{"id":57194,"date":"2017-03-09T15:07:12","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T01:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=57194"},"modified":"2019-04-24T10:32:13","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T20:32:13","slug":"uh-manoa-honors-in-psychology-graduate-is-selected-as-national-luce-scholar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/03\/09\/uh-manoa-honors-in-psychology-graduate-is-selected-as-national-luce-scholar\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M\u0101noa honors in psychology graduate is selected as national Luce Scholar"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_57261\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-57261\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/manoa-auelua-toomey1.jpg\" alt=\"Toomey on roof top with city backdrop behind him\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" class=\"size-full wp-image-57261\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/manoa-auelua-toomey1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/manoa-auelua-toomey1-260x146.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-57261\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sakaria &ldquo;Sai&rdquo; Auelua-Toomey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"clear-photo\"><a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M&#257;noa<\/a> alumnus <strong>Sakaria &ldquo;Sai&rdquo; Auelua-Toomey<\/strong> has been named a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hluce.org\/lsprogram.aspx\">2017 Luce Scholar<\/a>. This marks the second time in two consecutive years that <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M&#257;noa has been successful in fostering a Luce Scholar.\u00a0The Luce Scholars Program identifies promising young leaders for a year-long experience of working in Asia. Seventy-five top universities across the United States nominate up to three candidates annually.<\/p>\n<p>Auelua-Toomey\u00a0is one of approximately 175 nominees who were considered from across the United States, with about 45\u00a0making the final interviews in San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C. About 15&#8211;20 Luce Scholars are selected from that pool of finalists annually.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Related <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> News story<\/strong>: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/18\/uh-manoa-graduate-alexandra-mcdougle-selected-as-luce-scholar\/\"><abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M&#257;noa graduate Alexandra McDougle selected as Luce Scholar<\/a><\/em>, February 18, 2016<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>His path to this prestigious fellowship was not traditional. As Auelua-Toomey\u00a0tells it, he barely finished high school and had no interest in going to college. He spent two years working at a local grocery store and only started to attend <a href=\"http:\/\/www.honolulu.hawaii.edu\/\">Honolulu Community College<\/a> because he wanted to enter the police program.<\/p>\n<p>As that program was full, he instead tried courses in psychology and speech while waiting. He credits an early Honolulu <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr> mentor, Associate Professor <strong>Jennifer Higa-King<\/strong>,\u00a0as &ldquo;seeing something in me that I didn&#8217;t see in myself.&rdquo; He earned a 4.0 <abbr title=\"grade point average\">GPA<\/abbr> that year, but did not\u00a0get accepted into the police program. Instead, he detoured through the Air Force for a year, then\u00a0used the G.I. Bill to continue his education at <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M&#257;noa, where he double majored in communicology and psychology, graduating in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>For his ambitious honors thesis in psychology, Auelua-Toomey\u00a0collaborated with the <a href=\"https:\/\/iancommunity.org\/\" >Interactive Autism Network<\/a> at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to investigate individuals with autism spectrum disorder perception, which led to his first publication in the <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/undergrad\/horizons\/\"><em>M&#257;noa Horizons<\/em><\/a> undergraduate journal.<\/p>\n<h2>Undergraduate <abbr title=\"human immunodeficiency virus\">HIV<\/abbr> research in Thailand<\/h2>\n<p>He was drawn to the Luce Scholars program because of his interest\u00a0in intercultural communication, which was developed through\u00a0different research opportunities as an undergraduate. He traveled to Thailand through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nimhd.nih.gov\/programs\/extramural\/international-research-training.html\">Minority Health International Research Training Program<\/a> with the <a href=\"http:\/\/jabsom.hawaii.edu\/\">John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a>. Supervised by James Campbell and Charlene Tomas at the Thai Red Cross in Thailand, his project focused on reducing <abbr>HIV<\/abbr> infection rates in transgender women populations through the use of health questionnaires. He also credits Associate Professor <strong>Kristin Pauker<\/strong> from the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M&#257;noa <a href=\"http:\/\/www.psychology.hawaii.edu\/\">Department of\u00a0Psychology<\/a> for supervising\u00a0his work as a research assistant in her <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/isplab\/\">Intergroup Social Perceptions Lab<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Since graduation, Auelua-Toomey\u00a0continues to pursue research interests in psychology and communications, as well as international and intercultural communication. He participated in the Language and Information Internship Program at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/\" >Stanford University<\/a>, where&#8212;under the mentorship of Thomas Icard&#8212;he examined how moral judgment affected decision-making.<\/p>\n<h2>Continuing leadership and scholarship<\/h2>\n<p>Currently, Auelua-Toomey\u00a0is a seminar leader at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, a U.S. Department of Defense institute on <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> that addresses regional and global security issues with participation of representatives from the United States and more than 40\u00a0Asia-Pacific nations. He also works with children with autism through the Behavior Change Institute.<\/p>\n<p>Following and building on his experience in the Luce Scholars Program, he\u00a0plans to pursue a doctoral degree in psychology and cognitive sciences, with a focus on international communication. He hopes to increase the representation of Pacific Islanders in higher education, saying,\u00a0&ldquo;I couldn&#8217;t see myself in academia because I had no role models.&rdquo; The Luce Scholars Program is a big step toward this goal.<\/p>\n<p>In June, Auelua-Toomey\u00a0will travel to\u00a0New York and San Francisco, spending a week of training in each before being placed in Asia. He hopes his year abroad\u00a0will give him an opportunity to research how collectivist societies have different frames of perception, communication and decision-making in comparison to\u00a0American culture.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_57264\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-57264\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/manoa-auelua-toomey2.jpg\" alt=\"Auelua-Toomey pointing at a chart in a group\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" class=\"size-full wp-image-57264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/manoa-auelua-toomey2.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/manoa-auelua-toomey2-260x173.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-57264\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Auelua-Toomey with colleagues<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sakaria &ldquo;Sai&rdquo; Auelua-Toomey&#8217;s interest in intercultural communication has driven his work in autism, <abbr title=\"human immunodeficiency virus\">HIV<\/abbr> research and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":57261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[679,62,9],"class_list":["post-57194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni-recognition","tag-honolulu-community-college","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/manoa-auelua-toomey1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57194","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=57194"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95131,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57194\/revisions\/95131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}