Nine high school and college students spent five weeks exploring natural science, conservation and food security through the Nā Pua Noʻeau program (a pre-K–college enrichment program) at Kauaʻi Community College. The month-long paid internship combined hands-on community service in Hāʻena with academic learning, earning participants three college credits in sustainable science management.
Four days a week, students worked with experts and cultural practitioners at Limahuli National Tropical Botanical Garden and Hui Makaʻāinana o Makana, learning environmental engineering, policy building, botany and horticulture. One day a week was dedicated to studies at Kauaʻi CC. The summer intensive concluded at the Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference on Oʻahu.
Community-based stewardship
Intern Kealaula Perry, a senior at Kamehameha Kapālama, said the program helped narrow her interest to water and cultural engineering.
“It’s cool to see how they’re revitalizing native plants and reestablishing the cultural practices attached to them,” Perry said. “The funds and the transportation to get there to learn how unique Hāʻena is something I’m so grateful for.”
Nā Pua Noʻeau Program Director Mālia Chun said the beautiful thing about working with the Hāʻena community is what it symbolizes in community-based stewardship.
“As someone from Kauaʻi, I’ve seen how the burden of tourism has affected the small community and its resources,” Chun said. “This initiative and partnership have really become an example of how community-based stewardship is effective, and is a great model for other small communities in Hawaiʻi who feel overburdened, and these interns get to see and experience this system up close.”
Non-cookie-cutter solutions
Kauaʻi CC Sustainable Science Management Instructor Kama Chock said the program’s first week focused on building pilina, or connection, with the land and people.
“We are able to come up with non-cookie-cutter solutions to environmental problems. This model of college overlap with community work is the future of education in Hawaiʻi,” Chock said.
Chun added, “One of the reasons I helped to plan this internship is because I want these students to see themselves as part of a succession plan. There is a way for them to make a living wage at home doing what they love, and we need more Native Hawaiians represented in the natural science and conservation fields.”
—By Caitlin Fowlkes
For more go to Kauaʻi CC.
