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

 

Noah Kanahele, a 2024 scholarship recipient, is a computer science major student at Dartmouth College. Here is a word from Noah:

“One of the most formative experiences of this past year was traveling to the Bay Area through Dartmouth’s Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship. The trip was designed to connect students with alumni and leaders across the business world, and it delivered. Over the course of the visit, I sat across from founders, engineers, investors, and operators, each of whom had taken a different path through the same broad landscape I am trying to enter.

We heard from people working inside companies like Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI, which gave me a ground-level view of how business operates at enormous scale. We also spent time with founders in Y-Combinator whose companies were still early and whose problems were immediate and unresolved. The contrast was instructive. One of the most memorable conversations was with representatives from Modrono Ventures, one of the first institutional investors in Amazon, who spoke plainly about what early-stage conviction actually requires. That conversation reframed how I think about judgment under uncertainty, which turns out to be relevant at every level of business, not just venture.

What the trip gave me most was a map. Before it, I knew I wanted a career in business but could not have articulated precisely where within it. Afterward, I had a clearer picture of the roles that exist, the skills each requires, and where my own strengths and interests point.”

In other aspects of his studies, Noah mentioned that “This past winter, I interned at a middle-market private equity firm focused on the food and agriculture sector. It was my first experience inside an institutional investment environment, and it was a serious one. I worked directly with the deal team and alongside investment banks on active transactions, building LBO models and three-statement financial analyses, evaluating target companies, and developing investment theses. I also contributed to the firm’s data infrastructure, migrating CRM data into DealCloud using SQL and building a generative AI model trained on internal firm data.

The internship clarified what private equity actually is at the operational level. It is not just capital allocation. It is a systematic process of identifying where value exists, understanding why it exists, and then working over a multi-year holding period to increase it before an exit. Work on an IPO exit illustrated that arc directly. Watching how a firm thinks about the timing and mechanics of realizing value through a public offering was a level of exposure I did not expect to get as early as I did.”

In terms of his future, this is what Noah had to say: “My goal is a career at the intersection of strategy, investment, and data-driven decision-making. I am drawn to roles in private equity, business development, or strategic finance, ideally at firms or organizations where analytical rigor and real-world impact are both expected.

The Paubox Kahikina Scholarship has been part of what made this trajectory possible. It is not just financial support, but the network of alumni who have supported me and continue to help me in my career.”

Read more: Paubox Kahikina Scholarship Recipient Reflection | Noah Kanahele