{"id":179171,"date":"2023-06-21T12:09:32","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T22:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=179171"},"modified":"2024-03-15T12:42:40","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T22:42:40","slug":"janice-ikeda-honorary-law-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/06\/21\/janice-ikeda-honorary-law-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawai\u02bbi CC<\/abbr>, 东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo alumna\u2019s community work earns honorary law degree"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"janice
Janice Ikeda, center, received an honorary Doctor of Law degree. (Photo Credit: Gonzaga University)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After receiving a scholarship from local nonprofit Alu Like at the start of her college career 22 years ago, Hawaiʻi<\/span> Community College<\/a> and University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> alumna Janice Ikeda has come full circle in the Hawaiʻi<\/span> Island community. Today, she serves as the executive director of Vibrant Hawaiʻi<\/span>, a nonprofit collective-impact organization that has been convening resilience hubs, supporting digital literacy, distributing grants and micro-investments and more.<\/p>\n

Ikeda\u2019s work with Vibrant Hawaiʻi<\/span> caught the attention of Gonzaga University leadership, and on May 13, 2023, she delivered the keynote address and was awarded an honorary doctor of law degree at Gonzaga University\u2019s graduate school commencement.<\/p>\n

It was a tremendous honor, Ikeda said, but noted it was an entire community of people being recognized.<\/p>\n

“Before starting an ʻaha<\/span>, or a meeting, we often ask folks, ‘Who are you bringing with you into this space?’” said Ikeda. “I brought with me everyone from Hawaiʻi<\/span> Island and throughout our state who has been a part of this endeavor to build a thriving and vibrant Hawaiʻi<\/span>. It was an honor that I received on behalf of us all.”<\/p>\n

Building courage<\/h2>\n

Ikeda was a young single mom at the time she encountered Alu Like, a nonprofit that distributes scholarships for Native Hawaiian students to attend college.<\/p>\n

“I was feeling like a complete failure as a wife, as a mom, and as an adult,” Ikeda said.
\nAlu Like\u2019s scholarship helped her enroll at Hawaiʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr> where she majored in information technology. Hawaiʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr> became part of Ikeda\u2019s base of support, which she credits with setting her on a new path.<\/p>\n

“It reframed my identity and gave me opportunities to build capacity and learn things that in turn built confidence, built courage and the feeling that if I could do this thing that is hard, maybe I could do something else that\u2019s hard, too,” Ikeda said.<\/p>\n

After graduating from Hawaiʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr>, Ikeda earned a bachelor\u2019s degree from 东精影业<\/abbr> Hilo, a master\u2019s degree from Gonzaga University and built a career working at Hawaiʻi<\/span> Island nonprofits, most notably Vibrant Hawaiʻi<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Get chance<\/h2>\n

Since 2018, Ikeda has been the executive director of Vibrant Hawaiʻi<\/span>, convening resources, people, communities, knowledge and experience to ensure people have a chance and a choice—values reflected in the grounding statement of the organization.<\/p>\n

“Our former Mayor, Billy Kenoi, said, ‘Everyone just wants to know that they get chance, and they get choice,’” Ikeda said. “Chance is what we are given, it is that expression of equity. Choice is our agency and what we do with the chances that are offered to us.”<\/p>\n

Ikeda and Vibrant Hawaiʻi<\/span> were also given the Mahalo Award by Hawaiʻi<\/span> CC<\/abbr> this year, which recognizes community organizations that support the college and its students.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s like my personal manifesto that resonates in that grounding statement,” she said. “That\u2019s speaking directly to that young single mom I was.”<\/p>\n

Ikeda noted her journey holds lessons “not only for the person who is feeling like a failure, but more so for those of us who are now in positions of privilege to create conditions and invitations for others to have a chance.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Janice Ikeda delivered Gonzaga University\u2019s keynote address at the spring 2023 graduate school commencement ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[90,679,61,71,14,947,1626],"class_list":["post-179171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-recognition","tag-hawaii-community-college","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-system","tag-women-of-uh","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179171"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179182,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179171\/revisions\/179182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}