Cidney Hopkins.
Cidney Hopkins (Bachelor of Arts in International Studies ‘22) will represent the undergraduates of the Spring Class of 2022 at the Saturday, May 7, afternoon graduation ceremony as the valedictory speaker. Hopkins, of Knoxville, Tennessee, embodies the HPU value of aloha by giving back to the HPU ‘ohana as much as she receives, according to her professors. She took on several leadership roles in the Student Government Association and was named Senator of the Year before taking on the role of Student Body President. In these roles, she has planned campus events in areas such as current affairs and diversity, equity, and inclusion. She completed two internships: one, a highly competitive opportunity with the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense; the other with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center. On campus, Hopkins was a research assistant to Dr. Andrea Malji, working on a project about climate refugees in Bangladesh and Myanmar, for which she constructed advanced maps detailing climate risks and refugee flows within Bangladesh and across its borders. Hopkins was included as a co-author of the project’s soon-to-be-published journal article. She was also a research assistant for Dr. Regina Ostergaard-Klem, working on the Genuine Progress Indicator for the State of Hawai‘i.
