2009 Distinguished Alumni & Service
Carol Ginoza-Arikawa
Carol S. Ginoza-Arikawa is a community leader in every sense of the word. A 1973 graduate of UH Hilo with degrees in both English and social studies, she founded Ginoza Realty, Inc. in 1982 and remains its principal broker and president.
Ms. Ginoza-Arikawa is a longtime member of the Hawai‘i Island Board of Realtors and has been active in industry organizations. She has been the Board’s secretary and has served on the Grievance Committee since 1994. In 1995, she was selected as one of the Big Island Women of the Year. Since 2007, she has served on the State of Hawai‘i Regulated Industry Complaint Office (RICO) Advisory Committee.
Her community service includes membership on the Kuikahi Mediation Board of Directors since 2006, serving as its fundraising co-chair the past three years. She served as treasurer of Hilo Little League from 1997-2006 and served double-duty as secretary from 2000-2006. She was also on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Hilo from 2003-2006.
Ms. Ginoza-Arikawa also has a long record of service to UH Hilo. She chaired the UH Hilo Athletic Fund Drive from 1992-1995. She has also served on the UH Hilo Athletic Advisory Board since 2003. She is a charter member of Hui Ka‘ua, serving on various committees, and co-chaired the Food Committee for the 2008 UH Hilo New Faculty Reception. Her company, Ginoza Realty, Inc., donated money to furnish the Vulcan softball team in 2003. In 2007, she contributed $1,000 to the UH Hilo Performing Arts “Name a Seat” campaign, and is the newest member to join the Performing Arts Center’s Advisory Committee.
For her exemplary service to town and gown, which has helped to bring both closer together, UH Hilo is recognizing Carol S. Ginoza-Arikawa with the Distinguished Alumni Award.
Dr. Ron Terry
After receiving his baccalaureate in geography from UH Hilo, Ron Terry earned his PhD from Louisiana State University. He served as a full-time associate professor at UH Hilo from 1987-1992. He developed a reputation as an excellent teacher of geography and environmental sciences. He launched the successful independent consulting company Geometrician Associates in 1991 and left his full-time teaching position in 1992.
Dr. Terry has completed over 100 Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements. He interacts closely with land use and planning professionals and environmental interest groups in order to maintain a balanced perspective on environmental, public sector and private sector perspectives.
Despite his busy schedule as a successful CEO, Dr. Terry has taught at least one course each year at UH Hilo in Environmental Impact Assessment and has also provided frequent guest lectures for other Geography courses. His experience as an environmental consultant makes him an invaluable resource to educators not involved in the business and policy spheres outside of the University.
Dr. Terry served several years as education chairman of the Hawai`i Island Economic Development Board. In 2000, then-Governor Ben Cayetano appointed Dr. Terry to the State’s Marine and Coastal Zone Advocacy Council (MCZAC), a public advisory body that addresses coastal issues and advocates for the State’s Coastal Zone Management Program initiatives. He has provided his environmental expertise pro bono to a number of community initiatives, including forest stewardship, Hawaiian farming rights, cultural learning and community facilities. Geometrician Associates supports the arts as a long-term corporate sponsor of the Hawai‘i Concert Society. In June 2008, Dr. Terry established the Geography Founders Scholarship. He named the $25,000 endowed scholarship after UH Hilo’s Geography Department founders Drs. Jim and Sonya Juvik, Jim Kelly and Jack Healy, who all inspired and encouraged him to continue his education after earning his degree at UH Hilo.
Dr. Terry’s motivation has always been a sense of obligation to give back to the people and place that have helped to shape his character and his success, making him a most worthy recipient of UH Hilo’s Distinguished Alumni Award.
Lehua Veincent
Known affectionately by many as “Kumu Lehua,” Lehua Mark Veincent is on the vanguard of Hawaiian language immersion education. The Hawai‘i Island native with genealogical ties to Ka‘u, Puna and Keaukaha, earned dual degrees at UH Hilo -- a BA in Hawaiian studies and a BBA in business in 1988, plus teacher certification in 1990.
Mr. Veincent has served as a teacher at Keaukaha School in Hilo, Pa‘ia Elementary School on Maui and Ke Kula ‘o Nawahïokalani‘opu‘u when it was established in 1994. He has taught Kindergarten through 12th grades. He has also served as a lecturer and supervisor in the teacher education program at UH Hilo. For over two decades, Kumu Lehua has taught and coordinated the Hawaiian language, literature, and cultural classes for the DOE Community School for Adults. He served as producer, host, curriculum developer, and instructor of ITV Hawaiian Language Conversation through a partnership between Hilo Community School for Adults and Pacific Resources for Education and Learning.
Mr. Veincent earned two masters degrees from UH Manoa, in curriculum and instruction in 1999 and in educational administration in 2002. In 2001 he co-founded the Ke Ana La‘ahana Public Charter School, a grades 7-12 Hawaiian cultural-based school within Keaukaha School. He has served as a State resource teacher in Hawaiian studies and language, vice principal at Hilo Intermediate and Hilo High Schools, and principal of Ke Ana La‘ahana.
Kumu Lehua is currently principal of Keaukaha Elementary School – a K-6 school on Hawaiian Home Lands, which has gained recognition as one of the schools meeting annual yearly progress goals under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Although his tireless energy, boundless enthusiasm and countless hours of hard work contributed immeasurably to the school’s academic excellence, Kumu Lehua unselfishly and characteristically attributed its success to the students and parents.
Despite the long hours required of an administrator, Kumu Lehua continues to serve as coordinator of the Keaukaha night tutorial program for grades K-12 and summer school programs for high school students of Keaukaha with Aunty Luana Kawelu of the Queen Lili‘uokalani Children’s Center, as he has for 12 years. He also continues to teach Hawaiian language in the evenings in Keaukaha and recently at the Kulani Correctional Facility.
