While Liann Unebasami Is Less Loud, She Has A Lot To Be Proud Of

By: Daniel McArdle-Jaimes

“Miss Loud & Proud” is the title we appointed to Liann Unebasami in our Senior Hoss Election 15 years ago. To this day, she still graciously owns that title with a sense of humor.

Liann and I haven’t spoken to each other since graduation, but I have to tell you that the girl still loves to laugh. In fact, she still holds that secret power to make you laugh hard until your cheek bones hurt. I forgot that she had this power. I was also reminded about how Liann has this self-deprecating sense of humor and often makes fun of herself for her short-comings (no pun-intended) and does it with elegance. After all of these years, her kindred spirit, soul and junior miss experience still shines through as she upholds her natural talents in public speaking, building partnerships and giving back to the community.

While I shouldn’t have been surprised, I was captivated by her story, as she personally and directly relayed her journey to me. Like most of us, her journey was filled with ups and downs. However, Liann’s journey is really inspirational and touching as she was able to overcome great loss.

These days, Liann is the branch manager at Hawaii State Federal Credit Union in Hawaii Kai that is slated to open in July 2016.  

Liann is a huge Baltimore Ravens fan. She met Ray Lewis at his book signing in San Diego last November.

1)     Catch Us Up.  What have you been up to the last 15 years?

Oh my gosh! Where do I start? After high school, I went to the University of Hawaii at Manoa. When I first got there, I was undeclared. I remembered loving chemistry in high school with Mr. Tuthill, so I thought about pursuing a career in pharmacy. I took my first (college-level) organic chemistry class and quickly realized that it wasn’t going to happen. After going to the professor for help after class, I seriously didn’t understand what she was saying (it was as if I was taking a foreign language class) and I quickly realized that becoming a pharmacist wasn’t in the cards for me.

So I decided to try fashion design. I took a class at Honolulu Community College and loved it. I particularly loved learning everything about it, including how to sew and design. This was about the time when the Project Runway show was starting out. After watching the show and learning more about the fashion industry, I was not keen on how the fashion industry was overly competitive, so I dropped that and took a couple of years off from school, as I had no idea about what I wanted to do.

After taking a couple of years off, I decided to major in speech. I quickly grew to love my major, and realized how speech is about learning the communication between two people. More specifically, it helped me understand the foundation of breaking communication down to a science. My major took a deep dive into what is being said and how it is being said with one’s tone of voice, facial expression, hand motions, etc. I feel in love with speech, and think about going back to get a master’s degree in it.

Do you remember how I was really into pageants in high school? I did junior miss in high school, and I think that experience helped me determine what I wanted to major in. A lot of people HATE public speaking, but I really enjoy it, and have since really enjoyed studying communication.

Unfortunately, one of the hardest things I had to deal with in my college years was the passing of my brother. He was diagnosed with Leukemia in 2000 (my junior year of high school), and during my first year of college (2002) it came back and he eventually he passed away in 2004. That was the most difficult and trying point of my life. My brother was only a year older than me, and I remember shadowing him in admiration and watching his every move. He was my role model, and I molded my life similarly around his achievements and mishaps. After his passing, it was really difficult for me to find my own path and make my own mistakes. It was like learning how to walk again and learning how to navigate life on my own.

Everything is great now. I somehow found myself in the Bank of Hawaii management training program, which is a fast-track training program for branch management. I was there for six years, most recently in the commercial credit banking division. There, I did the underwriting for commercial banking, and to my surprise I didn’t need a finance background.

The more Liann underscored how she wasn’t a finance person or a business person, but that her responsibilities were “social” and “external facing” tasks, I had to stop her. “Wait a minute,” I start. “Are you telling me that to work for the bank, you didn’t need a finance or business background? That’s right. They trained me…

OK….but you make it sound like your job is all based on relationships and networking…is that true?” That is absolutely true! I never thought I would end up in banking, but I’m glad I did. Like you, I always thought banking required a mastery of numbers and math. When I went through the management training program, I realized that banking is all about maintaining and earning relationships. More importantly, successful bankers must know how to work with people.  

One of the things I used to do for the bank was work with the University of Hawaii, and try to acquire the BEST talent from the school, but I have since passed that torch onto someone else.

Today, I am the branch manager at Hawaii State Federal Credit Union in Hawaii Kai. This bank is introducing a new concept in banking that includes technology that will change the way we do things in our everyday lives and the way do online and mobile banking.  When we open it will be a “high tech” branch with a very modern layout and a floor plan that will include a free flowing environment. We will not have teller queues, but instead have a “teller bar” and  “tech bar” which will be setup with different types of mobile phones, laptops, and tablets to show our members how to enroll, download and use our mobile banking apps, features and services. Advertising will happen soon in newspapers and online, so keep an eye out for that!

