Apr 24, 2013 | Community
Mandy Woulfe
When news broke that Hawaii ranked as best for work environments in the country, Human Resources Manager Mandy Woulfe expressed excitement. “It all goes back to doing the work you enjoy doing,” Woulfe said about why our state may have scored an overall 71.1 in a recent Gallup Poll. “People here look for the positive side. … They’re happy to have a job. They feel blessed and they want to do the best they can at their job,” said Woulfe, a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources and president of the Society for Human Resource Management Maui Chapter.
Gallup Poll announced this spring that Hawaii had earned No. 1 for highest overall well-being in the nation. The state also scored the highest for emotional health with a positive score of 83.6, life evaluation with a score of 57.2 and work environment with a score of 54.1. Woulfe, who works at Honua Kai Resort & Spa and has 15 years in the field of human resources, said she believes Hawaiian values and overall positive attitudes by Maui employees contribute significantly to positive work environment ratings. Managers, in return, share and value their employees’ attitudes and efforts, and together the two take pride in their work. She said employee turnover, which is low in many Hawaii companies, affects job stability and security and results in an overall pleasant atmosphere at the workplace. “When you’re in an organization that doesn’t have a lot of turnover, you tend to really like where you work and it shows in what you do.”
The Society for Human Resource Management is the world’s largest association devoted to human resources. SHRM Maui represents more than 100 HR professionals on island. The group’s next program, which is open to the public, is set for 9-11:30 a.m. April 30 at the Kahili Golf Course Nahele Ballroom. For more information, go to www.shrmhawaii.org or contact Woulfe at mwoulfe@honuakai.com
Apr 17, 2013 | Education, Stemworks
The Hawai’i STEM Conference will be held on April 19-20, 2013 at the Wailea Marriott. Over 300 STEM/Service Learning students, teachers, parents, community and business leaders will gather to celebrate their work over the past year, share stories and meet other STEM/Service Learning students from different islands. For many, it is their first experience at a regional technology conference complete with breakout sessions, software competitions, a formal awards banquet, and exhibit presentations. It will be an excellent opportunity for students to get the latest software training, and compete against other teams in challenging, but fun software competitions.
Over the two days, software training sessions will be held in the following areas for students — 3D CAD, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Web Design, Game Design, Digital Publishing, Cyber Security, Videography, GIS/GPS, Leadership, Gaming, and Voyaging. We are pleased to announce that some of these training sessions will be led by industry professionals from Google, National Geographic, SketchUp, Esri, and the Searider Foundation!
The primary goal of this STEM conference is to inspire and challenge our Hawaii STEM students to become creative, intuitive, adaptable learners who can solve unpredictable, real-world problems.
The 2013 Hawaii STEM Conference is sponsored by the Maui Economic Development Board’s Women in Technology program in partnership with the County of Maui and the State Office of Career and Technical Education.
Apr 10, 2013 | Education
An aquaponics project at Maui Preparatory Academy is challenging students to learn on several levels and grow in some unexpected ways. Funded with a $2,000 grant from Maui Economic Development Board Ke Alahele Education Fund, the project is not just about growing plants in nutrient-rich water. “This builds confidence in my students to ask questions and investigate,” environmental science teacher Dr. Kathleen Ireland said. The project came about after Ireland challenged her 15 11th- and 12th-grade students to come up with a hands-on, environmentally conscious activity.
The students and Ireland agreed to pursue the aquaponics project suggested by 12th-grader Kauaiola Wendt. Their proposal features the construction and maintenance of an aquaponics system using both traditional and solar power to run the pump and care for carrots and fish. The project involves using both manual and digital tools to design the project while also researching how Hawaiians had a heavy reliance on sustainable agriculture organized within ahupua’a, which were ancient Hawaiian land divisions running from the mountains to the sea. Ireland said that, for a while, she had to take the lead with finding money to fund the project and then creating a timeline for students to follow and complete. Since then, the students have taken over.
Dr. Kathleen Ireland
Maui Prep’s high school students, with the help of younger middle school-aged students, are building an aquaponics project on their campus. The project’s main objectives will be met when a useful pamphlet is prepared, plants are growing, fish are thriving and every student can describe the system and how it was created. Ireland said her students are fully engaged. “That’s why I teach,” she said. “You start the fire and keep it fed.” She cannot predict whether the experience will result in inspiring new scientists or aquaponics farmers. “I just want to build responsible citizens, and I think that’s what’s happening here,” she said.
Apr 3, 2013 | Education, Innovation
Four years of robotics lessons have turned Maui High School senior Cheska Liwag into a wanna-be engineer armed with lifelong skills. “It was a good experience,” Liwag said after returning from the FIRST Robotics regional contest in Long Beach, California. FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology.” Maui High had the best record of the three Hawaii teams competing during spring break 2013. The team known as #2443 Blue Thunder won 11 matches and reached the semifinals in a contest featuring 65 high school teams, including two others from Hawaii.
The robotics team spent six weeks prior to the competition building a 2-1/2-foot robot mostly from metal and completing it just hours before the regional contest opened. “I was kind of surprised. I didn’t think we were going to do as well,” she said. Liwag joined the Maui High robotics club as a freshman and worked to become a leader on this year’s design team and then a captain guiding the drivers of the robot designed to throw frisbees and climb a 90-inch-high pyramid at a 68-degree angle. ““Being on the robotics team, I learned a lot of life skills like teamwork and communication, skills that we’ll use even outside of school,” Liwag said.
Cheska Liwag
Liwag said she sees herself after graduation enrolling at the University of Hawaii Maui College and then transferring to UH Manoa to earn a bachelor’s in engineering. She said the 30-member robotics club this year has been a family away from home. “It gave me this safety of another family and people I could talk to anytime about anything,” she said. The Maui High robotics team sought public support to pay for its project and travel expenses for the 10 members traveling to the regional competion. Maui Economic Development Board awarded its robotics team a $5,000 grant from the Ke Alahele Education Fund.
Mar 27, 2013 | Community, Small Business
Chad Goodfellow
Whether it’s building communities or battling fires, Goodfellow Bros has maintained an ongoing commitment to social responsibility, according to President Chad Goodfellow. “Our mission is to be the contractor of choice by our clients, employees and the communities in which we live and work,” he said. You’ve likely seen Goodfellow Bros trucks and equipment working on any given day throughout the Hawaiian islands. The 90-year-old company takes charge of projects valued in hundreds of thousands of dollars, most recently constructing a portion of the Lahaina bypass and erecting buildings in the Kahului business park.
Employees work hard to help improve their community, volunteering in a variety of projects. Amongst the most memorable for Maui Regional Manager Ray Skelton, a 24-year company veteran, is his crews’ willingness to support local firefighters battling nearly inaccessible brush fires in South Maui. Goodfellow Bros has on many occasions provided bulldozers and trucks and the manpower to operate them. “If we are really to be corporate citizens who want to help out, we need to respond and work for our community,” Skelton said. At the fires, Goodfellow Bros follows the lead of the Maui Fire Department as they battle blazes. “We work with them at their direction. This is our opportunity to give back,” he said.
Aside from responding to fires, Goodfellow Bros employees have actively participated in local fundraising campaigns, volunteered at schools, served in nonprofit causes and coached in youth sports. Skelton remembers providing labor to build a playground at Kalama Park in Kihei and picking up trash and abandoned vehicles in a Community Work Day project. Goodfellow adds: “By partnering with vital nonprofit organizations, we actively enhance the communities for which we live and work. Inherent to our culture is a sense of pride in making a difference, and we encourage employees to get involved in the causes that touch their own lives.”
