What is the RISE project, and why is the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE) at the Shidler College of Business involving itself in student housing?
RISE is a six-story, live-learn-work innovation and entrepreneurship center, with student housing for 374 students that’s opening at the University of Hawaii next month. It is one of a few across the country and the first of its kind in Hawaii.
As our world continues to rapidly change on many fronts, whether it be environmental, technological, geopolitical or demographical, educational institutions are faced with the challenge of preparing students for these ever- evolving realities.
PACE, the University of Hawaii and the University of Hawaii Foundation are tackling that challenge by creating this immersive, cutting-edge complex for our UH students to grow and transform into the next generation of leaders and problem solvers who can respond to these rapid changes.
RISE is located at the corner of University Avenue and Metcalf Street, about a 3-minute walk from Campus Center. In addition to dorm-style rooms, students will have access to our 10,000 square feet of innovation and ideation space on the second floor, including coworking, maker and event spaces, a recording studio, and our experiential programs and resources.
What kind of specialized training will be available to students at RISE, and will it complement classroom learning?
In addition to our core programs, like the UH Venture Competition, Summer Startup Launchpad, Liftoff Advisors and Professionals-in-Residence, PACE is engaging 50 UH students for our newest initiative, the PACE Leaders program, to lead, shape, design and deliver many of the activities at RISE — enabling our students to enrich the educational experience of their peers, while enhancing their own entrepreneurial skills. The PACE Leaders will hold pitch nights for students to share their ideas, connect with peers and have the chance to win seed money; make-and-take events to build prototypes; speaker series to inspire; workshops to level up their skills; and open houses and events to convene, connect, collaborate and showcase their ideas.
RISE and PACE are open to students from any discipline and any UH campus, including the community colleges. In fact, we’re thrilled that the inaugural group of RISE residents represents every college and school at UH-Manoa. Thanks to the support from our many generous donors and Dean Vance Roley of the Shidler College of Business, our programs are offered for free to the entire UH student population.
PACE regularly collaborates with faculty from various colleges. We see our experiential programs and resources as a complement to the academic knowledge that students learn in the classroom, giving our students a step-up as they navigate the pathway to their careers and beyond.
How will you measure the success of this program?
When the Foundation purchased the property in 2017 at the site of the former Atherton YMCA, the goals for the project revolved around offering much-needed student housing and doing it in a sustainable way. Through a collaborative public- private partnership (P3), the iconic pink Charles Atherton House is being renovated and two connected six-story buildings are going up, without any state funds. RISE is opening its doors less than two years after breaking ground. …
We are looking forward to creating a vibrant ecosystem at RISE and with the greater community, where all UH students can come together to explore their passions, address pressing challenges, prototype, test and showcase their ideas, and build long-lasting relationships with their peers and with local and global businesses — so that upon graduation, they not only have a degree in hand, but also an enhanced set of skills to guide and empower them to successfully navigate their professional careers.
What role do the private partners play in RISE, and who will manage it?
RISE is the first P3 housing project at UH and it’s the first real estate project for the UH Foundation. UH is the public partner, while UH Foundation, as the owner, and Hunt Development Group Hawaii, the developer, are the private partners. Our private partners financed the $70 million construction cost using tax-exempt bonds, so there’s no taxpayer financing, and those bonds will be repaid through rents from the housing. PACE, along with UH Foundation, raised more than $5 million from local individuals, companies and foundations for the construction cost to build out our innovation space and cover the cost of operations and student scholarships in the first few years of operation. This year, we have about $500,000 available in scholarship funds for students who choose to live at RISE and participate in our PACE Leaders program. RISE is the first externally managed student housing at UH. B.Hom Student Living was contracted to handle leasing and management of the facility.
How does your background as an intellectual property attorney apply to your current role?
I was surrounded by creators, innovators and problem-solvers from those in the earliest stage of idea formation to commercialization, whether it be an individual starting their own company to a corporation developing a new product/service. Those who emerged as leaders possessed a combination of subject-matter expertise and the soft skills that we refer to as the “entrepreneurial mindset” at PACE, namely, the ability to collaborate with others, effectively communicate, and be creative, resourceful, resilient and a critical thinker. These are life skills that cut across disciplines and are beneficial at every level of one’s career. At PACE, we provide a safe space to foster and master those soft skills before our students enter the workforce so that they are career-ready and life-ready to identify opportunities, create value and tackle whatever challenge comes their way.
THE BIO FILE
>> Current job: Executive director of PACE, the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship at the Shidler College of Business.
>> Previous employment: Intellectual property attorney; innovation and business development officer (Office of Innovation and Commercialization, University of Hawaii System)
>> Personal background: Double Bruin: UCLA B.S. in biochemistry, J.D., UCLA School of Law
>> Outside interests: Spending time with family and friends
>> One more thing: We invite you to join us on this journey to come together and create a vibrant community for our students to tackle our greatest challenges and build a reimagined future for Hawaii. To learn more and/or to apply to live at RISE, visit pace.shidler.hawaii.edu/rise.
