Feb. 20 Asian Student Association Night Market<\/a> and through their April 10 \u201cOur Collective Ancestral Voices\u201d production.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMarissa Spires \u201826, who is double-majoring in Creative Writing and Psychology, said she was encouraged by her Palauan mother to switch out of a writing studio to take this class. The fact that it was run by fellow Pacific Islanders contributed to her decision, as she reasoned it could help her establish a community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robert Hernandez \u201829, a History major and Spanish minor, said he wanted to learn more about Pacific Islander culture. He was also attracted by the performance aspect, especially having seen the New Zealand rugby team\u2019s pregame Haka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both students found what they were looking for, expanding their knowledge of Pacific Islander culture and their homes away from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t see [Elaine] as our professor,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cWe see her as our Auntie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through DNCE 260, both students got involved in the PVR student organization. Spires had been contacted by Talamaivao during the fall 2024 semester about the class, while Hernandez joined in the spring semester. Spires and Hernandez spoke praises of the inclusivity of PVR, which they enjoyed enough to run for officer positions. In fact, Spires will be the incoming vice president and Hernandez the incoming social media manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe connections I made and the sense of home from that Micronesian\/Pacific Islander culture side of me got to come out more and feel safe on campus,\u201d Spires said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On this note, Spires mentioned how appreciative she is of the University of Redlands for their support of cultural diversity and voiced its importance. She said that it\u2019s easy for people to ridicule customs they aren\u2019t familiar with, but taking the time to immerse oneself into a new culture enables them to see the values others place in such customs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen you can be like, \u2018Oh, people put their heart into this. People find family and safety in this, so I see why people appreciate it,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with sharing her culture and enabling students to do so themselves, Talamaivao said one of her highlights in teaching this course was the unity that developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cStudents understood that they\u2019re no different from each other \u2013 that at the end of the day, we all have similar needs and wants, which are the basic needs and wants of humanity: and that\u2019s just to be seen and to be heard and to be loved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Creating and instructing a course is no easy feat, and Talamaivao expressed gratitude to College of Arts & Sciences Dean Justin Rose for his leadership and his support of DNCE 260. Talamaivao said she hopes to teach this course, or a similar one, again next year. If she does, both Spires and Hernandez encourage students to take it. Staying true to the course\u2019s inclusive nature, Hernandez pointed out how students don\u2019t need to be of Pacific Islander descent. Hernandez, himself, doesn\u2019t come from a Pacific Islander background and was still able to connect with the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a top-tier class,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talamaivao joined Spires and Hernandez in encouraging Bulldog students to add DNCE 260 to their schedule and lightheartedly advised against taking it for the wrong reasons, saying it won\u2019t be an easy A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my culture. I\u2019ve got to make you work for it,\u201d she said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
July 2025 Correction: An earlier version of this article referred to ASA as “Asian Student Alliance” and has since been corrected<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Along with learning about Pacific Islander culture, dances and history, Pacific Island Dance (DNCE 260) students learned the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":2248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"Talamaivao and her DNCE 260 class exchange smiles after performing a Haka, during their April 10 \u201cOur Collective Ancestral Voices\u201d production. This event, which served as the DNCE 260 final assessment, included Pacific Islander food, songs and performances. Photo Credit: Kiera Beyer","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3],"tags":[174,308,316,307,55],"class_list":["post-2245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-news","tag-campus-life","tag-dnce-260","tag-oic","tag-pvr","tag-student-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theredlandsbulldog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_3387-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theredlandsbulldog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theredlandsbulldog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theredlandsbulldog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theredlandsbulldog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theredlandsbulldog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2245"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theredlandsbulldog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2379,"href":"https:\/\/theredlandsbulldog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245\/revisions\/2379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theredlandsbulldog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theredlandsbulldog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theredlandsbulldog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theredlandsbulldog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}