Mar 5, 2014 | Environment
An environmental engineer is giving back by encouraging young girls to think about the possibilities in their future. Audrey Chihara, a 2004 Lahainaluna High School graduate, has been participating as a mentor in Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day since graduating with her own degree in environmental engineering. “I tell girls all the time I didn’t even know I could major in engineering,” Chihara said, following a visit by Kihei Charter School 7th- and 8th-graders at her firm, Brown and Caldwell in Wailuku. Chihara and her colleague, Irina Constantinescu, were amongst 24 engineers in Maui County who served as mentors and gave middle schoolers a peek into their careers.
“We showed them there are a lot of different areas in engineering that they could get into, if they’re interested,” Chihara said. After graduating from high school, Chihara said she was unsure about what she wanted to study until she enrolled in Maui Economic Development Board’s Women in Technology program. She landed an internship at Hawaiian Telcom and made a connection with Brown and Caldwell where she’s been employed for about five years now.
Chihara recommends that young people interested in the field of science, engineering and technology enroll in plenty of science and math courses in high school and college. “Even if they don’t end up with a career, it’s really going to help them down the road,” she said.
As a mother of a three-year-old, Chihara said her career “provides a pretty good work and life balance.” She said the average engineer gets paid between $50,000 and $60,000 at her first job. After fielding questions and chatting with the Kihei middle schoolers, Chihara said she was grateful for the opportunity. “I get really excited for them. You can just tell that the wheels are turning, the light bulbs are lighting up and they’re really thinking about it.”
Maui Economic Development Board coordinates Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, a nationally recognized event held annually during National Engineering Week. This year’s program drew nearly 50 middle school students in public and private schools on Maui and Lanai.
Feb 26, 2014 | Education
Hana High School science and natural resources teacher Paulo Burns says he and many of his students are visual learners, meaning that seeing is believing for them. So, when Burns and his students received 10 computer tablets, a projector, a laptop and a camera with a $5,000 Ke Alahele Education Fund grant, they were able to see what otherwise would be academic abstractions. “Science deals with teaching so many new vocabulary words and concepts that it is like teaching a foreign language,” he said. “If we don’t give our youth every tool at their fingertips to help them understand it, then many will give up easily and not pursue careers in science.”
Burns’ students used the new tablets to study the voyages of crews aboard Hawaiian canoes as they navigated across vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean. “We wanted to provide students with tools of the 21st century to help them succeed in school,” he said. “We wanted to connect with Hawaiian culture through studying the canoe voyages and using modern computer tablets to blog questions to them. We wanted to make a Hawaiian compass at school to show the students that they will never be lost with the education they got at Hana School.” Burns said the tablets were successful in reaching his goals.
Burns said he believes it’s important for the community to support schools in the education of science, technology, engineering and math. “STEM is all around us in the real world, so it is critical that communities support it so that the next generation has the foundation to help solve the problems that we all face today,” Burns said. “We need to create problem-solvers that know how to use modern tools to come up with solutions.” Burns said he appreciates the Maui Economic Development Board and its Ke Alahele Education program. “MEDB was thoughtful to invest in the lives of our youth to help them succeed and create a better future.” The Ke Alahele Education Fund was established to support the growing need for students to gain proficiency in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) in Maui County.
Feb 19, 2014 | Small Business, Sustainability
On Wednesday, February 26, 2014, Maui Food Technology Center will hold their 1st Annual Supply and Service Expo at the Hannibal Tavares Community Center in Pukalani from 10 am to 3 pm.
This is the perfect opportunity for new or existing food producers wanting assistance with the many challenges of developing a product and getting it into the marketplace, entrepreneurs planning to expand their network opportunities and resources, and consumers interested in attending the tradeshow and hearing the latest from experts in the food manufacturing, distribution and hospitality industries.
A tradeshow comprised of national, state and local service providers will feature manufacturers and distributors of food, ingredients, equipment and packaging supplies; dealers, brokers and traders; business services and educational groups that work with the food and hospitality industries. Entrepreneurs and existing businesses will also have an opportunity to network with brand identity and marketing industry professionals.
Specialized presentations will be held throughout the event. Featured speakers include
- Dr. Aurora Saulo, Professor and Extension Specialist in Food Technology with the University of Hawaii Maui College on “Food Safety Certified: What Does That Mean?”
