This column by Chancellor Lui Hokoana was published by on August 28, 2025.

Derek Snyder is a very familiar face around our campus. He’s been teaching here for 20 years, most of those in the English Department. He’s taught a full gamut of courses ranging from Introductory Composition to Research Writing. And he is as skilled at all modalities of distance learning as he is at teaching “in person.” As a matter of fact, he is recognized as a thought leader in distance education.

Besides being a faculty member—most recently a full professor—Snyder has served our college as a Student Services Specialist, a short-term Program Coordinator for the Maui Language Institute, a non-credit instructor in the Office of Continuing Education and Training (OCET), and a lecturer for both UH Maui College and the University of Â鶹´«Ã½ Center, Maui.

“This variety of work experience within our campus community provides me with a deep appreciation and understanding of the important work that our entire campus team performs every day to assist us in achieving our mission to our students and communities,” Snyder says.

Believe it or not, that’s not all. Go below the surface and you will find an academic leader—he has held many different leadership positions at UHMC and the wider UH community—and a community volunteer. “I coached youth sports for years, served on the Board of Directors of Hui Malama Learning Center, and now serve on the Board of Directors of Manaʻo Radio,” says Snyder.

Look deeper still and you will find a lifelong learner who credits his 97-year-old grandmother with teaching him two of life’s most important lessons. “She told me, 1. ‘Everyone knows something you do not.’ and 2. ‘True happiness in life comes through helping others,’” says Snyder.

All of the above made Snyder the perfect candidate to fill the position of our new Dean of Arts and Sciences. There’s also his passion for a field of study that is often maligned these days—Liberal Arts which include all the Arts & Sciences.

“The disciplines in the Arts & Sciences are wonderfully varied at UH Maui College, in the areas of Humanities, STEM, Language Arts, and Social Science,” says Snyder. “The true superpowers of Arts and Sciences programs are that they prepare students to enter the workforce while also preparing them to help positively transform the workforce in creative and innovative ways. Arts and Sciences graduates are equipped to become curious, thoughtful, reflective, empathic, and empirical leaders in their fields and, by extension, in their communities.”

“At the heart of the mission of higher education is to help students become change agents in their communities—high-level problem solvers and critical thinkers. At UH Maui College, it can be said that we are preparing students for jobs that may not even exist yet. In a rapidly and ever-changing world, graduates in the Arts and Sciences possess skills and strategies to process complex information that can allow them to best adapt to constantly changing work environments and technological innovations,” Snyder explains.

“What students learn in the Arts and Sciences builds a well-versed foundation for navigating any work environment and prepares students to be leaders in an incredible variety of careers. To name only a few career pathways, students in the Arts and Sciences become the doctors who care for us, the teachers who inspire us, the social workers and first responders who save us, and the scientists who help us best understand the world around us. In every possible way, the Arts and Sciences serves students powerfully in their career endeavors,” says Snyder.

With his strong teaching expertise, deep understanding of pedagogy, proven leadership skills, and deep passion for higher education, I am confident that Dean Snyder will be a tremendous asset to our leadership team and will help us further strengthen the quality of education and support we provide to Maui Nui.

For complete information about UH Maui College, please visit

Dr. Lui K. Hokoana is Chancellor of the University of Â鶹´«Ã½ Maui College. Kaʻana Manaʻo, which means “sharing thoughts,” is scheduled to appear on the fourth Thursday of each month. It is prepared with assistance from UH Maui College staff and is intended to provide the community of Maui County with information about opportunities available through the college at its Kahului campus and its education centers.

World-renowned taiko artist Kenny Endo will offer a series of taiko drumming classes at Kapiʻolani Community College in collaboration with the and the starting on September 8. The classes are open to the public and are for various ages and skill levels.

For more information or to register, visit .

“Taiko Center of the Pacific is happy and honored to once again offer our taiko classes at Kapiʻolani Community College,” said Endo. “Taiko is a wonderful activity which combines mind, body and spirit. People of all ages, please join us, as It’s never too late or never too early to learn and enjoy this cultural artform.”

Taiko, a traditional Japanese form of ensemble drumming, is celebrated for its powerful rhythms, dynamic performances and deep cultural heritage. The classes will serve a wide range of participants, from beginners eager to learn the basics to advanced drummers seeking to refine their skills. Students will explore various aspects of taiko, including performance techniques, cultural significance and community engagement.

The course offerings will include specialized classes such as Taiko for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, family-friendly sessions, and intensive performance training for those aspiring to showcase their talents on stage. Prices vary depending on the class.

