Kuleana is defined in the Hawaiian language as a right, privilege, concern, or responsibility to take care of one another and ‘āina. Finding Our Kuleana is a project that seeks to capture stories from across our campus… Guided by diverse experiences and the indigenous knowledge of our island home, we are all on this journey together.
Find your kuleana, purpose
We offer over 100 different majors, 85 graduate majors, and 57 doctorate degrees.
Whether you’ve chosen your major or are undecided, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa can help you explore your possibilities.
Meet some students who are on a journey to find their kuleana to fuel their passion and uplift their community and our island Earth.
Kahealani Acosta
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
Kahealani’s quest for knowledge about her identity as a Native Hawaiian, as well as her initial inquiry into nutrition, evolved into aloha ‘āina: the philosophy that healthy land means healthy people.
In Hawaiian, the word for land is ‘āina. And ‘āina is also the old word for ‘ohana. When you’re eating food… It’s your ‘āina that’s sustaining you. It’s your family that’s sustaining you.
Tate Castillo
Shidler College of Business
Tate’s Hawaiian cultural values and business acumen led him to become a climate entrepreneur with the potential to disrupt the fossil fuel dependency of island nations.
I fundamentally believe that approaching innovation and disruption in a gentle, more inclusive or indigenously mindful way is the way to true long term sustainable benefits.
Kelsey Maloney
Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology
In searching for ways to fulfill her love of the ocean, Kelsy’s journey led her to marine ecology where she’s channeling her passion into preserving ocean ecology.
When fish hatch out of their little eggs and go into the world, they’re actually listening. They’re listening to the healthy sounds of the reef.
Beau Nakamori
School of Architecture
Beau’s study abroad program introduced him to the concept of a 15-minute walkable city, and is fueling his ideas for hybrid housing communities to reduce housing disparities in Hawaiʻi.
For Beau, architecture takes place within the context of understanding the issues of a place and the people who live there, and creating solutions that foster healthy, walkable communities.
It’s our responsibility as architects to create a better way through our built environment. We got to learn and understand what true good density can be.