— As Told to Tameron
Hodges
Human Resources turned the spotlight on Mani Sehgal, the new
Dean of the College of Extended and Interdisciplinary Education. Sehgal has
been a vital member of the HPU ‘ohana for over 16 years. Originally from Edmonton,
Canada, Sehgal completed his undergraduate studies in math and business,
receiving a B.Sc. from Concordia University. Moving to the U.S., he
received his M.B.A. in Finance and an M.Ed. in Math Education, from the University
of Hawai‘i at Manoa. He is currently Ph.D.
ABD in Math Education, at the University of Victoria, in B.C. Canada.
Dean Sehgal joined HPU as a Visiting Instructor of Mathematics
in 2001, became a regular faculty member in 2003, and moved over to the School
of Education in 2011. He has served as the
3-2 Engineering Coordinator and Secondary Education Program Director, and for
the last four years, Sehgal has been the Director for the School of Education.
To find out something we didn’t know about Dean Sehgal, we
recently posed the following questions:
Q: What led you to higher education as a profession?
A: Serendipity.
(Truth be told, it was by chance that I stumbled upon higher education.) My
background is in Math and Finance. I strongly believe in financial literacy for
high schoolers and young adults. Incidentally, I was given the opportunity to
develop a course, “The Common Sense of Finance,” and taught it for several
years at the high school level. One opportunity led to another and I was
offered an adjunct position, teaching Math at HPU.
Q: What has been the biggest challenge in your life?
A: I am naturally a very private person, so to be quite honest
with you, talking about myself.
Q: What are you most proud of?
A: In every situation I encounter, I try to approach it with
integrity and compassion. I give credit to my parents for instilling this in
me.
A: Why have you chosen to be part of HPU for nearly 17 years?
A: I love teaching. While teaching Math,
I (quickly) realized the impact I could make helping students understand a
subject that many find very challenging (because I was able to break it down
and help students with content they weren’t able to understand before). It was
inspiring to see students able to make sense of difficult formulas and
algorithms. Then, I was provided with
the opportunity to teach Education majors. I have to say that it was more
rewarding than I could have ever imagined (getting a chance to teach future
teachers). It gives me a chance to indirectly create effective teachers, which
in turn helps students of the future who will then contribute to building a
better society. I love what I’m doing.
Q: What led you to seek the administrative position of dean?
A: I wanted to make a difference. I felt like it would give me
the opportunity to make positive changes for the students, staff, faculty,
college and the University as a whole. I
initially was not even thinking about the position, but the support of faculty
and staff throughout the College (and University) made me reconsider.
Q: How will you measure success as a new dean?
A: Unite the college, create opportunity for the (military) bases,
serve adult learners who want to transfer their quality education and
experience, get rid of division, and strive for all around better communication. I’ll let my colleagues and peers “measure”
how successful I am…
Q: If you were not an educator, what would you be?
A: An Entrepreneur. I
owned two restaurants before I moved to Hawai‘i, and it’s true what they
say…once you’re an entrepreneur, you’re always an entrepreneur.
Q: What brought you to
Hawai‘i?
A: After I sold the restaurants in Canada, I bought a ticket for
a trip around the world with Hawai‘i as the first stop. After arriving, I decided to extend my stay
and ended up cancelling the remainder of the trip to remain in Hawai‘i. A trip around the world is now at the top of
my “bucket list.”
Q: What books are waiting on your bookshelf to be read?
A: Pragmatic Capitalism,
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry,
and a stack of EAB books the Provost dropped off at my office last month...(wink
wink).
Q: What is your ideal vacation?
A: Plenty of sleep.
Q: What is one thing that people would be most surprised to know
about you?
A: I am allergic to cheese, but I love deep dish pizza. I just
make sure I take tons of Benadryl before and after.
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