In addition to acquiring new skills, participants will join a vibrant community of taiko enthusiasts, where they can deepen their appreciation for this dynamic art form and support personal growth.

Educational specialists from ±á²¹·É²¹¾±ʻ¾±â€™s prisons acquired refreshing new techniques and insights after a one-day training session with a instructor this summer. Like other industries, correctional facilities throughout the state experienced lockdowns and program cancellations due to COVID-19. This was especially challenging for educational staff who had to continue to deliver programs and services for the incarcerated population.

The State of Â鶹´«Ã½ Corrections Program Services-Education Branch, in partnership with the Leeward CC’s (OCEWD), provided a day-long training for education specialists, supervisors and select staff from statewide correctional facilities in June.

“Working at a correctional facility can at times be draining,” said Halawa Correctional Facility Education Supervisor Roseann Propato. “The ‘Train the Trainer’ session was helpful in getting to know more about my peers, realizing the value in the work we do, and renewed my sense of purpose.”

Drawing from 24 years of diverse experience, Leeward CC instructor Loretta Chen created an engaging, activity-filled day that included: “The Power of Perspective,” “Design Thinking and Active Empathy”, “From Broadway to Boardroom” (team building, singing and skits), and viewing of Chen’s short film The Secrets to Happiness (shot entirely in Bhutan, with a heartwarming message of the importance of gratitude and humility synonymous with the espousal of the aloha spirit).

“I enjoyed our all-day training session with Dr. Loretta. She taught me the absolute most important trait when communicating with anyone—empathy. Dr. Loretta’s emotional intelligence is impressively beyond reproach,” said Francis Taele, education supervisor at the Women’s Community Correctional Center.

Chen is now teaching entrepreneurship, customer service and financial literacy courses in ±á²¹·É²¹¾±ʻ¾±â€™s correctional facilities. These programs can be designed to suit most organizational needs.

or call (808) 455-0477 to learn more about OCEWD’s customizable training (for a variety of industries).

When Associate Professor Chris Lauer brings up St. Augustine’s “crisis of the soul” in his philosophy class, some of his students at the have difficulty relating it to their own lives. On the other hand, his students at the Kulani Correctional Facility, an all-male prison located about 20 miles south of Hilo, can instantly relate to Augustine’s lamentations.

This is the second time Lauer has taught the three-credit Introduction to Philosophy course at the correctional facility. The class meets twice a week and is two hours long, focusing on student discussion.

Lauer understands why St. Augustine generates so much excitement among the inmates.

“The crisis of the soul causes us to ask who we are, what matters to us, and how we build ourselves back up again,” he explains. “When I taught Augustine at the prison last semester, the discussions got so loud and intense that the correctional officers came to check on us.”

The course is part of the Kulani Correctional workforce educational programs, which offers a range of courses from forklift training to graphic design, and whose purpose is to provide inmates with vocational development and reentry skills training. The programs are supported by the state Department of Public Safety Education Division and offered through the Office of Continuing Education and Training (OCET).

Developing skills

Lauer says that philosophy courses develop essential, transferable skills vital to the workforce.

“A person with a philosophy major tends to have among the highest mid-career incomes of any major,” explains Lauer. “This is for some of the reasons that you would expect: critical thinking skills, writing skills, but some of it is job flexibility; going in not expecting a career track, but being willing to look for opportunities. Philosophy majors don’t expect to get a job in the philosophy factory. They pursue lots of different interests until they find what sticks.”

Richard Cowan, the apprenticeship training program coordinator at Â鶹´«Ã½ CC OCET, has managed the Kulani educational programs for the past four years. He was instrumental in growing the program’s initial course offerings from three to 15 courses, which includes Lauer’s philosophy course. Cowan notes that the class improves the inmates’ ability to engage in discussions and debate substantive topics.

Brilliant discussions

Lauer says the discussions have been brilliant since the first day of class.

“They tell me that the class was helpful for them understanding ideas, and they are articulating new thoughts that they haven’t thought of before,” says Lauer. “This class also builds advanced literacy. We are reading difficult books, which is one of the skills the students pick up the fastest—becoming a better reader.”

Since students don’t have access to computers and printers, they handwrite their assignments, which are usually four to six pages in length. The reading list includes heavyweight texts from the Western canon such as Plato’s Republic and Symposium, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Descartes’s Meditations, Nietzche’s Genealogy of Morals, Augustine’s Confessions, and Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvoir, as well as some ancient Buddhist and Daoist texts.

Cowan says that these types of programs are instrumental to reducing recidivism rates.

