Eventful year includes many newsmakers: Here are the University of Hawai‘i News top people stories for 2024

The University of Hawaiʻi News posted nearly 1,500 stories throughout an eventful 2024. Many of them involved people with connections to the university system making headlines.

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Waiākea High School graduate Trevor Shimokusu of Hilo completed his PhD as a NASA Space Technologies Graduate Research Opportunity fellow. He has returned to Hawaiʻi and will play a key role in a new pre-engineering pathway program that allows students to begin their engineering studies at University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo.

More than 350 dancers from Hawaiʻi Community College hālau Unukupukupu, which includes the Kūkūʻena cohort, performed during the 61st annual Merrie Monarch Festival Hoʻolauleʻa. Among them were Hawaiʻi Community College Chancellor Susan Kazama and Kapiʻolani Community College Chancellor Misaki Takabayashi.

A University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa grad student claimed the Miss Aloha Hula title at the 61st annual Merrie Monarch Festival and Hawaiian Language Award.

The chairman and professor of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Information and Computer Sciences Department once had a date with Marcia Brady in the original “Brady Bunch.”

A dozen University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa athletes represented the university and Hawaiʻi in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Two judges on Season 25 of NBC’s hit singing competition “The Voice” turned their chairs for a University of Hawaiʻi-Maui College grad during auditions for the show.

That’s just a few of the exciting stories from this year.

Here are the top 10 University of Hawaiʻi News stories about people with University of Hawaiʻi connections who made news this year.

Miss Aloha Hula 2024 is University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa grad student

Kaʻōnohikaumakaakeawe Kananiokeakua Holokai Lopes, who is pursuing a master’s degree in communications at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, earned the Miss Aloha Hula title and Hawaiian language Award during the 61st annual Merrie Monarch Festival.

Lopes competed alongside 12 other contestants in the solo category.

Lopes’ parents, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumna Tracie Lopes and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language Director R. Keawe Lopes, are also her kumu hula, leading Windward Oʻahu-based hālau Ka Lā ʻŌnohi Mai O Haʻehaʻe.

The 21-year-old, who is fluent in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language), also earned a bachelor’s degree from the university’s Hawaiian language department.

Lopes comes from an ʻohana deeply rooted in hula.

Her mother won the Miss Aloha Hula title in 1994. This is also the fourth consecutive solo title secured by the hālau.

Child actor to University of Hawaiʻi professor: Marcia Brady’s date teaches computer science

Scott Robertson, chairman and professor of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Information and Computer Sciences Department, began acting before he was 3 years old and continues to act in films and on stage to this day.

He might be best known, however, for playing Marcia’s date in the “Brace Yourself” episode of the original “Brady Bunch” at age 15. He admitted that people still recognized him in college and several years after.

That was his last acting gig for a while though, as Robertson completed his high school and college/university education.

He then worked in academia and the private sector before landing a professor position in Philadelphia in the early 2000s. There, he rekindled his interest in acting and auditioned for local plays.

Robertson joined the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty in 2007. While in Hawaiʻi, he also auditioned for acting roles.

University of Hawaiʻi-Maui College grad gets 2-chair turn on “The Voice”

Kamalei Kawaʻa got judges Reba McIntyre and Chance the Rapper to turn their chairs during the blind auditions on Season 25 of NBC’s hit singing competition “The Voice.”

Kawaʻa’s rendition of “Redemption Song” by Bob Marley and the Wailers moved Chance, whose team Kawaʻa ultimately elected to join.

He is also a member of the quartet Nā Wai ʻEhā, which was nominated in 2021 for a Grammy. He honed his craft at University of Hawaiʻi-Maui College, taking voice and piano lessons, as he worked on his associate degree in Hawaiian studies.

U.S. record: University of Hawaiʻi grad Cole Brauer makes history with solo nonstop world sail

Cole Brauer finished second out of 16 competitors in the Global Solo Challenge, a race that started and ended in A Coruña, Spain. The marathon 30,000-mile journey took 130 days, and she crossed the finish line March 7.

