Alumni News

While only in her third year, Chynna headed the funding committee as a CTAHR Student Ambassador and was awarded an American Future Farmers of America degree after being a member for five years. An undergraduate in the Tropical Agriculture and the Environment program, she gone above and beyond to be a mentor and give back to the community of Hawai'i, whether that be through presentations to high schools to encourage students to achieve higher education goals or through volunteering with various organizations that work in sustainability, restoration, and education. Chynna is a model student who spreads her energy to all those she comes in contact with, and CTAHR is happy to recognize her with this award!

Congratulations to graduate students Rina Carrillo and Shannon Wilson for being selected recipients of the 2022 Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation, Honolulu Chapter! Rina and Shannon will be honored May 2 during the ARCS Scholar Awards Banquet at the Outrigger Canoe Club. Rina, a Dept. of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering PhD student, is researching the impact of global warming and heat stress on plants. Her research is important to the development of crops that are able to withstand heat stress and are more resilient in today’s rapidly changing environment. Her thesis involves “characterizing the function of protein disulfide isomerase (PDI9) in plants, investigating its role in endoplasmic reticulum stress pathways and in mitigating stress-induced abnormalities in Arabidopsis,” she explains. Rina will use the award funds to further her research in PDI9 as she strives toward achieving her PhD.

Congratulations to Jessica Lau for being named a 2022 Truman Scholar! Jessica is a double major undergraduate in Human Development and Family Studies and psychology with double minors in peace studies and communicology. She was selected from a pool of more than 700 students from universities around the U.S for her dedication to public service, academic excellence, and outstanding leadership potential. In addition to national recognition, Jessica will receive $30,000 in funding for her graduate studies, as well as access to leadership training, internship opportunities, and a network of public service scholars. 

CTAHR’s very own Fashion Design and Merchandising students were featured last week on KHON2 news to promote their upcoming show, Vogue 56, FDM’s 56th Annual Fashion Showcase. “The point of the show is to showcase four collections by our student designers, and the show is also created by our production team,” explained production team lead student Oliva Maguire to KHON news reporter Kamaka Pili. “So it is all student-run and student-created to show off the passion, the hard work, the skill of all of our designers, and really give them that fashion show experience they can take on into the real world post-graduation.”

The 2022 CTAHR Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research recognizes the outstanding scientific contributions of Rachel Novotny, Professor of Nutritional Sciences. Since joining CTAHR in a tenure-track position in 1990, Rachel has developed a highly productive and significant research program focused on maternal and child nutrition and health, particularly among culturally diverse populations. She has obtained more than $40 million as the principal investigator of federal grants, including $25 million for establishing the Children’s Healthy Living Program, and recently an additional $10 million award to expand that program into a Center of Excellence in Food System Resiliency for Children’s Healthy Living. Rachel has published more than 150 peer reviewed papers and successfully mentored more than 50 graduate students and 15 post-doctoral candidates in Nutrition and Epidemiology. In briefly describing her research, she states that she “conducts intervention trials to improve diet, physical activity, community environment and other systems approaches to improve health of women, adolescents, and young children in diverse understudied populations.”

Rachel will be honored at the 2022 CTAHR 'Ohana Banquet.