PHOTO COURTESY OF NAMAKA WHITEHEAD
While participating in the University of Hawaii's Hawaiian Internship Program, Namaka Whitehead worked during the summer of 2001 identifying coastal plants, like the endemic nehe, that grow at Hanauma Bay. Whitehead is now a UH graduate student in botany.
When Namaka Whitehead was growing up on the Big Island's Kona Coast, she spent many hours soaking up the traditional knowledge her grandfather and uncles shared with her in the Honomalino Forest. Interns find their
environmental nicheHawaiian students tackle
conservation work in the summerBy Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com
But even as she worked on a double major in botany and Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii, she still wasn't sure how to connect her love of the land with a career.
For more information about the Hawaiian Internship Program, contact coordinator Sharon Ziegler-Chong on the Big Island at ziegler@hawaii.edu or 808-933-0706. Applications for students and host agencies are being accepted until April 1. How to apply
That's when the Hawaiian Internship Program provided a vital steppingstone.
"It's a really awesome program," Whitehead said of the program, which places local college students with conservation organizations for summer jobs.
"It lets us get a feel for what it's like to work in the field and at the same time get paid for it."
The seven-year-old collaborative program is administrated by the UH Sea Grant Extension Service and includes the U.S. Forest Service and Geological Survey, the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, the Hawaii Conservation Alliance and Kamehameha Schools among its partners. A wide range of conservation agencies has offered internships on all the major islands.
Now a UH graduate student in botany, Whitehead recalled that as an undergraduate, "I really loved what I was learning in school, but I wanted to make sure this was a job that I would enjoy doing after I graduated."
Through internships at Hanauma Bay on Oahu in 2001 and in the Big Island's koa-ohia forests last summer, she said, "I found exactly what I want to do and wouldn't want to do anything else with my life."
Seventy-four students have participated in 87 internships since the program's inception, said coordinator Sharon Ziegler-Chong. Half of the 50 interns who have graduated from college are now working in an environment-related field in Hawaii, while seven more have pursued graduate degrees.
It used to be that "when you'd go to environmental meetings, you didn't see a lot of locals, especially native Hawaiians," Ziegler-Chong said. The Hawaiian Internship Program is changing that.
All participating students have grown up in Hawaii, and most have native Hawaiian blood. About half attend college on the mainland, and half in the islands.
"It's a wonderful development of local expertise," said Elizabeth Kumabe, Hanauma Bay's education director and Whitehead's internship supervisor in 2001.
"So many times, we have people not as familiar with Hawaii coming in and doing (environmental) research. And then our local kids are going away and learning about temperate climates and the redwoods."
The U.S. Forest Service's Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry has had several interns, and "it's worked wonderfully," said senior scientist Katherine Ewel. "The students have been very enthusiastic" and have contributed significantly to the agency's work.
Whitehead's work in 2001 writing educational pieces about 44 coastal plants found at Hanauma Bay, including both scientific and traditional cultural information, will soon be published. Her 2002 work in the Kona forest increased knowledge about sustainable ways to harvest koa trees.
Other former interns have had similar impacts. During her internship for the Hawaiian Islands National Marine Sanctuary, Joylynn Oliveira researched Hawaiian connections to whales through chants, legends, artifacts and historical records. Her work was so instrumental in adding a cultural dimension that the agency hired her as its Hawaiian cultural educator, which fulfilled her dream of living and working on her home island of Maui.
Another Maui native and an agriculture major, Francis Quitazol found his 1998 internship with the Forest Service in Hilo led to forest firefighting training on the mainland and an increased interest in fighting invasive species back home. He now is a field crew leader working on feral animal control at Haleakala National Park.
"It's good to go away," Quitazol said, "and it's good to come home."
Another benefit of the program is that scientists transplanted from the mainland "got to know them (the interns) and their families," said Ewel, who moved here eight years ago from the mainland. "We become closer to Hawaii."
Whitehead said: "Most people with these jobs are not from Hawaii. I think it would be beneficial not only for the people, but for the forest as well, to have local students getting into these types of positions."
Hawaiian Internship Program