“Today the national recidivism rate is around 67 percent. By participating and completing vocational training, that rate is typically reduced to 30 percent,” he says. “If an individual obtains an associate’s degree, the rate is reduced to 13.7 percent. With a bachelor’s degree it falls to 5.6 percent, and with a master’s degree they do not go back to prison.”

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—By Leah Sherwood, a UH Hilo graduate student in the tropical conservation biology and environmental science program. Photos by Raiatea Arcuri, a professional photographer majoring in business administration with a concentration in finance at UH Hilo.

Team building can be tested and vested in a kitchen. The Office of Continuing Education at , along with the (CIP), is about to launch Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s first ever Culinarium Team Building Experience.

This innovative, hands-on program encourages groups to be actively engaged in a unique team building experience disguised as a culinary competition. Executive teams, command cadres, destination groups or any party that wants to take its organization to the next, higher performance level will find the culinary experience motivating and satisfying.

Under a bit of pressure, participants will create meals that are judged by a professional chef, and then shared and savored by all teams. A team building instructor will facilitate a conversation around what team members learned throughout the competition and give feedback and tips on how to work together toward success.

Said John L. Richards, dean of Career and Technical Education and the CIP, “The Culinarium Team Building Experience is a fun, hands-on experience that promotes leadership, innovation, collaboration, communication and creativity—qualities that make up high-performance teams.”

For more information please contact Alissa at (808) 734-9889 or alissak@hawaii.edu.

—By Louise Yamamoto

is offering two apprenticeship programs for food service employees to raise their level of skills, productivity and retention.

Â鶹´«Ã½ Cook Apprenticeship Program

The first program, , will begin its fourth round of classes on April 26. This culinary apprenticeship program has successfully graduated 200 apprentices during its first three sessions. Participants should be currently working in a food-service position or be willing to be placed into a position in the industry to take part in the program.

Employees of food-service establishments may be referred by their employers to receive 210 hours of quality culinary instruction, at no cost to the employer or apprentice. Participants receive the equivalent of $1,638 worth of instruction (13 credits at $126 a credit for local tuition at Kapiʻolani CC) for free. This opportunity is ideal for anyone in the culinary industry who has never had the opportunity to attend a college-level culinary class.

Cook apprentices will participate in 30 weeks of training. They will attend a six-hour,in-person, hands-on culinary instruction lab class each week at the Kapiʻolani campus on Basics of Cooking (either Fridays or Sundays) and take classes on ServSafe food safety, culinary nutrition, menu planning and overall food service.

Â鶹´«Ã½ Restaurant Manager Apprentice Program

The second program, the new , offers its first round of classes starting April 22. This program offers anyone who is either currently working as a restaurant manager, or would like to be elevated into that position, five (5) free online classes: manager level ServSafe food safety, hospitality human resources, restaurant management, restaurant marketing and controlling food service costs.

This program is available to anyone statewide. Classes are taken online, and testing can be done at University of Â鶹´«Ã½ testing centers on any island. This program offers an incredible opportunity for anyone in restaurant management or someone who would like to move up the career ladder.

Both programs are funded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Apprenticeship USA State Expansion Grant, issued to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Workforce Development Division Office.

To qualify, applicants must be at least 17 years of age, have a high school diploma or GED, possess a speaking and reading ability essential for personal and coworker safety on the job, be physically capable of performing the essential functions of a professional kitchen (for cooks) and have current TB clearance and MMR inoculations.

Space is limited for both programs, which are filling up quickly. Employers are encouraged to contact Program Coordinator Marcus Fikse as soon as possible via email at marcusjt@hawaii.edu or by calling (808) 734-9477.

Â鶹´«Ã½’s visitor industry is about to make a good thing better. Besides rainbows, exotic gourmet cuisine, beautiful sand beaches, historic sites and scenic byways, global visitors will experience extraordinary customer service during their stay in Â鶹´«Ã½.

(OCET)—Global Learning and Development (GLaD) unit at has teamed up with the (HTA) to offer professional development training for employees in frontline services. These areas include professional tour guides and customer service providers in such areas as hotels, restaurants, airlines, entertainment venues, visitor attractions and retail organizations.

Learning about Â鶹´«Ã½’s culture and servicing global customers

One of the programs, , is an updated program that was established in 1993 by the Â鶹´«Ã½ State Tourism Training Council and sanctioned by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Kapiʻolani CC’s GLaD team collaborated with industry professionals to identify current service standards for Â鶹´«Ã½’s visitor industry and modernize the training accordingly. In addition to learning more about our host culture, this program is now focused on servicing Â鶹´«Ã½’s global customers, communicating with visitors in ways that are engaging and memorable, as well as sharing stories of Â鶹´«Ã½ that are authentic and, most importantly, accurate. Kapiʻolani was granted custody of this program and thus owns all copyrights on the developed curriculum and materials.