Brauer started the competition Oct. 29, 2023, sailing south around Africa, over to Australia, crossing the Pacific Ocean to South America before returning north to Spain.

She was the only woman and youngest competitor in the race.

Brauer graduated in spring 2017 from University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with a degree in food science and human nutrition with a pre-professional medical focus.

12 University of Hawaiʻi athletes compete in Paris Olympics

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa was well-represented at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The Olympians included: kiteboarder Daniela Moroz, men’s volleyball player Taylor Averill, men’s basketball player Akira Jacobs, women’s volleyball assistant coach Alfee Reft and water polo players Ema Vernoux and Camille Radosavljevic.

Hilo native returns to Hawaiʻi to build statewide engineering pipeline

Trevor Shimokusu of Hilo completed his PhD in mechanical engineering as a NASA Space Technologies Graduate Research Opportunity fellow and returned to Hawaiʻi to join University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Engineering.

The Waiākea High School graduate, who earned his bachelor of science in mechanical engineering in 2019 from University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, will play a key role in a new pre-engineering pathway program that allows students to begin their engineering studies at University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo before transferring to University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to complete their degrees.

Shimokusu was particularly inspired by a family friend uncle who helped design Daniel K. Inouye Highway, also known as Saddle Road.

To students considering the new pathway program, he emphasizes the importance of staying curious and being open to opportunities.

Trailblazer: Mānoa law alumna rises to U.S. senator’s chief of staff

Coti Haia, the first Native Hawaiian woman to serve as chief of staff for a U.S. senator, is a 2007 graduate of the University of Hawaiʻi William S. Richardson School of Law. She has served in her current role for Sen. Mazie Hirono since 2022.

She moved to Washington, D.C., in 2010 to work for the late U.S Sen. Daniel Inouye before moving to Hirono’s office in 2013.

After a 2-year stint as the D.C. Bureau Chief for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, she returned to Hirono’s office in 2018 as deputy chief of staff, and was promoted four years later.

She does not focus on her trailblazer status as the first Native Hawaiian woman chief of staff, possibly the first ever indigenous woman in that position in the history of the U.S. Senate. In fact, one of Haia’s favorite parts of the job is lunch with the office interns.

From meth addict to substance abuse counselor: University of Hawaiʻi provides a pathway, support

Through an apprenticeship program by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Department of Social Work and Leeward Community College, Edmond Pulu Jr. is on track to become a certified substance abuse counselor.

The former alcoholic who was also addicted to meth for 26 years began his counseling career journey at Leeward Community College in 2022, four years into his recovery — after his arrest in 2018 marked a turning point in his addiction.

His long-term goal is to assist those struggling with substance use disorder in American Samoa.

Ulep named inaugural director of University of Hawaiʻi Filipino advocacy task force

Marnelli Joy B. Ulep has been named director of Pamantasan, a University of Hawaiʻi task force. The systemwide task force is dedicated to increasing recruitment, support and success of Filipino students, faculty and staff throughout the university’s 10 campuses.

Pamantasan was established in 1987 and aims to ensure that Filipino Americans are represented and supported in all aspects of higher education in Hawaiʻi, from student enrollment to curriculum development and faculty recruitment.

Ulep previously served as program development manager for the Business Administration Division at UH-West Oʻahu.

University of Hawaiʻi educators dance in Merrie Monarch opening ceremony

More than 350 dancers from Hawaiʻi Community College hālau Unukupukupu, which includes the Kūkūʻena cohort, performed March 31 during the 61st annual Merrie Monarch Festival Hoʻolauleʻa, the opening ceremony of the weeklong celebration of hula and everything Hawaiian, at Hilo’s Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.

Among the dancers were Hawaiʻi Community College Chancellor Susan Kazama and Kapiʻolani Community College Chancellor Misaki Takabayashi.

Kūkūʻena was created in 2008 with the aim to deepen participants’ understanding of ʻike Hawaiʻi, or Hawaiian ways of knowing, in an effort to uplift University of Hawaiʻi as a leader in Indigenous education.