Two longtime champions of civic engagement at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa were recognized for nearly three decades of service and leadership. Ulla Hasager and Atina Pascua were selected as the 2025 recipients of the Western Region Engaged Scholar Award presented by the Western Region Continuums of Service (WRCOS) Consortium.
The award honors faculty who demonstrate exceptional leadership in advancing civic engagement on campus, addressing community issues through public scholarship, and promoting educational equity. Pascua and Hasager were honored at the 2025 WRCOS conference, held in March in Seattle, Washington.
The 2025 WRCOS Conference theme, “Higher Education: Honoring our Connections to Place and Indigenous Communities,” aligns with its mission to elevate Indigenous knowledge and strengthen community-university relationships.
Decades of civic leadership recognized
“Receiving the Western Region Continuums of Service Award in the Engaged Scholar category was an amazing recognition of three decades of close collaboration for us,” said Pascua, director of the Office of Civic and Community Engagement.
Hasager, director of civic engagement in the College of Social Sciences added, “Coming from both academic and administrative approaches, we worked together to create deeply meaningful partnerships with our communities and build opportunities for students, staff and faculty at UH Mānoa and beyond.”
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Hasager and Pascua’s award followed UH Mānoa’s 2023 recognition with the WRCOS Western Region Engaged Campus Award, further strengthening the university’s role as a national and international leader in civic and community engagement. Their work also played a key role in the latest WASC/abbr> accreditation and UH Mānoa’s recent application for the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement.
Hasager and Pascua noted that the most rewarding part of the Carnegie application process was building networks, developing tools and gathering information on how widespread civic engagement has become across campus.
This recognition further highlights UH Mānoa’s commitment to its identity as a Native Hawaiian place of learning, with nearly 90 departments and 250 courses across the university integrating civic engagement.
