103rd Commencement Exercises to be held on May 17 at Stan Sheriff Center

Daniel Dae Kim will be Undergraduate Ceremony keynote speaker.

Dr. Kaman'opono Crabbe will be Advanced Degree Ceremony keynote speaker.

The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s 103rd Commencement Exercises will take place at the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday, May 17, 2014. The Undergraduate Ceremony is from 9:00 a.m. to noon and the Advanced Degree Ceremony is from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.  There will be approximately 1,500 candidates for bachelor’s degrees, and 600 advanced degree candidates.

Commencement Speakers and Honorary Degree Honoree:

The keynote speaker for the Undergraduate Ceremony will be actor, producer and Hawai‘i Five-0 cast member Daniel Dae Kim. He has starred in a number of stage, television and film productions, including Lost and Crash.  He received his MFA from New York University.  Kim and his family reside in Honolulu, where they have made their home for the past 10 years.

The undergraduate student speaker will be Safiyah AbdelJawad, a candidate for a Bachelor of Education degree.  Originally from Palestine, she was raised in Hawai‘i and attended McKinley High School.  Following graduation, she intends to pursue advanced degrees in Curriculum Studies and Educational Law and Policy.

The keynote speaker for the Advanced Degree Ceremony is Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Chief Executive Officer Kamanaʻopono M. Crabbe, PhD.  Before joining OHA, he was the Director of Psychology Training at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Center.  He earned his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Kekuni Blaisdell, MD, will be awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters during the Advanced Degree Ceremony.  He is widely recognized as a pillar of the medical profession in Hawai‘i, with accomplishments including the founding of the Department of Native Hawaiian Health, UH John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Logistics:

Doors to the Stan Sheriff Center will open at 7:45 a.m. for the Undergraduate Ceremony and at 2:00 p.m. for the Advanced Degree Ceremony. Both events are free and open to the public. No tickets are issued, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Balloons and strollers are not allowed inside the Stan Sheriff Center.

Parking: 

Free parking will be available in the Lower Campus parking structure, which will open at 6:00 a.m.  The Rainbow Shuttle service, which is wheelchair accessible, will be provided for the undergraduate ceremony only and runs a continuous route from the Biomedical Science Building to Krauss Circle.

Greeting the graduates:

Friends and family members may greet graduates following the ceremony on the football practice field (surnames A-J), on the soccer practice field (K-T), and at the softball stadium (U-Z).  Authorized lei vendors will be located in these areas.

Live webcast and more information:

There will be a live webcast of the undergraduate ceremony. To view the live webcast, and for other information such as disability accommodations and the Rainbow Shuttle route, see the Commencement wbsite at http://manoa.hawaii.edu/commencement/.