UHM Debate Team Scores High at Claremont Tournament

Pictured in photo, left to right: Kyle Dahlin, Jon Cham, Megan Wharton, Ryan Delaney, Samira Fatemi, Sterling Higa, Ian Ross

UHM sent three teams to compete in the U.S. Universities Invitational WUDC “Worlds” debate tournament at Claremont McKenna College, the largest debate union in the country, this past weekend. Facing off against 56 teams from 18 major Universities (e.g., USC, UCLA, Cornell), the UH team of Samira Fatemi (Engineering) and Jonathan Cham (Political Science) came in 11th place, just missing the semifinals by a few speaker points. UH team captain, Kyle Dahlin (Mathematics), and his partner, Ryan Delaney (Communicology), finished in 17th place. UH’s rookie team of Sterling Higa (Communicology) and Ian Ross (Economics), competing in their first intercollegiate tournament ever, finished a respectable 36th.

UHM beat all seven of Claremont’s teams, HPU, several UCLA teams, along with formidable teams from Texas, Alaska, and other schools with major programs. UHM has competed at Oxford, Yale, Willamette, Istanbul, Botswana, and numerous other tournaments. They run the largest inter-collegiate debate tournament in Hawaii and will co-host the Pan Pacific Championship with HPU in February 2013, which will feature 20+ Universities, such as Vermont, Air Force, and Claremont and pacific rim Universities from Japan, Korea, and China. UHM has debated the morning anchors on the Sunrise show (KGMB), been featured in Midweek magazine, the Ka Leo, and hosted numerous campus and community events (e.g., a social security debate with former Congressman Ed Case). UHM also supports the Hawai'i Speech League and has served over 500 students at UHM since 2008.

“Financial support for the team is our biggest struggle”, said team Director Dr. Robert Boller of the Communicology Department. "We are currently seeking corporate sponsorship for the program from law firms and businesses in exchange for offering organizations interns or perhaps hosting workshops on speaking and persuasion,” said Boller.

Next up for the team is the 6th Warrior Intra-varsity Debate tournament on Nov. 10th. They will also host the British National Debate team the week of Thanksgiving. For more information, please contact boller@hawaii.edu.

British National Debate Team to be Hosted by Communicology and the UHM Debate Team



Ettie Bailey-King and Willard Foxton will be representing the British National Debate Team on tour throughout the United States Sept-Dec 2012


The British National Debate Team will be making a stop at UH Manoa just after the National Communication Association’s annual conference as part of their tour of American colleges and select debate programs. They will be hosted by the UH Debate Team and the Communicology Department during Thanksgiving week. UHM and HPU were awarded a mutual hosting offer and will put together a combined team to compete against the Brits along with hosting several public campus events TBA. 

ABOUT THE TOUR

Ettie recently graduated in English Literature and plans to continue graduate study in the UK. At University, Ettie was heavily involved in student politics, journalism, theater and welfare services. Ettie visited the US as a Fulbright Special Program Scholar in 2011 and looks forward to returning to see more of the wonderful USA.

Willard was a student of the University of the West of England, Bristol University and the Middle Temple. He holds a degree in Law, a Masters degree in International Criminal Justice & qualified as a Barrister. As a debater, he was once the 7th best speaker in the world, is one of a very small number of speakers to have reached the final rounds of Oxford, Cambridge, the Mace, the European Championships and the World Championships, and is the only person ever to win the WUDC "funniest speaker in the world" comedy prize more than once.

Since leaving university, Willard has had a successful career as a Journalist & documentary film-maker for the BBC; he has reported from the Israel Lebanon War, covered piracy off the Horn of Africa, made the BBC's flagship film on the Madoff scandal and spent the winter of 2010 embedded with the US Marines in Waakan province, Afghanistan.

