This coming Friday, campus and community will once again come together to celebrate International Night at UH Hilo.
Every evening this semester, as I make my way to my car to head home, I hear familiar sounds from our Pacific Islander students and friends rehearsing for the big night. Music, singing, laughter and joy are present in abundance. And it makes me smile.
On Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m., I will be in my seat in our Performing Arts Center eagerly awaiting the start of the performances, at one of my favorite nights of the year. Weeks and months of preparation all will come together to celebrate the international diversity of our campus and at the same time to make connections with affinity groups in our community.
International Night focuses on our international students, their pride in their culture, and their relationship to our international community here in Hilo. It is a celebration of the world in Hilo. As I have written before in this column, however, International Night is not the only international activity on our campus.
Last week I was honored to give welcome remarks and listen to presentations at an Inter-Island Sustainability Educational Program Symposium. Funded by the Japanese government, the five-year project will allow students and faculty from the University of the Ryukyus (Okinawa), National Dong Hwa University and Chinese Culture University (Taiwan) to partner with UH Hilo, Kauai College and Kapi‘olani College.
The University of the Ryukyus from Okinawa and the University of Hawaii System established an inter-university exchange agreement in 1988, and since then have exchanged students and faculty in various fields to promote educational and research activities.
What became clear at the symposium was not only the significant differences among people in Okinawa, Taiwan and Hawaii, but also the significance of the common ground among us as island states and nations. As we all know, islands are particularly susceptible to climate change and sea level rise, and we are all challenged by our isolation and the cost of shipping supplies into our communities. Additionally and equally important, all three places — Okinawa, Taiwan and Hawaii — are working hard to uplift and honor indigenous populations and revitalize languages.
As the students from the University of the Ryukyus spoke of their research projects, we heard familiar themes: language revitalization, child poverty, access to health care, endangered species. The potential of finding solutions to global problems by bringing students and faculty together internationally in joint purpose makes me optimistic for the future of our students and the islands on which they and their children and grandchildren will live.
We recognize that in-person exchange is an incredible, transformative experience. Indeed, I hope that more local families will recognize the value of a UH Hilo education that can also provide significant experiences living and studying off island, as we have dozens of international and domestic partners that provide a cost-effective means for getting that all-important off-island experience at an affordable in-state price.
This enhanced partnership with Okinawa and Taiwan also provides space for faculty exchanges, and as faculty add to their own international network, opportunities for students expand. As student and faculty travel abroad, they bring home new ideas that can help address shared challenges.
Some of our students hesitate to study away because of cost, which is why I am grateful to some of our donors who have created study abroad scholarships to help allay those costs. In addition, UH Hilo students have been quite successful at earning Gilman scholarships, a nationally competitive scholarship that funds international study.
Still, not every student can study away. Some have work or family obligations that prevent them going away for as long as a semester,which is why I am glad we also have access to COIL, or Collaborative Online International Learning. The COIL approach to learning enables students to take courses and collaborate with students in other countries virtually while fulfilling learning requirements of their degree programs at home. COIL brings the diverse perspectives of the world into classrooms at UH Hilo.
Thus while I sit in the audience enjoying the show on Feb. 23, I’ll also be thinking of the myriad ways we connect with the world, both here at home and abroad.
Bonnie D. Irwin is chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Her column appears monthly in the Tribune-Herald.