His dedication to the education of the youth of the island has earned Kumu Lehua Veincent the Distinguished Alumni Award.
Representative Clift Tsuji, 2009 Distinguished Service Awardee
As a career banker, State Representative Clift Tsuji understands the positive economic impact a strong university has on a community such as Hilo, both as a large-scale employer and as an educator of the local workforce.
The retired Central Pacific Bank senior vice president has long been a staunch supporter of UH Hilo. Now in his third term representing the 3rd House District, Rep. Tsuji has assumed a proactive role as a creator of and advocate for legislative initiatives to benefit UH Hilo.
In the 2007 and 2008 legislative sessions, Rep. Tsuji introduced three bills and one concurrent resolution directly affecting UH Hilo, two relating to Hawaiian language education. As Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Tsuji introduced a measure requesting that the UH Hilo College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management collaborate with the State Department of Agriculture and Hawai`i Community College to conduct a study to evaluate programs developed by the Kulani Correctional Facility to aid in the revitalization of State agriculture.
Closer to home, Rep. Tsuji has worked as a member of the UH Hilo Education Department’s Advisory and Advocacy Group. He provided support for Associate Professor Seri Luangphinith and the book project of her English 323 class, Ku Kilakila: Writing from the Big Island. In addition, he supported repairs to the Manono Street Campus, testified before the Board of Regents in support of the China-U.S. Center and worked to advance the UH Hilo Baccalaureate Nursing program and to fund faculty positions.
Rep. Clift Tsuji is a friend and ally to UH Hilo and we are proud to present him with the Distinguished Service Award.
Margaret Ushijima, 2009 Distinguished Service Awardee
Margaret S. Ushijima was born and raised on the Big Island of Hawai`i in the town of Laupahoehoe. One of four children (two boys and two girls), Ms. Ushijima's parents held the then uncommon view that promising women as well as men should be ale to pursue higher education. After graduating from Laupahoehoe High School, Ms. Ushijima went on to Illinois Wesleyan University where she received her BA in Social Science in 1949 before obtaining her Master's in Social Work from the prestigious Smith College in 1952.
Margaret Ushijima began her service in 1963 with the University of Hawai`i Hilo Campus as it was then known in 1963. She led the Office of Student Services as director and then dean of students from 1968 to 1973. She served in that capacity until her retirement in 1980. As dean of students at what would ultimately become the University of Hawai`i at Hilo, Ms. Ushijima counseled and encouraged many students to fully develop their academic potential. In some cases, this also required her to urge students to "buckle down" and make their time in college productive.
After serving as the Dean of Students at UH Hilo, Ms. Ushijima returned again to school where she obtained her J.D. degree from the Richardson School of Law at UH Manoa. After her graduation, she joined her husband in a family firm, Ushijima & Ushijima.
Margearet Ushijima has served as a boad member of the University of Hawai`i Foundation, a member of the Hawai`i State Commission on the Status of Women and Hawai`i County and State Bar Associations and a board member on a number of other public, professional and community organizations. Since her retirement from the practice of law in 2003, Ms. Ushijima continues to be active in community affairs, working with people when she is not absorbed by her passion in reading.
A great many UH Hilo graduates attribute much of their success to the encouragement, help and candor that Margaret Ushijima provided. She and her husband John, also personally provided financial assistance to promising students whose circumstances would not otherwise allow them to continue in school. They provided this assistance without seeking recognition or acclaim.
John Ushijima, 2009 Distinguished Service Awardee
The late John T. Ushijima grew up in pre-World War II Hawai`i at a time when most Hawai`i citizens did not have the opportunity to pursue higher education. Following graduation from Hilo High School, Mr. Ushijima enlised in the Army and served as a member of the famed 442nd Regimental Combat team. The GI bill of rights made it possible for many Hawai`i veterans to consider for the first time the notion of continuing education beyond High school.
Mr. Ushijima took that opportunity and to enroll in Grinnell College where he obtained his bachelor's degree before receiving his J.D. from George Washington University.
With his academic accomplishments under his belt. Mr. Ushijima returned to Hawai`i where he joined attorney Martin Pence and soon became his law partner at Pence and Ushijima. Soon thereafter, Mr. Pence become Judge Pence and Mr. Ushijima added two new partners to form Ushijima, Nakamoto and Yuda. While practicing law in Hilo and during the Statehood elections of 1959, he was elected to the State Senate, where he served as a State Senator from 1959 to 1982. During the span of 23 years there, he was one of the Senate's most influential and effective members including serving as the long standing Chair of the powerful Judiciary Committee and also as the Senate's President.
During his tenure at the Senate, Mr. Ushijima was also instrumental in the transformation of the two-year transfer institution that was the University of Hawai`i Hilo Campus to a full four-year degree granting college. At a time when there was considerable resistance to the idea of having a second 4-year degree-granting institution in Hawai`i, he brought his considerable influence in the Legislature to bear to make a degree-granting college in Hilo a reality. He also worked to secure substantial appropriations to finance the infrastructural development of the campus. After his retirement from the Senate, Mr. Ushijima was appointed to the University of Hawai`i Board of Regents in 1987 and served for eight years. His community service included serving on the boards at Waiakea Settlement YMCA and the Hilo Jaycees. He continued his law practice with his wife, Margaret, at Ushijima & Ushijima. Both demonstrated a passion for social justice. They lived their belief that higher education is indispensable to creating and preserving an open and equal society where a person's stature is determined by their own character and accomplishments and not by ethnic, economic, gender or other unfair and arbitrary factors. At their retirement in 2003, they donated much of their koa and eucalyptus office furniture worth about $7,000 to UH Hilo. John Ushijima passed away August 13, 2006 at age 82.