Paubox Kahikina Scholarship Zoom social mixer - August 2025

Tonight, we held a Zoom social mixer for the Paubox Kahikina Scholarship. 

What's happening: Scholarship recipients joined Hoala Greevy and scholarship advisors on a Zoom call, where we held an open-ended Q&A session. 

Who attended?

• Hoala Greevy (Paubox)
• Eddie Fan (Advisor, Apple)
• Johnny Chankhamany (Advisor, Builders VC)
• Asia Lum (Advisor, Netflix)
• Michael Bennet (Advisor, Honolulu Tech Week)
• Dean Levitt (Paubox)
• Beau Monday (Advisor, Punahou School)
• Charissa Wong (Advisor,
• Tatum Thompson (Recipient, Rice University)
• Grant Lau (Recipient, Stanford University)
• Koa Chang (Recipient, Stanford University)
• Caleb Takiguchi (Recipient, Cornell University)
• Ryan Lagon (Recipient, MIT)
• Travis Kuo (Recipient, Washington University in St. Louis)
• Kalei Sproat (Recipient, Brigham Young University)
• Kawika Naweli (Recipient, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa)
• Logan Lau (Recipient, Stanford University)

About the scholarship: The primary objective of the Paubox Kahikina Scholarship is to encourage Native Hawaiians to pursue careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) or tech in general.

The scholarship is recurring in nature. In other words, recipients receive $1,000 per year until they graduate.

Key takeaways:

• 2025 is the largest recipient class yet, with 17 recipients.
• Currently, the Kahikina Scholarship has supported 62 students with $154,000.
• Paubox and the Kahikina Scholarship will be at Honolulu Tech Week, hosting the Paubox Kahikina Scholarship Panel + Social Mixer.
  • The event will feature a fireside chat with Hoala Greevy, Founder CEO of Paubox, and scholarship recipients:
    • Austin Cataluna - University of Hawaii at Manoa, Mechanical Engineering
    • Gabbie Nakamatsu - Santa Clara University, Biology
• In December, Paubox will be hosting the Kahikina Scholarship winter networking event at the Pacific Club on Oahu.
  • The 2024 Paubox Kahikina Scholarship winter networking event was exceptional. This year promises to be even better.
• A common theme at all Kahikina Scholarship mixers is how advisors can help recipients with advice and introductions. This session was no different.
  • Several recipients mentioned they've begun looking for summer 2026 internships. A few have internships lined up already.
  • While Handshake is the platform for early career and internship opportunities, a few Paubox advisors knew of possible openings.
  • Recipients have access to the advisor network who are there to help.
• A recipient asked about the scholarship's mission and vision. Hoala responded, "The mission is where you’re at today, the vision is where you want to be tomorrow."
  • The mission today is to promote and support native Hawaiians in STEM.
  • The vision is to one day see native Hawaiians making up 23% of STEM careers in Hawaii, in line with their population.
• One recipient who was born on the mainland asked to learn more about how to best find opportunities to make the move to Hawaii after college.
  • This sparked several ideas from the advisors.
  • Michael Bennet, founder of Honolulu Tech Week, shared how connecting at HTW events can help leverage local networks.
  • Asia Lum mentioned Hawaiians in Technology.
• As a senior, should one do grad school or enter the workforce and start a career?
  • Hoala mentioned that the scholarship will continue supporting recipients, even if they go on to grad school or even pursue a doctorate.
  • One advisor suggested that grad school is a good choice for those pursuing highly specialized roles.
  • One idea is to “introduce” yourself to your career after undergrad by starting work while looking for the right graduate programs. This could help the student understand whether that work is right for them.
  • Alternatively, a "plus one" master's program (a one-year program) could be a fit.
• A recipient shared his experience working at a small startup, noting that while he appreciated the decision-making autonomy, he didn't receive the support he needed and is now looking toward larger companies for better mentorship and guidance.
  • Eddie provided perspective on how smaller companies typically require full-stack development skills, while big tech companies allow for specialization in specific areas like backend development or data engineering.
• One recipient asked for advice on interviewing for engineering project teams, prompting insights from the advisors.
  • Johnny emphasized the importance of doing thorough homework beforehand and avoiding surface-level questions. At the same time, Eddie recommended diving deep into the engineering problems they face and preparing standout questions.
  • Charissa stressed the importance of asking thoughtful questions (noting that it's a red flag when candidates don't), researching beyond technical aspects to understand their mission and values, and letting personality shine through, - it's about team fit, not just technical experience.
  • Kawika added that he's heard project teams offer incredible opportunities to work closely with top engineering talent on exciting projects.

The bottom line: We know connecting our recipients to our professional network will always be of interest. It's one of the big ideas behind the scholarship. We should therefore endeavor to achieve this.