The Certification for Â鶹´«Ã½’s Professional Tour Guides allows individuals to enhance skills and knowledge in their profession. The Certificate for Customer Service in Â鶹´«Ã½ provides professional development training for individuals in various service industries. An additional training program has also been designed for individuals seeking careers and preparing them for positions in Â鶹´«Ã½’s service industries.

Shirley Tsuhako, program manager at OCET, said she is very excited about working with HTA on these programs. “When you think about it, a tour guide can tell amazing stories about Â鶹´«Ã½. A guest service agent can convey a warm message of aloha even over the telephone, retail sales associates can exemplify hoʻokipa in how they warmly greet and service their customers and a restaurant worker can share about locally grown food and traditional Hawaiian cooking methods with patrons. Through training, employees will have an opportunity to learn how to ‘give their best’ and be an incredible ambassador for Â鶹´«Ã½.”

For more information about this program, please visit Kapiʻolani CC’s .

—By Louise Yamamoto

is offering an exciting opportunity to cultivate food. offers those with an interest in agriculture a combination of knowledge, experience and support designed to assist them in becoming viable food production growers.

Emphasis on practical skills and knowledge

A non-credit program, GoFarm Â鶹´«Ã½@Kauaʻi CC is for those who want to support sustainability on Kauaʻi, grow good food, minimize dependency on food importation and learn what is needed for an island to be more self-sufficient. The program emphasizes the practical skills and knowledge needed to become a successful agricultural entrepreneur.

The curriculum integrates hands-on fundamentals of farm production with business management. Students learn the realities of farming directly from well-seasoned mainstream farmers, agricultural specialists, experienced educators and those involved directly in the marketing and sales of agricultural commodities.

The program consists of two phases. Once a week for a month (September 19–October 10, 2015) tours of farms across the island are conducted. The second phase (October 17–February 6, 2016) is where the real hands-on learning takes place. On Thursday nights, lectures and talk story sessions about science and business elements of farming are also presented by special guest speakers who are directly involved in Â鶹´«Ã½’s agriculture. Saturdays are farm days, where each student applies the knowledge gained to the field on their own 1000 square foot farm plot.

Flourishing success

This past spring GoFarm Â鶹´«Ã½@Kauaʻi CC met with flourishing success—more than 1,200 pounds of produce was grown and harvested. Crops included cabbage, taro, ginger, bok choi, daikon, mustard greens, lettuce, baby greens, green beans, cucumber, pumpkin, squash, tomatoes, okra, kale, beets, swiss chard, cilantro, corn, carrots and even a variety of flowers.

For more information, call Kauaʻi CC’s Office of Continuing Education and Training (OCET) at (808) 245-8318. Stop by OCET to sign up in person or register online at .

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—By Camilla Matsumoto

Â鶹´«Ã½’s pleasant year-round weather makes for a lush and green environment, which requires a steady supply of landscape technicians. Helping to meet this industry demand is Leeward Community College’s . Beginning in February 2014 they will offer a new course – .

magazine’s Fall 2012 Landscape Contractor’s Business Outlook showed that 53 percent of companies expect to be more profitable in 2013 recording increases in lawn care providers, irrigation, maintenance and installation. The need for qualified and highly trained landscape technicians is on the rise.

The 48-hour course will be delivered through a series of classes February 13–May 15 and has a participant cost of $450. The course blends classroom learning with hands-on experience, based on the Professional Landcare Network Training manual.

Class topics

• Landscape maintenance equipment safety
• Prevention of common accidents and injuries
• Read and understand a landscape plan
• Identify common landscape plants and pests
• Repair and maintain irrigation systems
• Assess soil problems and select proper amendments
• Softscape installation
• Properly install and maintain ornamentals and turf
• Identify sustainable landscape maintenance practices

The course is intended to provide entry level students with a good fundamental background in landscape maintenance, and may be used as an excellent study guide for experienced landscapers preparing to take the Landscape Industry Certified Technician exam series that aims to raise industry standards by upgrading the status of landscape professionals in the areas of installation, maintenance and irrigation.

This training was made available as part of the , better known as C3T Â鶹´«Ã½.

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Program Coordinator Bernie Tsao talks about the role aquaponics can play in sustainability.