 2012 BRITISH DEBATE TEAM TOUR SCHEDULE

October
10/1: Irvine Valley College
10/3-4: University of North Texas, Denton, TX

10/6-9: West Texas A & M University, Canyon, TX
10/10-12: Texas State University
10/14-16: University of Houston
10/18-19: Prince George’s CC, Largo, MD
10/23: Chesapeake CC
10/25: William & Mary
10/27-29: Randolph Macon
10/31-11/3: Depauw University

November
11/5: U of Southern Mississippi
11/7-8: Lenoir Rhyne University
11/10-11: Wake Forest University
11/14: St Leo
11/16-18: National Communication Association Annual Conference
11/20-25: University of Hawaii @ Manoa & Hawaii Pacific University
11/27-28: Cape Cod CC

11/30-12/1: Colgate

December
12/3-4: Ithaca/Cornell

 
To learn more about the tour or the UH debate team contact UHM Director of Forensics Dr. Robert Boller at boller@hawaii.edu or find him in George Hall 317. 

UH Debate Team Competes in National Championships

U.S. Universities 2012, or "Nationals", the largest debate tournament in the country which decides the National Champion, took place over the weekend at Willamette U. The tournament featured nearly 400 debaters and 150 judges/coaches from 80+ colleges. UH Manoa entered four teams, our largest team ever. Manoa finished with one team in the top 40 (Daniel Hugo and Eliot St. John) and three in the middle of the pack (Ryan Delaney and Keoni Davey, Samira Fatemi and Jon Cham, and JayMe Morita and Kyle Dahlin).

Manoa beat teams from schools such as UCLA, Stanford, Claremont and continue to improve. Hobart and William Smith College is the new National Champion with Yale and St. John's placing as finalists (Harvard was the champion last year). In a competition among the judges (evaluated by competitors and other judges), UH Debate Director Dr. Robert Boller came in the top 24 (no rankings) and was selected to judge "out rounds" (akin to playoffs). It was an extremely positive experience for all. For more information on the UH Debate program, please email boller@hawaii.edu.

-- Dr. Rob Boller

Bridge to Friendship with ELI/NICE

This past week, SCS hosted its exciting service event “Bridge to Friendship with ELI/NICE.” At the event, SCS members had the opportunity to network with international students visiting UH Manoa. The event started with pizza and fun icebreakers! The SCS officers hosted games that tested everyone’s listening, non-verbal, and verbal skills. SCS members and ELI/NICE students had to work together to in order to accomplish every activity during the event. The room was full of energy as there were continuous games throughout the whole event. There was a very high attendance at this event and we encourage everyone to come back next semester! We hope to invite even more international students because of the clear success of this event. Thank you everyone for supporting SCS!

-- James Kim

SCS Resume Workshop

This past Thursday (March 8, 2012), SCS hosted a résumé workshop to help students create, improve and refine their résumés. At the workshop, students got the opportunity to learn the importance of effective résumés more in depth from the instructor Naomi. Some useful tips mentioned at the workshop was the importance of balance in a résumé.

Simply, one can achieve the greatest positive effect if the resume shares the right information in an easy to read format.

In addition, members got the chance to work on their résumés directly with Naomi. She gave constructive criticism to the members and valuable advice on how to improve their résumés. Overall, the event was a success and we hope SCS helped prepare members professionally for the future.

SCS would like to thank everyone for coming out and supporting us!

-- James Kim (SCS Vice President & Department Blogger)

Graduate School Application Process Workshop

Manoa Career Center Presents:
Graduate School
Application Process Workshop

Wednesday, April 4
2:00 - 3:00 pm
QLCSS 208

To participate, please contact the Manoa Career Center
at (808) 956-7007 or on email: careers@hawaii.edu

Spring Break Quickly Approaching!

Spring break is quickly approaching as we hit the halfway mark of the semester! Spring break is the perfect week to let off all that steam and stress from the semester by hitting the beach (if this gloomy weather lets up), shopping, visiting relatives, relaxing, or going off island. Here are some of our very own Communicology students who has exciting plans in store for our one week off of school!

