Alumni News

In place of Alumni BBQ’s, and to keep us all safe as the Covid-mess (hopefully) wraps up, Dean Comerford and the Associate Deans will be hosting a quarterly get together with Alumni via Zoom to challenge their multi-tasking skills...cooking up some tasty chow and chatting with Alumni about what’s happening around CTAHR. Saturday, March 26^th 3pm. The Academic and Student Affairs Office will let the Dean off easy by cooking up some of his favorites: Sloppy Joe’s with Bacon, Baked Beans, and an Angel Food Cake.

It’s baaaaack by popular demand. In fact, it’s now bi-monthly. Thanks to a great turnout in the last mini-conference, Roshan Manandhar is pleased to announce the next Virtual Invasive Pest Mini-Conference, set for March 23 @ 9:30 a.m. Please join your colleagues and other scientists to learn about two programs devoted to invasive species management: the Hawaiʻi Ant Lab (HAL) and Oʻahu Army Natural Resource Program (OANRP), with Heather Forester and Melissa Valdez, respectively.

Want to sustain our aging Ag workforce with the best and brightest of the next generation? How about try exposing young persons to the wide diversity of careers that are available? Faculty, staff, and volunteers of CTAHR’s Urban Garden Center (UGC) played host to field trips last week from Pearl City High School and Waipahu High School, partnering with the Hawaiʻi Agricultural Foundation (HAF) to promote awareness of agriculture at the high school level. With a grant to cover transportation, UGC and HAF worked together to bring more than 30 PCHS students to the CTAHR facility February 11 for a multisensory event.

Students had an opportunity to: 1) learn about the benefits of flowers, 2) smell the roses, 3) express themselves creatively with plants, 4) harvest, process and taste mamaki tea, 5) use their hands to propagate plants, 6) taste local and unique fruits grown at UGC, 7) convert home waste into a useable fertilizer for plants, 8) take home local roses and their personalized bouquets, and 9) taste how sour lemon can be made into a local treat by using gummies and lemon peel. 

“Vogue 56,” the 56^th Annual Fashion Show, is charging full steam ahead, and our students are working hard to offset the expenses of a full-on production. Come support them at today’s one-day-only pop-up thrift shop! If you’re reading this, that means you’re specially invited to come on down to Campus Center Courtyard by the ATM, today 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and stop by this fundraising event of the Fashion Design and Merchandising Program of the Dept. of Family and Consumer Sciences. All proceeds from this thrift shop will go toward a successful Fashion Show.

“Give your clothes a second life and save them from landfills; one person’s trash is another person’s treasure!” says undergrad Allison Parten.

For questions, contact Olivia at omaguire@hawaii.edu, Aubrey at aubreyvi@hawaii.edu, or Jada at jrogers3@hawaii.edu.

Stay tuned for details on the upcoming 56^th Annual Fashion Show!

New York Fashion Week, the epicenter for America’s new trends in clothing styles and materials, got an extra helping of Aloha last week when Native Hawaiian models, musicians, and dancers graced the runway. The team highlighted one-of-a-kind creations by Ola Hou Designs’ Sharayah Chun-Lai, alum of the Fashion Design and Merchandising program of the Dept. of Family and Consumer Sciences. She is the first kānaka ʻōiwi wahine to accept an invitation from fashion week producer Runway 7.

“I am humbled and honored to be the First Native Hawaiian wahine to accept an invitation from Runway 7 to showcase Ola Hou Design’s uniquely modern Hawaiian vision at Sony Hall and represent Hawai‘i,” Sharayah said last month before jetting off to the Big Apple.

Read the UH News story. Read the previous CTAHR Notes story.