Paubox Kahikina Scholarship Recipient Owali Moeai: 2025 update

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

Owali Moeai is a 2021 Paubox Kahikina Scholarship recipient and is now attending Brigham Young University, studying toward a degree in computer science. Here is a word from Owali:

“Everybody my name is Owali Moeai, and I'm a junior studying here at Bringham Young University Hawaii… I currently just started my third year of college. I've been home from my mission for about 10 months now coming; almost coming up to a year. 

During that time, I've taken IT classes, which my major is computer science, but IT is a lot different: a lot more hands-on, a lot of memorizing that I had to do. So that was a new experience for me, but I loved it. I also learned SQL in one of my classes [and] about database application. So that was fun. I think I'm realizing more and more as I go through college, what I want to do in life, which is good because it helps me to kind of path and solidify my goals of what I want to do in life. 

I was minoring in accounting, but I am now minoring in Hawaiian language and foundational language study. I think I realized how much I love learning languages. I guess that applies to computer science as well, because that's a big thing you do is learn computer languages like Python, Java, SQL. Now we're learning UML in my class. So it's been fun kind of figuring out what I want to do in life and, you know, also staying connected to my culture. I'm taking a Hawaiian language class this semester, and it's been good to dive back into that...Going forward, I have to just focus on my major now because that's all I need to do to finish up the rest of my computer science classes, which includes calculus, which I'm a little bit scared for.

I'm so grateful for the scholarship given by the Paubox Kahikina organization. It's really helped me to kind of focus more on my studies, focus more on what I want to do in life, and… takes that… financial stress off my shoulders… I'm excited to continue along this path, and I'm super, super grateful for uh this scholarship. I know that if I were a freshman, if I were in college, or if I were a senior in high school, I would definitely want to apply for this scholarship because it's honestly been helping me these past few years, and they're continuing to help me.”

Watch: Paubox Kahikina Scholarship Recipient Reflection | Owali Moeai