Thabiso Faith Mutumhe, Bachelor of Science in International Studies, and Diplomacy and Military Studies.
Valedictory speakers at Hawaiʻi Pacific University are selected on the basis of grade point average and service to the community.
Thabiso Faith Mutumhe was born in Harare and raised in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe. In elementary school, she and her family immigrated to Maryland. Mutumhe chose to attend HPU, seeking a university with a smaller student body where students are seen and supported. She says she found exactly that through her community at HPU.
Through HPU’s concurrent graduate enrollment program, Mutumhe is completing the Graduate Certificate in National Security and Strategic Studies, adding to her majors in International Studies and Diplomacy and Military Studies. Mutumhe enhanced her educational journey through a research fellowship at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. During her 10-month internship, she wrote a paper analyzing how the removal of cultural and linguistic barriers feeds into the globalization of transnational crime and a paper on Sino-African educational partnerships. She also received the honor of being a seminar leader and teaching the Indo-Pacific Orientation Course to senior-level security practitioners. Additionally, Mutumhe participated in the Hawaiʻi Asia-Pacific Affairs Leadership (APAL) Program. As an APAL scholar, she published an article through the Pacific Forum on Strengthening Indo-Pacific Partnerships Through Jones Act Reform. She also had the opportunity to be a notetaker at the 2022 US-Japan-Philippines Trilateral Maritime Security Dialogue: “Strengthening Deterrence and Defense in the South China Sea” in Manila, Philippines.
In addition to her academic pursuits, Mutumhe works as a sign-in assistant and French tutor at the HPU Center for Academic Success. Upon graduation, she will return to the East Coast to attend law school. She has been accepted into a dual JD/MBA in International Business program.