Tracyn Nagata, who is currently a senior and graduating with a minor in Communicology says, “As my undergraduate collegiate career comes to a close, I hope to make this spring break memorable by focusing on my mind, body and soul!” She plans to officially put the books down and take her creativity to another level. Tracyn will stretch her “mind” by having her first guitar lesson and sticking to it, and although she has lived in Hawai’i her entire life, she never learned how to surf, so she plans to challenge her “body” by changing that very soon! Lastly, she is excited to start shooting new images that inspire the “soul” by capturing the passion of other people with her sparkling brand new DSLR camera.

Next, James Chung, who is currently a junior and a Communicology major, is planning on traveling to Los Angeles to visit his good friends who he hasn’t seen in a year. When he gets to L.A., he plans on doing many exciting things. He plans on hanging out with his dear friends from Chapman and USC, going for a night out in Hollywood, eating amazing Korean BBQ in Koreatown, relaxing at the piers of Santa Monica, eating ice cream cookie sandwiches from Diddy Riese in Westwood, taking a dip in the freezing waters of Laguna Beach, and many more things he misses in California!

Next we have JaeJoon Cho who is currently enjoying Dr. Min Sun Kim’s Culture and Communication class. He plans on flying to the Big Island for his spring break. JaeJoon is an exchange student from Yonsei University in South Korea and is eager to learn from the Communicology department. He plans to sight see the entire island of Hawai’i such as the Akaka Falls, the Hawai’i Volcano National Park. Mauna Kea, and watch the sunset in Kona. He plans to travel there with other exchange students he came with from South Korea and they also plan on going on a circle island tour by a helicopter. Jaejoon says, “ Coming from South Korea, Hawai’i is such an amazing and diverse place to study in and coming here has opened my eyes to other cultures of the world. I am so excited for spring break as it will be a time to relax from my studies and explore more of what the beautiful Hawaiian Islands has to offer.”

Last but definitely not least, the President of Speech Communication Society, Sara Ohashi, plans on going to Maui to visit a dear friend. While in Maui, she is planning on relaxing, hiking, swimming in waterfalls, and seeing some secret spots on the island. She also plans on bumping into Oprah at her local Starbucks and helping her friend with their campaign!
Looks like everyone is going to have such an exciting spring break! I hope everyone stays safe while on vacation! What are you planning on doing?

-- James Chung

"My SCS Valentine"

On February, SCS hosted its new fundraiser called “My SCS Valentine.” The fundraiser began with an online public auction where UH Manoa students had the opportunity to bid for a date with voluntary SCS members. The dates were completely platonic and indented for only friendship purposes. The starting bid was at $15 and capping at $50. The winners of the auction will have the chance to hang out with their winning SCS member! Some winners plan on grabbing a casual lunch, drinking a smoothie, or just simply kicking back. This event was in concert with our Mitsu-ken bento sale which also happened in the same week. Overall, the month of February turned out to be very successful and we would like to thank everyone for helping out!

-James Kim

Share Your Love with People Suffering from Hunger

There are many ways you can help a billion of people who are suffering from hunger. For most recent data regarding hunger, please see http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm.

Please don't hesitate to donate your money or food through online and offline contact. Foodbank Hawaii website is at:
http://www.hawaiifoodbank.org/

Share your love today!

-- Jang Kim

UH Debate Team Has Strong Showing at the 2012 Pan Pacific Invitational

The University of Hawai'i at Manoa Debate Team, sponsored by the Department of Communicology, competed in the Pan Pacific Invitational over President's Day weekend. The tournament, hosted by HPU on the Hawai'i Loa campus, featured teams from the Universities of California, Oregon, Washington, and New York. The UHM debate team did well, with two teams advancing to the semifinals, one team to the finals, and five members rated among the top-10 speakers. The final round was won by a team from Willamette University, and the UHM team of Daniel Hugo and Eliot St. John were tournament runners up. The final round topic for the invitation was This house supports military intervention in Syria. Communicology students Ryan Delaney and Jay-me Morita also competed in the Pan Pacific Invitational. 

--Dr. Rob Boller
Director of Forensics

The UH Debate Team will be hosting the 5th Warrior Intramural Debate Tournament on March 17th.

