Or, in English, “Striving for the summit”.
This phrase happens to be the theme for our 42nd annual lūʽau which is on Saturday April 21st.
Every year the Hawaii club on campus, Hui O Hawaii, puts on a lūʽau during the Spring family weekend for the campus community, the Tacoma community, and family and friends. There’s a lot of work put into putting on the lū’au, since it is student run.
This year is the first year that I’m actually dancing in the show, since I’m a horrible dancer and have the grace of C-3PO. But, since this is my last year here at UPS, I figured that I should participate. One of the great things about lūʽau is that participation is not limited to students from Hawaii. In fact, I think most of the dancers in the show are not from Hawaii. Lūʽau is a great way to share the Hawaiian culture. There’s also a Tahitian dance number, a Maori number, and a Samoan slap dance. I’m actually sitting in the fieldhouse right now watching a run through of the show, and it’s looking really great!
Last weekend, the Phi Sigma Biological Honor Society hosted the Phi Sigma Undergraduate Research Symposium on campus. The symposium consisted of talks given by students about their research, with the kickoff talk by Dr. Adam Summers who works at Friday Harbor laboratories. It was really interesting to listen to the research done by other students, as well as Dr. Summers, and as a requirement for my senior thesis, I presented the research I did this past summer. I was definitely nervous, but I think I did alright.
Keep on striving for the summit!