Manoa’s Meritorious Teachers

Sylvia Yuen
Center on the Family

Sylvia Yuen is the director of the Center on the Family in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Yuen has a long and distinguished career on campus. She spent her first 13 years teaching, the next 15 years holding administrative positions and in 1997, she became the director for Center on the Family. Yuen is a past recipient of the Robert W. Clopton Award for Distinguished Community Service. She serves as the principal investigator and co-principal investigator for a large number of grants, which bring in millions of dollars to the university.

Yuen’s teaching philosophy consists of four integrated principles: connect with students, set high expectations, make learning relevant and develop competence. To reduce the anonymity and impersonal atmosphere of a large class, Yuen creates opportunities to connect with students and to encourage their active learning. A student said, "One particular quality I would like to mention about Yuen is how she was able to get to know each student on a personal basis even though she had nearly 200 students in her class."

A shining example of her work is her National Science Foundation Young Scholars Program, which has provided more than 200 students with the opportunity to conduct research with scientists and discover a career in the sciences.