President

Aloha from President Wright
with Chatt G. Wright

The mission of Hawai‘i Pacific University is to help prepare students to live, work, and learn as active members of a global society. HPU’s College of International Studies is a good example of how HPU is an important global solution provider. The College recently partnered with the Career Services Center to organize a professional development workshop about jobs and internship opportunities in international affairs. The workshop brought two recent alumni back to campus to share tips and strategies and to describe their transition from student to working professional.

Christine Bergado Morrice received her BA in International Studies in 2002 and now works as public relations manager at the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (COE-DMHA). The Center is a specialized agency of the U.S. government that promotes excellence in civil-military international disaster preparedness and management, humanitarian response, and peacekeeping operations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Christine’s educational experience at HPU helped to prepare her for the position in many ways. She gained a solid understanding of Asia, international relations, and human rights issues in the class. But she also gained additional experience as an HPU exchange student in Australia, where one of her professors there connected her to an internship with the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Waikiki, which in turn connected her to the COE-DMHA. Since she joined the COE in 2002, it has hired other HPU alums as staff, and it continues an internship program for students.

Ana Villavicencio completed a double major in 2002: a BA in International Relations and a BA in Environmental Studies. She now works as a program officer at Pacific Forum CSIS (PacForum), a Honolulu-based foreign policy research center, where she manages all grants, writes proposals, budgets, and grant reports, and maintains relations with foundations and granting agencies. She also manages the Pacific Forum Young Leaders Program, putting together roughly 12-15 programs a year in Asia and the U.S. for young professionals – including HPU students – interested in Asian affairs.
These are just some of the ways in which HPU's recent alumni are addressing real world problems and helping to provide solutions to a number of pressing global issues. Both of these graduates stressed the importance of networking strategies and internship opportunities. HPU faculty and the Career Services Center can help facilitate these important connections.

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