The Paubox Kahikina Scholarship helps Native Hawaiian students pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and Tech in general. Its purpose is to offer financial support and create a strong network for these students. The scholarship makes education more affordable and connects students with professionals, giving them valuable opportunities to learn and grow in their chosen STEM or Tech fields. This scholarship is about more than just money; it's about building a community and empowering Native Hawaiian students to succeed in STEM or Tech careers.
See also: The big ideas behind the Paubox Kahikina Scholarship
As a 2022 scholarship recipient, Allena is now a rising senior at the University of Southern California, studying Computer Science as a major. Here is a word from Allena:
“Aloha! My name is Allena Villanueva, and I am a proud 2022 Paubox Kahikina Scholarship recipient. I graduated from Punahou School in 2022 and am currently a rising senior at the University of Southern California. I’m a Computer Science major with a minor in Cultural Anthropology and I hope to build a more inclusive and equitable tech world — one where people from all walks of life feel seen and supported.
It’s hard to believe three years have already flown by. Time has moved quickly. Last summer, I completed an amazing internship at Apple on the IS&T Apple Online Store team. I dove into quality engineering and helped to develop a new internal application that streamlined bulk data testing. Because this was my second summer at Apple, I wanted to change both my team and my role so that I was getting exposure to multiple paths in software engineering. I am so thankful every summer for the amazing support and guidance I’ve gotten being an intern. I always love my summers in the Bay Area. I am grateful for the Pasifika community in San Francisco because I was able to attend events through the Hawaiians in Tech organization and meet many other Pasifika in tech who gave me amazing advice and who I seek to be like one day.
I’ve returned this summer for my third internship at Apple — changing both my role and team again. I am now on the IS&T Corporate Systems Engineering team as a Project Manager Intern. My main project this summer supported a suite of applications designed to create a seamless welcome experience for guests visiting Apple campuses. Through this work, I learned so much about project management — especially how to communicate effectively with business stakeholders and identify and fill gaps as they arise. I intentionally chose to intern as a Project Manager because there were areas of the software development process that I hadn’t been exposed to yet, and I knew I needed to use this summer to explore that side of tech. It pushed me to grow in new ways, and I’m walking away with a stronger understanding of how technical and business teams collaborate to deliver impactful solutions.
Midway through the summer, I was offered the opportunity to pivot into the machine learning space. I stepped into the role of a dev intern working on an AI project, where I explored prompt engineering and manually analyzed training data to identify patterns and improve results. It was my first real taste of what it’s like to work in applied AI. And it is super cool work.
Beyond the internships and classes, I’ve had the chance to study abroad and immerse myself in another culture. During the fall semester, I continued my studies in Computer Science at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) in Galway, Ireland. Living in Ireland reminded me so much of Hawaiʻi — the connection to land, the warmth of the people, and the shared commitment to heritage and identity. Just like Hawaiʻi, they are attempted to reclaim there language (Gaelic) and have a deep cultural grounding. I lived in a town outside of Galway called Athenry and went to the local crepe place, shopped at the butchers to get fresh food, and took the train to school every day. I was lucky that the weather was beautiful and warm for many days and that I got to even see the winter holiday decorations. Galway has a super cool Halloween celebration, a “Christmas Day” in November, and a beautiful Christmas Market. This cultural experience was breathtaking. To stay connected to home, I continued volunteering with the Purple Maiʻa Foundation remotely.
I had the awesome opportunity to visit other countries like England, Austria, Norway, and Sweden while abroad and took many, many RyanAir flights. I did the classic hostel stays and learned to live out of a backpack. I made so many friends and created so many memories I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. And even though I missed Hawaiʻi and it will always be my home, I feel extremely connected to Galway and I feel like it is another place I’ll also call home.
While studying abroad at NUIG, I also had the opportunity to dive deeper into machine learning and data science. I took a course that introduced me to classification and regression using Scikit-learn, where I got hands-on experience building and evaluating models. I also explored image processing techniques, including 2D and 3D graphics and thresholding. But my favorite class was Information Retrieval, where I learned how search engines rank and retrieve information using methods like TF-IDF and stemming. These courses not only strengthened my technical foundation but also opened my eyes to how computer science can intersect with linguistics, perception, and culture — tying back to my anthropology minor in meaningful ways. And I’m really grateful to have used this knowledge as a base for my internship this summer. I was also able to visit the Apple campus in Cork which was AMAZING! It was so cool to see the work Apple does in other countries too.
What keeps drawing me back to Apple isn’t just the incredible projects — it’s the people. I’ve met mentors and close friends at Apple. They mean so much to me, and in effort to pay forward their faith and trust in me, it was my turn to step up, get out of my comfort zone, and give back. This summer, I took the initiative to organize intern and volunteer events to help build the same sense of community that has meant so much to me.
My Hawaiian heritage is a huge part of who I am, and I’m dedicated to staying connected to it even thousands of miles from home. At Apple, I hosted a lei-making event for interns using flowers from Trader Joe’s, and helped put together an Indigenous in Tech lunch at Apple. It’s important to me that indigenous peoples know that they belong in tech and they find community, even if far from home.
I feel a deep sense of cultural responsibility. And now, I am so excited and honored joining the Board of Directors at the Purple Maiʻa Foundation. Being able to give back to a community that continues to shape me is both grounding and energizing.
Looking back, this year was about stepping outside my comfort zone and taking risks while always staying grounded in Hawaiʻi. I’m so grateful for the experiences I’ve had, the people I’ve met, and the ways I’ve grown. And I want to thank Paubox and Hoala Greevy for continually supporting me and my education. I would not have had this phenomenal year and these opportunities without you.
I do cool things with cool people — that’s the best way I can describe what I’m doing. And I couldn’t be more thankful.”
Read more: Paubox Kahikina Scholarship Recipient Reflection | Allena Villanueva