SCS Fundraiser a Success

On February 15, SCS held a fundraiser event to get members involved by raising money for the club. The fundraiser was held in Campus Center where many students dine, study, or relax. SCS sold very delicious bentos from Mitsu-Ken, which consisted of savory garlic chicken, chopped eggs, fried sausage and steamed white rice. The fundraiser was a large success; we sold out of bentos with the great effort of our SCS members advertising the food throughout the day. Although the day was quite hectic, SCS managed to pull off large profits from this fundraiser, and we hope to bring it back next year! We would like to thank everyone for coming out to help or anyone who bought our bentos!

--James Kim
SCS Vice President

Maria Deguzman Graduated with Conference Invitation

-- Maria and her parents at her graduation

-- Dr. Kim, Maria and Dr. Gonzalez next to Maria's Thesis Poster

We are very proud to announce that the Western States Communication Association (WSCA) has selected one of our undergraduate's papers for inclusion in its 2012 Undergraduate Scholars Research Conference in Albuquerque, NM on February 18, 2012. According to Ann Darling who was in charge of paper submissions, "it was a strong year with many excellent submissions that required reviewers to make very difficult choices." That being the case, we are extremely delighted that our very own Maria Deguzman was among those chosen to present papers at the conference.

Maria Deguzman, who graduated this past December with Honors and a BA in Communicology and American Studies, wrote the paper as part of her honors thesis entitled "Remembering Hawaii Statehood in Hawai‘i's English-Language Newspapers: How Biased Newspaper Coverage Affects Historical Narrative Creation". Under the guidance of advisers Dr. J. Kim and Dr. V. Gonzalez (from the American Studies department), her thesis utilized Semantic Network Analysis (one of Dr. Kim's specialties) and discussed how biased newspaper coverage in the Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star Bulletin before the referendum on Hawaii Statehood affects the historical memory of Hawaii Statehood in the present day. She also argued that part of the reason Hawaii Statehood continues to be controversial is because most people only know and accept the historical narrative that asserts that the USA has 50 states, one of which is the chain of islands known as Hawai‘i.

Though the topic is one that is difficult to write about, Maria felt compelled to write about Hawaii Statehood after taking a course from W. Kekailoa Perry in the Hawaii Studies department during her sophomore year at UHM. It was only after taking Dr. J. Dibble's course on persuasion as a junior and an American Studies course centered on America, Hawai‘i and World War II as a senior, however, that she was able to come up with the focus of her thesis. Though she admits that the work was difficult and stressful at times, she says that the feeling of turning in her completed thesis was "totally worth it!"

Since graduation, Maria has applied to a summer fellowship in Europe with human rights group "Humanity in Action" and is currently working as a reading and math tutor in Nanakuli with the Harvest Learning Group. She is also in the process of applying to graduate programs in Conflict Resolution and International Relations both on the mainland and abroad. Considering that she was also a member of one of our Debate & Forensics Society teams that competed at the Yale and Oxford IV tournaments and worked as an intern in Governor Abercrombie's Communications Department during her last semester at UH, we know that Maria will continue to make us proud wherever life takes her.

Congratulations Maria!

Note: If you would like to read Maria's thesis, you may be able to find it in the Honors Department Lounge on the first floor of Sinclair Library--just ask a member of the Honors staff for help.

-- Jang Kim & Maria Deguzman

Communicology 251: “Rhetoric for Social Justice” Guest Speakers

Bestselling author and keynote speaker George Walther has consulted for companies like Microsoft and Starbucks for over three decades in 99 countries.

The Department of Communicology and the University of Hawai‘i are pleased to welcome:

International keynote speaker W Mitchell
12:30 - 1:20 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13 - Bilger Auditorium 152

Bestselling author and keynote speaker George Walther
12:30 - 1:20 p.m. Monday, April. 2 - Bilger Auditorium 152

Legendary Hawaiian comedian Frank De Lima
12:30 - 1:20 p.m. Monday, April 16 - Bilger Auditorium 152

Hawai‘i slam poetry master Kealoha
12:30 - 1:20 p.m. Monday, April 23 - Bilger Auditorium 152