- Marc McDowell, Executive Chef of Makena Resort on “Developing Local Products From Start To Finish”
- Marty Parisien, Co-Owner/CEO at Singing Dog Vanilla on “Social Media Zen”
- Mike Abrams, President of Flavor Waves, on “Get Out There, Make Friends, and Help People.”
Door prizes will be drawn throughout the event, must be present to win. Attendees are also eligible to win a 32 GB i-Pad Mini, need not be present to win. The first 100 people will receive a free Expo tote. Public admission is free.
Major event sponsors include: County of Maui Office of Economic Development, Fred Baldwin Memorial Fund, and Tri-Isle Resource Conservation and Development.
For more information on becoming an exhibitor and/or attending the Supply and Service Expo, visit MauiFoodTechnology.org or call 888-948-6382.
Feb 12, 2014 | Education
Ellen Federoff
With no regular classroom to call her own, Ellen Federoff said her 12 new computer tablets have helped tremendously in ensuring she can teach in any location on the Kihei Charter School grounds. Federoff purchased the tablets through a grant she received from Maui Economic Development Board’s Ke Alahele Education Fund. “I’m like the nomad. I don’t have a classroom but I really can take any space with my students since we have the technology support,” she said.
Federoff applied for and received a grant to purchase12 Samsung Galaxy computer tablets. “Without them, I would be struggling big time,” she said. Tasked with teaching 130 7th- and 8th-graders about health and physical education, Federoff was using the tablets most recently for a student research project about the nutritional value of energy drinks. “They can’t just Google it. It’s a directed research (project.) I give them up to 12 Web sites to read and research,” she said. Her students enjoy being able to do their school work on computer tablets that also have protective cases. “My students are so tech savvy. They love their tablets, they think they’re cool and they’re very comfortable with using them.”
Kihei Charter Middle School has two computer labs, but it does not have a computer or laptop for every student, according to Federoff. That’s why the Ke Alahele Education Fund grant is helpful in supplementing school equipment and helping a greater number of students access the Internet, and at Kihei Charter, their very own Web sites and electronic portfolios. “Everything today in education, in our school for sure, is technology based,” she said. Aside from her classes, Federoff said she’s working on a check-out system for the tablets so that other teachers and classes can use them. “We’re definitely going to be using these to the fullest,” she said. MEDB established the Ke Alahele Education Fund to support the growing need for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) skills in Maui County.
Feb 5, 2014 | Environment
Maui High School junior Daniel Fonseca saw up close how invasive plants and animals have been having an adverse impact on the West Maui Watershed. “We mostly learned about the invasive strawberry guava trees because they have become one of the biggest threats to the native plants,” he said after a recent Maui Economic Development Board Youth Alliance trip to the environmentally sensitive watershed. “Strawberry guavas are strong, and they grow very quickly so they aren’t giving much of a chance to the koa or ohia trees to grow.”
Fonseca said his favorite part of the tour was helping the West Maui Mountains Watershed Partnership remove approximately 200 strawberry guava trees in the forest. The Watershed’s Natural Resource/GIS Technician Jill LaBram said the strawberry guavas, a non-native species, forms monotypic stands where nothing else can grow and it uses up much more water than native plants. LaBram said the Youth Alliance support was important to the nonprofit’s attempts to re-establish the native forest along the Waihe’e Ridge trail. “Every little bit helps,” she said. Fonseca credited watershed personnel for how well they’re preserving Hawaii’s native forests. “What they’re doing is pretty important because without them the forests that once made Hawaii unique would be completely taken over by invasive plant species,” he said.
The West Maui Mountains Watershed Partnership has a staff of seven to 10 people, based in Lahaina, who work to protect West Maui’s native forest that supplies much of Maui with clean, fresh water. LaBram said the Watershed offers volunteers service trips for individuals as well as school and community groups. Call 661-6600, or e-mail: outreach@westmauiwatershed.org. Youth Alliance members attend monthly events during the school year to explore and gain a greater understanding of key components in the Maui community. Their gatherings are coordinated by MEDB.
An environmental engineer is giving back by encouraging young girls to think about the possibilities in their future. Audrey Chihara, a 2004 Lahainaluna High School graduate, has been participating as a mentor in Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day since graduating with her own degree in environmental engineering. “I tell girls all the time I didn’t even know I could major in engineering,” Chihara said, following a visit by Kihei Charter School 7th- and 8th-graders at her firm, Brown and Caldwell in Wailuku. Chihara and her colleague, Irina Constantinescu, were amongst 24 engineers in Maui County who served as mentors and gave middle schoolers a peek into their careers.