Is there anything outside of work you would like to share?

I’m helping a newer non-profit called the Center For Tomorrow’s Leaders (CFTL) (http://centerfortomorrowsleaders.org/). Each year, I help them with their annual gala. CFTL works with public and private high schools to teach leadership and provide opportunities to foster innovative leadership. CFTL works to engage and empower students to take action in their school or within their community. They want students to take the initiative and take the right steps to make a difference.

As an example, students resolved a longtime infrastructure issue at Campbell High School on their own. For decades, the school’s old buildings created sweltering classrooms for the students that led to uncomfortable and intolerable learning environments. In Hawaii, many public schools have old facilities, and the state wasn’t able to provide air conditioning for the school. Instead of waiting for the state to acquire funds, the students used crowd funding to generate the payment of air conditioning units for their school. The project caught national attention and was covered in the Huffington Post.

2) What does alumni relations mean to you?

I really want to give back to Mid-Pacific, but I can’t give a lot as far as money goes. I want to give back, but I don’t know how to until now…

I think what you are doing is embodying what alumni relations is. Alumni relations is about two-way communication and giving back in time, resources, knowledge and money. For me, giving back is looking at exploring meaningful ways to feel good about my contributions. I think your mentorship/scholarship program is a suitable way to do that, and I am looking forward to giving back personally and directly to the Class of 2017.

3) Since you are participating as a mentor, what would you tell your 17-year-old self?

Don’t party so much in college! College is important and finish as quickly as you can.

4) What is your favorite Mid-Pacific memory?

There were so many. The first one that always comes to mind was when Mrs. Reed found a dead rat behind her desk during homeroom. I remember when she screamed at the top of her lungs. There was blood, guts and everything. If you remember, Mrs. Reed and Mrs. Lee’s classrooms were connected. We were in 8th grade at the time, and the person who first came into our homeroom to figure out what the screaming was about was Taizo Braden (class of 1996, and now KHON morning news anchor). I remember him walking in, and saying how cool and awesome it was. She told him to hurry up and cover it, and so he had no choice but to do so!

I also remember IFA in the 7th grade when we would take a quarter of dance, theater, music and theater. We were divided by last name, and Mr. Wat was our theatre teacher. At the end of the quarter, we did a mini performance, and I just remember how Chad Wheeler could not say “sea cucumber.” He would say “ku-kumber. In fact, I think the name of the play was called Loli Makoko And The Sea Cucumber. I just remember how frustrated Mr. Wat was with Chad in not being able to say the name of the play. It was hilarious.

5) Since you have been exposed to students at UH and other schools with your non-profit work, in your opinion, what do you think separated yourself from others?

Going to Mid-Pacific brought out the competitive nature in me which instilled a drive in me to become successful. For whatever reason, I always felt that I needed to do well, be the best and/or to come out on top. BUT on the flip side, I also really appreciated the structure that Mid-Pacific provided. In high school, you always knew what you were supposed to do and when you were supposed to do it. That structure was important to my success at school. When I got to college, I realized that I missed that structure and needed it to be successful.

And so, for me, college was a nightmare and I had a difficult time finding my own footing. In college, there is no structure, and it was a hard adjustment for me. While my competitiveness was there, I realized that I needed that structure to succeed. Fortunately, my competitiveness came in later to help me succeed when I realized the path I needed to take (picking speech as my major).

6) Who was your favorite teacher in high school?

Ms. Aki. I was close with a lot of teachers, but Ms. Aki was like my second mom—she was always there for me. I could always go to her whenever I was having a hard time with school, boyfriends, friends or home. I always looked at her like a mom. I was a cheerleader for five years under her guidance, and anyone who was a cheerleader with Ms. Aki ends up building that kind of bond with her.

7) If you were to pick a classmate that you most admire, who would it be and why?

In high school, I most admired anyone that was smart in class. In particular, I guess I wanted to be more like Kristen (Young) Unten! Kristen and I were in AP Calculus with Ms. Kanja. Kristen always got the right answers, and Ms. Kanja looked at her like she was the star student….Actually, I did do well on the AP test—I got a 4 out of 5 but, I was no star student like Kristen!

I would also say that based on what I see on Facebook…I most admire Jamie Shore and Lindsay Farias. Their jobs look so awesome and that’s really admirable. 

8) If you were going to the reunion, who would you like to see and why?

I feel like I need to grab my yearbook for this question…She actually doesn’t grab her yearbook but thinks to herself (out loud) for a couple of seconds.

Whatever happened to Paul (Griffing)!?! He also held the title of Loud & Proud…so Paul.  Yes! Definitely, Paul! I would like to see Paul.