hawaiian EP (extended play) of the Year at the 2019 .

IHM faculty coordinator Keola Donaghy was proud of the team’s recognition, noting the limitations they had prior to the studio’s renovation, which necessitated renting time at commercial studios to ensure acoustic quality. “The Nā Hōkū win was a great measure of our success, so imagine what our future students can do with the newly improved facility,” said Donaghy.

The ʻApo Leo Learning Studio renovation began last year as part of a U.S. Department of Education grant intended to strengthen music and Hawaiian performing arts at . It includes a combination classroom and control room that houses the facility’s state-of-the-art recording system and space for student learning. There is also an isolated talent room, with sound lock, where performances are recorded.

The IHM program has won two Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards so far—the first for the compilation CD “Aloha ʻIa Nō ʻO Maui” in 2016, and “ʻHe Lani Ko Luna, He Honua Ko Lalo,” which was this year’s Hawaiian EP of the Year.

Interested Institute of Hawaiian Music students

UH Maui College’s IHM is a one-of-a-kind mentorship program dedicated to the perpetuation and preservation of Hawaiian music. Formal university classes are supplemented with mentorship sessions led by professional Hawaiian musicians. Students selected for the IHM program will receive exclusive opportunities to receive personal training, guidance and knowledge through mentor-mentee relationships with performers, composers and industry professionals including Kealiʻi Reichel, Raiatea Helm, Jake Shimabukuro, Kenneth Makuakāneand former IHM director and Grammy Award-winning slack key guitarist George Kahumoku Jr.

Interested students may audition by contacting ihm@hawaii.edu or (808) 984-3570. The application deadline for fall 2019 is August 1.

Maui College’s new program preserves future of Hawaiian music

More about the Institute of Hawaiian Music at UH News.

For the first time, Maui entries and nominees for the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards will be featured in an all-day, free hoʻolauleʻa on Saturday, April 28, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. at the Great Lawn of the . This event is part of the statewide celebration of Hawaiian music.

The hoʻolauleʻa will include performances by the students of the (IHM), Pono Murray, Matagi, Ahumanu, Grammy and Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winner George Kahumoku and Anthony Pfluke, Mondokāne, Halemanu Villarimo and Tarvin Makia, Cane Fire, Melinda Carrol with Lehua Simon, Mikeala Bega and Bentley Kalaway, Pat Simmons, Jr., Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winners Kanekoa, Damien Paiva and Goldawn Won.

More than half of the performers are also finalists for a Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award this year. Winners will be announced at the �鶹��ý Convention Center on May 19.

In addition to the live performances, IHM will host three workshops. The first will feature IHM director and �鶹��ý Academy of Recording Arts governor Keola Donaghy, who will discuss both the Grammy and Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards, the benefits of membership in both organizations and how to enter music releases into the awards.

The second will feature multiple Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award-winning songwriter, producer, performer and engineer Kenneth Makuakāne, who will discuss songwriting, and guide participants through writing their own song.

In the third workshop, participants will learn how to create pūniu—a coconut shell drum used in hula. The workshop will be conducted by Kaponoʻai Molitau. There is a $10 fee for each workshop and a $50 material fee for the pūniu-making workshop.

The hoʻolauleʻa is sponsored by IHM, �鶹��ý Academy of Recording Arts and the �鶹��ý Tourism Authority.

The hoʻolauleʻa will have food and drinks available for purchase. Parking and entrance to the event are free. For more information or to reserve a seat in one of the workshops, please contact Keola Donaghy at donaghy@hawaii.edu or (808) 984-3570.

—By Kit Furukawa