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On Saturday, thousands of students at the University of Hawaii Manoa received their long-awaited diplomas and celebrated this very joyous occasion with lots of cheering and hugs from their family and friends. 

I’m sure the latter gave them many lei to congratulate them in keeping with a Hawaii tradition, which has spread to many universities in the continental United States.

But before joining their relatives and friends, the graduates had to listen to the obligatory speeches – hopefully inspiring – by the featured speakers. 

Having retired from the university three years ago and because current professors are generally not asked to give commencement addresses, I have since thought about what I would say to graduates if I was asked to speak at a UH Manoa graduation ceremony. 

I think my speech would take off from John F. Kennedy’s well-known presidential inaugural address in 1961 in which he famously declared that Americans should, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

When I graduated from college about 50 years ago with the military draft and the war in Vietnam ongoing, I didn’t have to ask what the United States wanted me to do.

In fact, Uncle Sam informed me in writing.

Shortly after I attended my commencement ceremony, I received a letter from my draft board. It instructed me that, since I no longer was eligible for a student deferment, I had to report on a certain day for a physical examination before possibly being drafted.

My speech to the graduates would have a far more optimistic message.

Instead of America, which Kennedy emphasized, I would urge the graduates to ask themselves what can they do for Hawaii now that they have their college degree. 

I also would not just raise that question for them but would provide them with an answer. That answer would be to use the skills, knowledge and abilities they have acquired while earning their degree to address some of the problems that confront the people of Hawaii. 

Admittedly, this task is easier for some graduates, such as those in nursing or social work than for others whose degrees are in philosophy or accounting. But all of them, I would reassure them, can think of something they can do either directly or indirectly toward alleviating our current circumstances.

Rather than review for them the many critical issues we face in Hawaii, the primary problem that I would encourage the graduates to consider addressing is K-12 public education, particularly the long-term teacher shortage. 

I would tell them what I used to say to my students who were graduating in May. If they don’t have a job lined up, they could have a full-time position a few months later as a public school teacher, even though they don’t have a bachelor’s degree in education.

The reason for the graduates’ possible good fortune is because the Department of Education has been starting the new school year for several decades lacking several hundred teachers. The DOE partial solution to this predicament has been to recruit “emergency hire” teachers.

These instructors are paid less, as they should be, than a beginning licensed teacher with a teaching credential and they receive no holiday, vacation, sick leave, unemployment, or health insurance benefits that other state workers are provided. 

But they do have a professional job befitting a college graduate, and they do contribute to ensuring that our public school students have an instructor in their classroom. In this way, I would emphasize to the graduates, they would be playing a small but significant role in challenging educational inequality in Hawaii. 

Their individual efforts and those of others, I would tell them, are needed because of the continuing underfunding of public education by our state legislature, despite having a $2 billion surplus to allocate this past session. 

To convince the graduates that I’m not recommending something I wouldn’t do myself, I would let them know that I was an emergency hire employee at the state Department of Health for six months after I returned to Hawaii from working in the Philippines and couldn’t obtain an academic job.

I also would inform the graduates of a nonprofit, nationwide organization called . Teach For America Hawaii recruits and selects recent college graduates, including those without a degree in education, to teach in K-12 public schools on Oahu and Hawaii island.

Currently, TFA Hawaii teachers, who are DOE employees, are assigned primarily to schools in leeward and central Oahu where the need for educators is very high, and they also serve in schools in Kona.

As a significant benefit, TFA Hawaii provides their teachers the opportunity to participate in a state-approved and nationally-accredited teacher education program. Upon completing it, they are eligible for licensure as a teacher in Hawaii, generally after the first year of teaching.

For graduates who are undecided about what they will do next—whether to begin a professional career or to attend graduate or professional school—I would recommend that they consider becoming a volunteer at either a public or private organization. 

Public organizations include educational institutions, such as the DOE schools and the University of Hawaii. I would tell the graduates they can provide much needed tutoring assistance to immigrant and other minority students in the public schools, something I did in South Central Los Angeles while an undergraduate.

Given their success at completing their degrees, I would suggest that the graduates inquire about volunteering in UH offices and programs, particularly those that serve underrepresented minority students, and thereby contribute to their graduation. At UH Manoa, these offices include Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity, the Office of Multicultural Student Services, and Native Hawaiian Student Services. 

Private, nonprofit organizations that likely can use volunteers include the Filipino Community Center, the Susannah Wesley Community Center, and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii. These are settings where I had students in my Ethnic Studies courses do volunteer service-learning activities.

In closing my commencement address, I would say to the graduates, “As you think about what you will do next in your life, think also about the lives of Hawaii’s people and what you can do for them, especially those who are less fortunate than yourself. Mahalo nui and congratulations to our graduates and their families.”

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.