The School of Communication and Information held its very first Open House on April 5 with over a hundred engaged attendees made up of alumni, community stakeholders, faculty, and students. The open house aimed at showcasing the new School’s work around the core mission of “communication, connection and community,” and fostering relationships with alumni and community partners for collaborative growth and development.
Attendees were able to participate in five interactive mini-workshops highlighting each of the five SCI Program’s unique features and strengths. These faculty expert-led workshops were followed by a presentation at the Architecture Auditorium, where the attendees learned about the School. Hye-ryeon Lee, the current Chair of the SCI, and Colin Moore, the past Chair jointly led the presentation discussing the School’s mission, its five Programs, and the shared vision and strategic focus for the School.
“We took four different departments and an Institute from three different schools and brought them together with the idea to merge all of these with the technology side of things,” said UH Mānoa Provost Michael Bruno, “taking these traditional forms and bringing it all into, dare I say, the modern age of communication.” Denise Konan, Dean of the College of Social Sciences noted “Tonight’s event is especially exciting because we’re linking with the community and our alumni, those who have been successful. They have the heritage, and the relationships here in the community, they can be our models, they can help us see the way forward and have that ability for the students to exchange with the community group. To me, it’s terrific.”
At the Open House, five alumni were honored with 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award. The Awardees are Ruth Horie (retired cataloging librarian at UH Mānoa), Nyle Kauweloa (director of UH Esports and specialist faculty), Anne Marie Smoke (administrator in the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Hawaiʻi State Judiciary), Jennifer Matayoshi (lead deputy Title IX coordinator and senior investigator at UH Mānoa), and Suzanne Puanani Vares-Lum, (President of the East-West Center). Their stories are featured on the Alumni page at the SCI website.
The Open House ended with the networking reception. With fine food and beautiful violin music performed by Juven Villacastin, an MA student in the Communicology Program, everyone enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and forming new connections with fellow attendees.
“We have been working hard internally in the past year and a half, laying important foundations for the new school. I feel that this was a good time for us to share our stories with the community,” said Chair Lee. “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. Now everyone knows that the SCI is the core unit that provides this important education at the University. It took a lot of work to execute an event of this caliber successfully, and I want to sincerely thank our faculty, staff, and student volunteers who worked hard to make the Open House a success.”
You can read about the UH News story about the Open House.
Additional stories on the Open House can be found at the Mānoa Mirror, the news portal for Journalism students.