Kekaulike Internship Program – Native Hawaiian Student Services

The Kekaulike Internship program is an opportunity for undergraduate Kanaka Maoli Students at UH Mānoa and UH Maui College to participate in a program that supports individual student academic and professional success while also support in the strengthening of partnerships between the University of Hawaii and the greater Hawaiʻi Community.

Check out this video of our interns

Objectives

Serve Native Hawaiian students by strengthening practicum experiences for students through university, community and/or culturally based internships placement.
Raise the consciousness of Kanaka Maoli Students
Facilitate the appropriate utilization of the ʻike of Kanaka Maoli students within a house of site placements while increasing the capacity for these organizations to better serve their kanaka maoli populations.
Hands-on mentorship with Kekaulike faculty and staff to support student development and student needs during and beyond the term of the internship period.

Internships are based on a 300-hour allotment which equates to approximately $5,000 for the student by the time they finish. The Kekaulike Internship since its inception in 2015 has collaborated with 62 internship sites and has serviced a total of 107 undergraduate students.

Currently, the Kekaulike Internships are funded by two separate Title III grants that each serve specific objectives for professional development through internships for Native Hawaiian undergraduate students.

Hoapili Grant-Specific Internships

The project will place current college students in internship placements in different educational settings, from schools, to offices, projects and organizations that support Hawaiian student access and success in our Hawaiʻi public schools. These internships will take place both on Oʻahu and Maui, with respective Hawaiian students from each campus. Students will represent different majors and disciplines, contributing to a multi-disciplinary approach to helping solve the teacher shortage and training challenges in Hawaiʻi. The internships will also serve as liaisons between the University and partnering institutions. The learning and engagement from the placements will help contribute to improved relations, dialogue, and partnership between our offices and these educational organizations and entities across Hawaiʻi.

Kapaʻakea Grant-Specific Internships

This grant focuses on the archival research internship and collaborations, working with the Graduate Assistant to identify Hawaiian research organizations, archives and repositories to identify research digitization and online archiving projects to collaborate on. These projects fit the goal of providing increased access to Hawaiian students and faculty on rare and inaccessible Hawaiian archival research, documents, manuscripts and other materials that can contribute to Hawaiian research scholarship and dissemination at UH Mānoa. Once the projects are identified, NHSS Kapaʻakea will recruit student interns to be hired and placed in collaboration between NHSS and the research site.