City Councilwoman and Congressional candidate Tulsi Gabbard
12:30 - 1:20 p.m. Monday, April. 30 - Bilger Auditorium 152

Past speakers
U.S. Congressman and Hawai‘i Governor Hon. Neil Abercrombie
Slack key guitar artist and community activist Makana
Sierra Club Director Robert Harris
State Senator and Director of State Environmental Quality Control Gary Hooser
Author of Eddie Would Go and Surfrider Foundation Director Stuart Coleman
Honolulu Weekly editor and Huffington Post contributor Mindy Pennybacker
Sustainable Saunders’ Shannah Trevenna
International Keynote Speaker and Vietnam P.O.W. Capt. Jerry Coffee
KGMB 9 Anchor and Miss Hawai‘i 2005 Malika Dudley
Miss Hawai‘i 2008 Nicole Fox
Author and Keynote Speaker Wally Amos
Hawaiian Ho‘oponopono Scholar Ramsay Taum
The UH Debate Team
Israeli Olympic Sailor Adva Yacobovich

About the series
Rhetoric, or the artful use of evidence based reasoning to persuade, is a central component of democracies intent on advancing social justice. The title of the series is intended to be interpreted by the speaker. Serving the community through public advocacy is the point of continuity among all speakers. The speaker series was inspired by late Rep. Walter Capp’s course, "Voices of a Stranger," at the University of California at Santa Barbara

For more information please contact:
Dr. Robert Boller
Department of Communicology      
Phone: 956-3324 (Office)
E-mail: boller@hawaii.edu

-- Rob Boller and Bobby Tokunaga

SCS Team's Course Workshop

“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.” H.E. Luccock

Today, SCS had their second Team’s Course Workshop! Members had the opportunity to learn more about leadership skills, communication, and teamwork by engaging in multiple activities. Throughout the event, the members had to complete various tasks which challenged each member to work as a team. The event started with “level 1” activities as the members were taught to rely on each other. Throughout the event, the tasks got more and more difficult and ultimately encouraged the members to not stand alone, however, work as one unit.

Although some of the activities were very difficult, the SCS members persevered by working assiduously as a team. Some of the courses encouraged members to trust each other in moments of time-constraint and pressure. After each obstacle course, there was a post analysis in order for the members to identify the flaws and accomplishments from the most recent activity. The team’s course allowed members to step up and lead the group. Each member shined as a leader in every way possible from the team’s course with help of the facilitators from Student Life & Development.

Overall, the team’s course challenged everyone’s physical and intellectual aspects. With that, the event turned out to be educational and fun at the same time. We would like to thank everyone for coming out for the Team’s Course Workshop! Just remember, many hands make work easy!

--James Kim
SCS Vice President

SCS Beach Bash 2012!

This past weekend, SCS had its traditional Beach Bash! The weather was warm and absolutely perfect for our members, except for those who weren’t into getting a little sun burnt. The event was filled with lots of food, team games, and activities. We began with lunch which consisted of steak, ribs, burgers, hot dogs, and other entrees. Thanks to our iron chefs, Kenric Lo and Jaymi Urashima, everyone got to enjoy a delicious barbeque meal!

With a full stomach, the members played a water balloon toss game where everyone got a little wet. In order to dry off, the members then played a very competitive team game called “Snake”. This game in particular forced teams to move, communicate, and work under pressure. All three teams did exceptionally well as the initial score was all tied up. Next, the SCS members played an alternative version of “Charades”. The members were broken up into three teams and were given tasks to portray silly topics and items. The members were encouraged to work together in order to accomplish the difficult task. Some teams had to act out the most random things such as a washing machine, submarine, hot air balloon, and more!

Surprisingly, their non-verbal cues were so clear that every team got the message across to the receiver! Last but not least, we had our traditional relay race! Two teams had to run across the field, spin 10 times, and then run back to tag his or her teammate. This was no easy task!

Overall, everyone had great sportsmanship despite the competitiveness from all teams.

I would like to thank everyone for attending our event! I enjoyed all the food, games, and enthusiasm! Although I am a little sun burnt, it was completely worth it!

-James Kim
SCS Vice President