Paubox Kahikina Scholarship Zoom Welcome Reception 2024

Last night we held a Zoom social mixer for the new Paubox Kahikina Scholarship recipients. 

What's happening: Scholarship recipients and advisors joined Paubox CEO Hoala Greevy on a Zoom call for 90 minutes. After introductions, Hoala shared Paubox's vision and then led the recipients and advisors in an open discussion centered on personal and professional growth as Native Hawaiians.

Who attended?:

• Hoala Greevy (Paubox)
• Kaipo Crowell (Advisor, Kakou Professional Development)
• Michael Bennett (Advisor, Honolulu Tech Week)
• Chloe Sylva (Recipient, UCLA)
• Gabbie Nakamatsu (Recipient, Santa Clara University)
• Luana Sproat (Recipient,  University of Texas at Austin)
• Noah Kanahele (Recipient, Dartmouth College)
• Dustin Kealoha (Recipient, Dartmouth College)
• Noah Kalehuawehe (Recipient, Santa Clara University)
• Colton Mills (Recipient, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa)
• Joshua Parker (Recipient, Harvard)
• Koa Chang (Recipient, Stanford University)
• Nick Wong (Recipient, UC Berkeley)
• Allena Villanueva (Recipient, USC)
• Paul Keahi (Recipient, University of Oregon)
• Alana Higa (Advisor, Stealth Startup)
• Blaine Kahoonei (Advisor, Techie & Community Builder)

Paubox has a scholarship?: Yes we do. 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:

• Most scholarship recipients expressed their hope to gain skills that would contribute to their local communities in Hawaii, whether through the medical fields, startups, and tech or volunteering.
• Advisors shared their vision of how scholarship recipients could help build Hawaii into an "independent economic powerhouse" and leverage their work to create a greater impact.
• Kaipo Crowell shared stats on Native Hawaiian engineers at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and how there can be opportunities on Oahu and elsewhere in the engineering fields.
• Michael Bennett expressed that Paubox inspired him to launch Honolulu Tech Week.
• Many scholarship recipients hope to launch startups that allow them to work and live in Hawaii.
• Blaine Kahoonei said, "find a problem to solve in key industries that exist here in Hawaii, and validate a growth model beyond the islands." Many agreed that this is key to evolving the "economy" in Hawaii. He went on to say, "Embrace ideas, explore other cultures and bring back what can be useful here. You'll often see how similar people think like each other."
• Koa Chang mentioned a disheartening statistic - 0% of MIT's incoming class of 2028 were Native Hawaiian. Issues like this are something the scholarship hopes to change.

The bottom line: A recurring theme was that helping each other succeed inspires further success. As Blaine stated, "Aloha is the way."

The big picture: When it comes to our scholarship, we know recipients always want financial aid and access to our professional network. These are big ideas that will stay the same over time.

Zoom mixers are one way we help connect scholarship recipients with our network.

See also: Paubox Kahikina Scholarship now includes all Tech fields

Where did the idea for the Zoom social mixer come from? Recent Purdue graduate and Paubox Kahikina Scholarship recipient Alyssa Lyman brought the idea up over lunch with Hoala in January.

Lunch with Alyssa Lyman at The Pacific Club