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, where we held an open-ended Q&A session.
Who attended?:
- Hoala Greevy (Paubox)
- Eddie Fan (Advisor, Apple)
- Johnny Chankhamany (Advisor, Builders VC)
- Dean Levitt (Paubox)
- Colton Mills (Recipient, University of Hawai'i at Manoa)
- Gabbie Nakamatsu (Recipient, Santa Clara 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.
The deadline to apply for this year is May 31st.
Apply now
Key takeaways:
- All attendees were at the recent Kahikina Scholarship Winter Networking event and it was a frequent topic of discussion. We'll have 8 to 10 airfare tickets sponsored to fly scholarship recipients from neighboring islands to the next Winter Networking Event.
- In 2025, we'll work harder to help recipients network with advisors and past recipients. We'll do this by sharing information better and building more processes around in-person networking.
- Colton likes getting to know everyone's stories and learning from the mentors. He's grateful for the support of the mentors.
- Gabbie agreed. All the Kahikina events she's gone to have connected her to people willing to help and generous with their time and experience.
- Success is all about your grit and passion and what you're willing to spend hours and hours working on.
- Growing up in Hawaii can leave one feeling far removed from Tech and Silicon Valley. This is something we're working to solve with the scholarship.
- Learn about data right now! Even if you're in biology, knowing how data works is important of machine learning and AI advancements.
- Project work is important because you get real work experience.
- Getting access is important. Which companies do you admire? Find out about their internships and get involved. Build a network in the industry you want to get into.
- Don't wait to jump into internships. They'll help solidify what you want to do (or don't want to do).
- Colton asked for advice on finding worthwhile projects to work on.
- What's amazing is you can do a lot with data on a computer, even with free software. If you're willing to do computer-based research, find something you're interested in based on hobbies and interests.
- Johnny recommends Hawaii-based recipients to sign up for the you should sign up to the Tech Minds Meetup.
- Colton is thinking about a database for tracking resources for community service projects.
- Gabbie is thinking of shadowing a neurologist or dermatologist and is looking for experience in the specific fields she's interested in.
- There are an increasing number of Hawaii-based organizations looking to invest in the Kahikina Scholarship for workforce development.
- When researching, reach out to study authors. They'll often help answer questions.
- Everyone loves meeting others involved in the scholarship - past recipients, mentors, other current recipients, and even broader supporters. This is something we'll build on in 2025.
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.
Dean Levitt
