Chancellor’s Message
Chamber Connection

June 2009

Celebrating Spring Commencement and a $1.5 million anonymous donation

UH Hilo celebrated Spring Commencement on May 16. It was a joy to see the support of friends, families and the community for our graduates. Many state and county elected officials also attended to honor our graduates.

Our keynote speaker was Jerry Yang, co-founder and Chief Yahoo at Yahoo! Mr. Yang also was awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, from UH. He really enjoyed becoming part of the UH Hilo ‘ohana!

Jerry has an impressive background as co-developer of Yahoo! in 1994 while working toward his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University. He was chief executive officer of Yahoo! in 2007-2009. He currently serves on the board of directors of Cisco Systems, Yahoo! Japan, and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and is also on Stanford’s Board of Trustees. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford and is currently on a leave of absence from Stanford’s electrical engineering Ph.D. program.

I’ve known Jerry many years from when I lived in Silicon Valley, and as I knew he would, he delivered an inspiring and timely keynote to our graduates. He emphasized the importance of looking past adversity such as a down economy, reminding everyone, not just our graduates, that from adversity comes innovation and new ideas.

“Great companies, great ideas, products, even social movements have come about as people are throwing away the status quo and doing everything in new ways,” he said. “In some ways, there’s not a better time to be a graduate, to be part of this renewal.”

He emphasized hard work and perseverance, and encouraged our graduates to explore the world as much as possible. He told us he’d spent six months in Japan as a graduate student, making friends who later helped him start Yahoo! He said traveling changed his worldview on people, cultures, and ideologies.

These important concepts Jerry talked about—innovation, new ideas, hard work, a global perspective— are all activities and values we promote and cultivate in our students for just the reasons he cited. Our students are well prepared to address the challenges of a global marketplace.

“Information technology has flattened the world, and your UH Hilo education has prepared you well,” Jerry said in his keynote. “You need to appreciate how great your potential is, given the incredible tools you are blessed with.”

You can view Jerry’s entire address on video posted on my website.

In other news, I’m excited to report UH Hilo received an anonymous donation of $1.5 million. At the donor’s request, $1 million is designated for financial assistance and scholarships to all eligible students. An additional $500,000 is designated for unrestricted purposes, enabling the university to advance its goals.

UH Hilo will use this groundbreaking gift to recruit and retain the students from Hawai‘i and elsewhere, to remove barriers to student access and achievement, and to enhance programs that support student success.

UH Hilo is proud to be recognized with this wonderful vote of confidence in our ability to transform the lives of our students. The university serves as an economic engine for our state and region, and we will repay this investment many times over as our students graduate and take their place in the professional workforce.

Mahalo for all you support. When we all work together, great things happen!

Aloha,
Rose Tseng