{"id":151628,"date":"2021-11-10T14:28:47","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T00:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=151628"},"modified":"2021-11-10T14:28:47","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T00:28:47","slug":"50-years-stu-uesato-leeward-cc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/11\/10\/50-years-stu-uesato-leeward-cc\/","title":{"rendered":"50 years: Stu Uesato develops responsible citizens at Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr>"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_55927\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4fIr4PwbSJ0?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"50 Years of Service - Stu Uesato\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>Doing any job for 50 years takes a lot of dedication, determination and a little bit of luck. You also need to love what you are doing.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_151646\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151646\" style=\"width: 214px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-vert-uesato-s-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"Stuart Uesato\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-151646\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-vert-uesato-s-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-vert-uesato-s-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-vert-uesato-s.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-151646\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stuart Uesato<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>These all came together for <a href=\"http:\/\/leeward.hawaii.edu\">Leeward Community College<\/a> Professor and Counselor <strong>Stuart &ldquo;Stu&rdquo; Uesato<\/strong>, and he had fun throughout his journey.<\/p>\n<p>Uesato started off wanting to be a dentist but ended up earning a degree in political science from the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa in 1965.<\/p>\n<p>When he graduated, he realized that he most enjoyed working with and helping people, which led him to enter a student services counseling program.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Once I graduated from <abbr>NYU<\/abbr> with my master\u2019s degree, there were no jobs in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> so I started my career at a community college in New York,&rdquo; Uesato said.<\/p>\n<h2>Coming home<\/h2>\n<p>On a summer trip home in 1970, Uesato visited several <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> community colleges (which were just starting up at the time). Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr> was about to lose its student activities coordinator, and the provost offered him the job.<\/p>\n<p>However, Uesato could not leave his job in New York on such short notice and had to turn it down. The following year, the position was still vacant so he applied.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Here I am&#8230;50 years later,&rdquo; Uesato said.<\/p>\n<p>It was perfect timing because he and his wife were about to have a child and he &ldquo;couldn\u02bbt think of raising a child anywhere else (besides <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>).&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>50 years of change<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_151637\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151637\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-70s-campus-gnrc-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Students sitting on the lawn\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-151637\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-70s-campus-gnrc-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-70s-campus-gnrc-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-70s-campus-gnrc.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-151637\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr> in the 70s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr> moved from its original location at Pearl City Kai Elementary School to its current location in 1969. When Uesato started there in 1971, there were only a few buildings on the new campus, and things were evolving.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This place was very innovative and experimental when I first came back, and it\u02bbs retained that feeling of people trying new stuff and moving forward,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the move and change in jobs, one thing remained constant&#8212;his desire to help students. Uesato wants to be remembered as someone who cared and was committed to helping students succeed&#8212;to learn, grow, pursue careers and become responsible citizens.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If they&#8217;re just here to work and not participate responsibly in our world, I think we might have come up a little short,&rdquo; Uesato said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Leeward Community College is proud to have such a dedicated employee serve for over 50 years, and we are grateful for his contributions to the college and to the lives of our students,&rdquo; said Chancellor Carlos Pe\u00f1aloza.<\/p>\n<h2>The next chapter<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_151635\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151635\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-uesato-vintage-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Two people in an office\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-151635\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-uesato-vintage-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-uesato-vintage-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-uesato-vintage.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-151635\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uesato with Student Activities Clerk Bernice Nakashima<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Uesato has fond memories of his more than five decades at Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This institution has been wonderful because it has allowed me to do a bunch of different things to maintain my interests,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I never considered being any place this long. As it turns out, it\u2019s been like four or five occupations over the course of 50 years.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>He is starting to think about and plan the next chapter of his life.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Ending work still allows, hopefully, learning other things,&rdquo; Uesato said. &ldquo;I want to get back to playing my ukulele, learning Japanese or another foreign language, and golf\u2014get back to golfing.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>By <strong>Carolynn Yamada<\/strong> and <strong>Tad Saiki<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_151634\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151634\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-uesato-office.jpg\" alt=\"Counselor and student in an office\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-151634\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-uesato-office.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-uesato-office-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/leeward-uesato-office-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-151634\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uesato with a student<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leeward <abbr>CC<\/abbr> counselor marks five decades of service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[598,65,56],"class_list":["post-151628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-leeward-community-college","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151628"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151648,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151628\/revisions\/151648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}