Richardson Law Strengthens Cross-Campus Partnership on Multilingual Multicultural Professional Practice

On September 11, Associate Dean Troy Andrade ʻ11 and Professor Eduardo Capulong, Director of Experiential Learning, represented the William S. Richardson School of Law at a gathering highlighting the University of Hawai‘i’s Multilingual Multicultural Professional Practice. The program is a collaboration among Richardson Law, the College of Education, and the College of Arts, Languages, and Letters, and is designed to prepare graduate students to bring language and cultural awareness into their professional work.

The 15-credit interdisciplinary program trains students to collaborate across disciplines while developing skills in language access, cross-cultural communication, and multilingual awareness. Richardson faculty members Professors Alina Boyte, D Dangaran, and Dina Shek ʻ06, along with Associate Director of Graduate & International Programs Lori Downes, also attended the event.

Leadership for the program comes from UH colleagues Patricia Halagao, Christina Higgins, Dina Yoshimi, Graham Crookes, Betsy Gilliland, and E. Brook Chapman de Sousa. Together, they are working to expand the certificate’s reach and impact, equipping students from a variety of fields with skills that strengthen their ability to serve Hawai‘i’s communities.

“It’s really exciting to reinvigorate this program and work collaboratively with our colleagues from across the University,” said Associate Dean Andrade.

Professor Capulong emphasized the importance of the initiative for both law students and the state’s broader community. “Hawai‘i is an exceedingly diverse, multicultural community. And law is a profession of words. Language access and cross-cultural competence are therefore essential to access to justice and law practice. This certificate equips our students with these skills and more.”

For Richardson Law, participation in the program reflects a commitment to advancing access to justice, building cultural competence, and preparing graduates to meet the needs of Hawai‘i’s multilingual communities.